A Contrastive Study of English Native Speaker's and Chinese

Learner's Use of Existential Construction

Tian Ma

TITLE

A Contrastive Study of English Native Speaker's and Chinese learner's Use of Existential Construction

RESEARCH AREA

• Second Language Acquisition

• Existential Construction

AIM/JUSTIFICATION

• The existential construction is a tricky construction.

• The existential construction has received so much attention in the field of semantics, syntax, and pragmatics. However, the researches on L1 acquisition and especially the L2 acquisition on this construction are so limited.

REFERENCESBreivik, L.E. (1990 ). Existential there: A synchronic and diachronic

study. International Journal of Applied Linguistics.16 .Huang, C-T.J.( 黄正德 ).(1987). Existential sentences in Chinese and

(in)definiteness. The Representation of (In) definiteness (226-253). Cambridge Mass: MIT press.

Ignacio Palacios-Martinez. (2006). Connecting Linguistic Description and Language Teaching: Native and Learner Use of Existential There. International Journal of Applied Linguistics.16. 213-231.

Johansson, S. (1997). A corpus study of English existential clauses: register variation and discourse function. In T. Nevalainen and L. Kahlas-Tarkka (eds.), To explain the present. Studies in the changing English language in honour of Matti Rissanen(303-18). Helsinki: Societe Neophilologique.

Ward, G.&Birner. (1995). Definiteness and the English Existential. Language. 71.722- 742.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

• What is Chinese Learner's frequency, complexity as well as accuracy of the use of existential construction, compared to native speakers?

• Does the English proficiency make a difference in the use of this structure, as regard to frequency, complexity and accuracy?

• What are the factors that influence Chinese learner's use of this construction?

METHODOLOGY

• use Contemporary American English data base and CLEC to test the frequency

• use the two data bases to test complexity (categorize the verbs and categorize modifiers, complementation and clauses)

• research on the accuracy • use my own data to support the findings a

bout accuracy generated from the data base.

Expected findings

• this structure is overused by Chinese learners

• native speakers use more complex existential verbs and structures, while Chinese learners use minimal existential construction

• Chinese English learners may tend to make more mistakes concerning concord

ANTICIPATED PROBLEMS/LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

• study is based on written data base

• Chinese learners are not studied against other learners

• small size of my own data