A Corpus-based Study Of Verb-particle Alternation By Chinese EFL Learners

The transitive verb-particle construction usually has two variants: verb-object-particle(VOP)and verb-particle-object(VPO)constructions.There has been little comparative research on verb-particle alternation used by Chinese EFL learners and native English speakers.Based on the Chinese EFL learner corpora(CLEC and TECCT)and native English speaker corpora(LOCNESS and FLOB),the present paper performs several binary logistic regression analyses of multiple contributing factors for verb-particle alternation.We found that the determinant factors vary with the Chinese EFL learners? English proficiency levels,the higher English proficiency group getting closer to the native English group in both types and strengths of influencing factors.When using verb-particle constructions,low proficiency Chinese EFL learners are subject to the effects of definiteness of the object,pronominality of the object,the object following an adverbial and whether the particle is identical to the preposition of the following prepositional phrase,while high proficiency Chinese EFL learners are significantly influenced by animacy of the subject,length of the object,definiteness of the object,pronominality of the object,the object following an adverbial and whether the particle is identical to the preposition of the following prepositional phrase.Concreteness of the object,length of the object,definiteness of the object,pronominality of the object,the object following an adverbial and whether the particle is identical to the preposition of the following prepositional phrase are significant contributors to native speakers? verb-particle alternation.Moreover,there are differences in contributing factors between individual phrasal verbs.Methodologically,based on the binary logistic regression,this paper expanded on the relevant research to investigate Chinese EFL learners? use of phrasal verbs,and theoretically deepens our understanding of the usage-based language view.Practically,the study sheds some light for the teaching and learning of phrasal verbs in the sense that the influencing factors should be considered in the choice of phrasal verbs.