A Corpus-based Comparative Study On Cause Near-synonyms

Since the concepts of collocation and semantic prosody were put forward,they have been regarded as two important indicators to measure the language authenticity of English learners.Many linguistic researchers at home and abroad have made useful explorations on the research methods of collocation and semantic prosody,and have carried out a lot of studies on collocation and semantic prosody from different perspectives,especially studies on the differences in the use of collocation and semantic prosody of near-synonyms.However,there are still some questions or doubts related to previous studies that need to be further explored or resolved.What’s more,there is no comparative study on the differences in the use of collocation and semantic prosody between Chinese EFL learners in different periods.In this case,this paper intends to explore it.Based on the data from Corpus of Chinese Learners English Corpus(CLEC),Ten-thousand English Compositions of Chinese Learners(TECCL)and Contemporary American English(COCA),adopting the corpusbased research method,and with the collocation and semantic prosody of a set of nearsynonyms(cause,lead to,result in and bring about)as a research perspective,this study has carried out research into the main features of the use of both collocation and semantic prosody of this set of near-synonyms by native English speakers and Chinese EFL learners from different perspectives,and identified the differences in the use of both collocation and semantic prosody of this set of near-synonyms between Chinese EFL learners and native English speakers in different periods,and between Chinese EFL learners in different periods.In addition,the author has analysed and discussed the possible factors influencing Chinese EFL learners’ use of collocation and semantic prosody of cause near-synonyms.The research questions of this present study are as follows: 1)What are the main features of both collocation and semantic prosody use of cause near-synonyms by native English speakers and Chinese EFL learners in different periods respectively? 2)What are the similarities and differences between Chinese EFL learners and native English speakers in the use of both collocation and semantic prosody of cause near-synonyms in different periods? 3)What are the similarities and differences between Chinese EFL learners in the use of both collocation and semantic prosody of cause near-synonyms in different periods?And in which period is Chinese EFL learners’ performance better?Analyzing the data from the native English speakers’ corpus(COCA),this study finds that: 1)There is no significant difference between COCA(2000-2004)and COCA(2010-2014)in both collocation and semantic prosody of cause near-synonyms(p > 0.05);2)Cause is the most frequently used cause near-synonym for native English speakers to convey the meaning of “to make something happen”,followed by lead to,then result in,and bring about is the least frequently used one;3)Lead to is the only one among cause near-synonyms that could be collocated with words about mental activity and occurrence;cause and lead to can collocate with words about mental state/feeling,but cause is significantly more frequently used than lead to(p < 0.05);cause serves as the unique one that could be collocated with words about disease,physical state/feeling and body organ;cause is the only one that never co-occurs with words about change;bring about is the sole one that never co-occurs with words about accident/damage,death/injury and problem/trouble;4)on the one hand,each cause near-synonym has its own exclusive collocates;on the other hand,cause near-synonyms have shared collocates with each other in COCA(2000-2004)and COCA(2010-2014);5)Cause has completely negative semantic prosody;bring about has overwhelmingly positive semantic prosody;lead to and result in are both biased towards negative semantic prosody,and the former is more biased.Comparing the data from Chinese EFL learners’ copora(CLEC and TECCL)with that from native English speakers’ corpus(COCA),this study finds that: 1)When using cause near-synonyms,Chinese EFL learners,compared with native English speakers,have significantly overused too many collocates(p < 0.05).In addition,most of the collocates of cause near-synonyms adopted by Chinese EFL learners are wrong collocates(or are not the due collocates of cause near-synonyms adopted by native English speakers),and the majority of due collocates of cause near-synonyms adopted by native English speakers are not used by Chinese EFL learners;2)There is significant difference in the semantic preferences of cause near-synonyms between Chinese EFL learners and native English speakers(p < 0.05): in CLEC,the majority(73.68%)of semantic preferences are significantly different from those in COCA(2000-2004),while the difference between TECCL and COCA(2010-2014)is more than half(55.56%);3)The use of semantic prosodies of cause near-synonyms by Chinese EFL learners is significantly different from that by native English speakers(p < 0.05),and Chinese EFL learners in both CLEC and TECCL significantly underused the negative semantic prosody of cause and the positive semantic prosody of bring about(p < 0.05),and significantly overused the negative semantic prosody of result in(p < 0.05).Comparing Chinese EFL learners’ corpora in different periods(CLEC and TECCL),this study finds that: 1)From the perspective of numbers of collcates of cause nearsynonyms shared/adopted,the performance of Chinese EFL learners in CLEC is better than that in TECCL in all cause near-synonyms except result in;2)From the perspective of the use of semantic preference of collocates of cause near-synonyms,the performance of Chinese EFL learners in CLEC is better than that in TECCL in terms of result in and bring about,while the performance of Chinese EFL learners in TECCL is better than that in CLEC in terms of cause and lead to;3)From the perspective of the use of semantic prosody of cause near-synonyms,the performance of Chinese EFL learners in CLEC is better than that in TECCL except cause;as to the use of semantic prosody of lead to,there is no significant difference between the performance of Chinese EFL learners in CLEC and that of native English speakers in COCA(p > 0.05).Combining specific examples found in Chinese EFL learners’ corpora(CLEC and TECCL),this study has analyzed the possible factors that affect Chinese EFL learners’ use of collocation and semantic prosody.Three main factors are highlighted in this study: 1)language transfer(or L1 transfer);2)wholistic strategy(or excessive substitution);3)traditional near-synonyms learning and teaching.And three minor factors are: 1)the strategy of avoidance;2)lack of natural and authentic linguistic environment and cultural background;3)lack of provision of proper explanation of collocation and semantic prosody in dictionaries.Based on the comparisons of the use of collocation and semantic prosody between Chinese EFL learners and native English speakers in different periods,and between Chinese EFL learners in different periods,this study suggests that in English near-synonyms teaching and learning both Chinese EFL teachers and learners have to be fully aware of the influence of the above-mentioned six factors on English near-synonyms teaching and learning,and the importance of collocation and semantic prosody in English near-synonyms teaching and learning,and put emphasis on and explore the differences among nearsynonyms in collocation and semantic prosody.In addition,the major findings of this present study,such as the semantic preference tables of collocates of cause near-synonyms,the semantic prosody tables,exclusive collocates tables,shared collocates tables of cause near-synonyms,and the tables of typically wrongly-used collocates by Chinese EFL learners,are of practical value to and can provide useful reference for English nearsynonyms teaching and learning in China.Finally yet importantly,the major findings of the comparisons of the use of collocation and semantic prosody of cause near-synonyms by Chinese EFL learners in different periods may help arouse the positive reflection of Chinese EFL teachers engaging in front-line EFL teaching,such as EFL teaching strategies and methods,self-teaching ability,collocation and semantic prosody awareness,and problem identification awareness,etc.