A Corpus-based Study On The Distribution Patterns Of Contractions In Native Speakers' And Chinese Learners' English

Informal contractions are common in English.Previous studies on native speakers' texts have shown that their distribution is influenced by various factors such as registers and verb functions.However,there is little discussion on the distribution pattern in English learners' texts,let alone the comparison of the patterns between English of native speakers and L2 learners.Based on previous studies on the classification of contractions,this study focuses on verb contractions and negative contractions.With the retrieval software Antconc 3.4.4w(Windows)2014,this study intends to explore the distribution patterns of informal contractions of native English speakers and English L2 learners in China by using FLOB,LOCNESS as benchmark corpora,and CLEC,TECCL and WECCL as the target corpora.The distribution of verb contractions will be examined according to indexes including text categories,verbs,subject pronouns,verb functions,breaks;whereas investigation into negative contractions will be concerned with text categories,verbs,verb functions.Finally,the author will try to reveal the similarities and differences between English L2 learners in China and native speakers through comparative analysis.The research shows that distribution patterns of contractions in native speakers' and Chinese learners' English share certain similarities:(1)Verb contractions appear the most frequently with BE verbs,particularly with am;verbs after subject-pronouns I are more often contracted,whereas the case with there goes into reverse;copulas are more verb-contracted than auxiliaries,and auxiliaries more than main verbs;among three breaks of punctuation,intervention and deletion,verbs are the most likely to be contracted when there are interventions after them.(2)As for negative contractions,the contracted frequencies of verbs follow a descending order of DO,HAVE,MODAL and BE;negative contractions of auxiliaries are more likely than those of main verbs,and negative contractions of main verbs more likely than those of copulas.The differences of distribution patterns are as follows:(1)Both the overall frequencies of verb contractions and negative contractions indicate that Chinese learners overuse contractions in their compositions,displaying an informal style.(2)Generally speaking,contractions in Chinese learners' English show a high degree of dispersion,which indicates Chinese students have a bias for contractions of certain forms.(3)On the one hand,for verb contractions,in Chinese students' texts,verbs including BE,WILL and WOULD,especially is,are over contracted.On the contrary,contracted has appear too rare;verbs after it,that and there are contracted too much;there are too much contractions when verbs function as copulas and when there are interventions after verbs.(4)On the other hand,negative contractions in Chinese learners' corpora show that contracted DO,HAVE and MODAL appear with much higher frequency than in native speakers' corpora;auxiliaries are too often not-contracted,whereas contracted BE to occur comparatively rarely.Based on the results above,this thesis tries to make speculative analysis on the underlying reasons behind similarities and differences and then puts forward some suggestions on relevant teaching practice.