A Corpus-Based Study On The Errors Of Think Of Chinese Non-English Majors In Terms Of Colligation

Vocabulary is the fundamental unit of the English language,and verbs are the core components of English sentences.Therefore,the realization of the function of English language largely depends on the correct use of verbs.According to research,verb errors account for the largest proportion,so the acquisition of verbs is a difficult point for a foreign language learning,and colligation and collocation can present whether learners master the usage of the vocabulary.This study chooses the high-frequency verb think as the research object,sub-corpus St3 and St4 in CLEC corpus as an interlanguage corpus,and BNC(Written corpus)as the referent corpus.This study applies the corpus-based approach,comparative analysis and error analysis,and uses Ant Conc and BFSU-collocator software to investigate six types of think colligations used by Chinese non-English majors from the colligation and collocation perspectives based on classification of colligation proposed by Wei Naixing,Pu Jianzhong and Hunston.They are: think + that/wh-,think + prep,think/think of +noun,think +adj,think+ adv and I + think.This paper aims to answer four questions:(1)What are the characteristics of Chinese non-English majors in using the colligation of think?(2)Compared with native speakers,what are the differences existing between Chinese nonEnglish majors and native speakers in terms of using think colligation?(3)What errors do Chinese non-English majors make in using think colligation?(4)What are the possible reasons for these colligation errors in Chinese non-English majors’ writings?The results are as follows: firstly,there are significant differences between Chinese non-English majors and native speakers in using colligation of think.They are: both CET4 and CET6 students tend to overuse the colligation of think+ that/wh-,think /think of+noun,and think +adj,especially think + that-clause which indicates that they have a tendency of overgeneralization,and they tend to use simple words and sentence structures in their writings.At the same time,both of them underuse think +adv colligation.As for think +prep colligation,CET4 learners tend to underuse this type of colligation whereas CET6 learners tend to overuse it.Both CET4 and CET6 students misuse collocations in think + adv and think/think of + noun colligations.As for the I + think colligation,the author finds that Chinese non-English majors overuse I+think colligation in their writings whereas I +think colligation accounts for a large proportion in spoken corpus in BNC corpus,which shows that Chinese non-English majors tend to be colloquial in their compositions.Secondly,the author finds two additional colligations in the process of research.The two additional colligations of think patterns contain: think +it/if,think +modal verb.According to the criteria for defining colligation proposed by Wei Naixing,“it” and “if”belong to pronoun and conjunction word group respectively,and modal verb belongs to modal verb word group and these two types of colligations are both used by Chinese nonEnglish majors and native speakers.Hence,these two colligations attempt to enrich the classification of colligation.Finally,the present study analyzes the possible causes of errors,including incomplete production,interlingual factor of L1 interference and intralingual factor of overgeneralization,ignorance of restrictions and false concepts hypothesized.Hence,the paper puts forward four pedagogical implications: laying emphasis on verb teaching and learning,introducing chunks in teaching and learning and utilizing corpus as learning tools to learn colligation and collocation and elaborating the importance of stylistics.