中国英语学习者seem的使用研究

A Study on the Use of Seem by Chinese English Learners

本文运用语料库研究方法,将中国英语学习者语料库(CLEC)和英语本族语语料库(LOCNESS)进行对比,系统分析了中国英语学习者书面语中seem的使用特点。研究发现:①中国英语学习者对于seem的使用总体上存在明显不足的趋势,但在seem的各类补语使用分布上较为均衡。②在seem所有的补语形式中,中国英语学习者较多使用seem+IP,seem+AP和seem+that-clause形式;在seem的意义分类上,中国英语学习者偏向于认知性。③相对于本族语者,中国英语学习者对seem的使用不当之处较为明显,究其原因是受到母语表达习惯的影响,或者由于对seem的用法认知较为模糊导致误用。本研究对seem这一具体单词教学及英语词汇教学具有一定的启示意义。

In this study,we analyzed the use of seem in Chinese English learners’writing via two corpora,i.e.,the Chinese Learner English Corpus(CLEC)and the Louvain Corpus of Native English Essays(LOCNESS).The findings are as follows.①Compared with English native speakers,Chinese English learners tend to underuse seem,but the use of seem’s complements is distributed in a relatively balanced way;②Among all complement patterns of seem,Chinese English learners prefer to use patterns such as seem IP,seem+AP and seem+that-clause.In terms of the classification of seem,Chinese English learners are partial to epistemic seem.③Chinese English learners misuse seem more than English native speakers do.The reason is that the misuse of seem is caused by the effects of mother tongue expression habits or vague understanding of the use of seem.This present study has pedagogical implications on seem and other English words.