中外大学生英语作文中义务型情态动词用法比较研究

A Comparative Study on the Use of Obligatory Modal Verbs by Chinese and Native English Learners in English Writing

义务型情态动词是情态动词的重要组成部分,通过比较两个中外学习者语料库(WECCL2.0和NESSIEv1),考察中国和英语国家英语学习者在写作过程中对义务型情态动词的使用差异。发现:前者较后者有过度使用该类动词的现象;不同的话题对义务型情态动词有不同的影响,对于电脑游戏、教育、科技、家庭责任、交通和住房等话题,中国学习者更喜欢使用义务型情态动词,而对于校外租房和电子书等涉及个人隐私和发展的话题,外国学习者更倾向于使用该类动词。

Obligatory modal verbs are a very important part in modal verbs,while there exist many problems among students in using obligatory modal verbs.This paper investigates two learners’corpora （WECCL2.0 and NESSIEv1）,observing and studying the differences of Chinese learners and native learn-ers of English in writing.The results show that in general,Chinese learners overuse obligatory modal verbs （0.80%）,while foreign learners use less（0.34%）.By analyzing the writing under the similar topics,the effects of topics on obligatory modal verbs can be easily seen.Chinese learners prefer to use obligatory mo-dal verbs in talking about computer games,education,technology,greedy and selfishness,traffic and hous-ing problems,while foreign learners have the tendency to use obligatory modal verbs on the topics of living outside the campus and E-dictionary.