基于语料库的英语介词用法——以from为例

Usage of English prepositions based on corpora——a case study of "from"

针对高频英语介词的习得难度,通过比较学生英语作文语料库与美国英语Brown语料库,探讨英语学习者与英语母语使用者在介词from的使用频率、短语搭配、词性搭配以及语义使用比例方面的差异。研究发现:英语学习者在介词from的使用比例上与母语使用者非常接近,但英语学习者应用该词短语的范围相对狭窄,并过于集中使用"VB from"、"fromPRP"和"from DT NN"结构,而对"from NNP"结构的使用相对较少。此外,英语学习者在该词的空间域、对象域及逻辑关系域中的语义使用比例与母语使用者相差较大。

In view of difficulties in the acquisition of English prepositions with high frequency, a com- parison was made between the corpus of students＇ English compositions and the Brown Corpus of Amer- ican English to probe into differences in frequency, phrases, collocation of parts of speech, and seman- tic proportion of ＂from＂ between English learners and native English speakers. Results reveal that the proportion of ＂from＂ used by English learners and that by native English speakers are quite similar, but ranges of ＂from＂ phrases used by English learners are comparatively narrow with too much focus on ＂VB from＂, ＂from PRP＂ and ＂from DT NN＂, while little on ＂from NNP＂. Besides, much difference is found in semantic proportions of ＂from＂ in spatial domain, object domain and logical domain between the two groups.