Comparison of Chinese LBs and English RBs

As English and Chinese belong to different language families,the left and right branching structures in the two languages are both similar and different.Generally speaking,Chinese has a predominance of left-branching structures and English has a predominance of right-branching structures.That is to say,Chinese is used to using left branches in its expressions,while English is used to using right branches in its expressions.

英藏“状语”比较与句子成分Adverbial一词藏译略考

随着我区全面实施"藏汉英"三语教育,尤其,西藏两大高校开设藏汉英三语翻译专业以来,专门实施对于英藏语法的直接比较研究,这不仅有利于特色专业课程建设的进一步完善,而且也能为我区的"藏汉英"三语教育工作的全面推进提供更强大的学术支撑。文章以三语教育为目标,旨在通过对英藏基础句法中"Adverbial(状语)"一词的直接对比和语法术语的藏译探讨,望能消除广大学员在该部分的理解困扰。

The Study of Students-centered English Teaching at Colleges

The lack of communicative efficiency among students is still an important problem in China’s English teaching circle.Learner-centered language teaching and learning approach proposed by Nunan and Breenin 1980 s is the best one to solve the problem. This paper briefly presents the approach and mainly talks about how to apply the approach in the authentic teaching and learning situation. The adoption of this method will definitely promote the English teaching reform in China.Key words: linking adverbials; Chinese EFL learners; use;

The Syntactic Position of Adverbial Adjuncts in Chinese

In modern Chinese,adjuncts can be classified into adjective adjuncts(also attributes)and adverbial adjuncts(also adverbials).This paper firstly attempts for a reasonable definition and classification of adjunct in modern Chinese,then analyzes the syntactic position of adverbial adjunct,and finally tries to find a general mechanism for the position of adverbial adjunct in the phrase level and the sentence level.

Study on the Usage Patterns of Linking Adverbials in Chinese EFL Learn⁃ ers’Writings

This research is a corpus-based study on the usage patterns of linking adverbials(LA)by Chinese EFL learners at different proficiency levels,thus shedding light on problems facing students and analyzing underlying causes based on second language acquisition theories.Results show that Chinese high school students show a lack of richness in using LA,while Chinese undergraduates tend to overuse LA in an attempt to reach a superficial coherence.And in general,Chinese EFL learners have problems of overusing listing LA and underusing contrastive LA compared with their English native counterparts.

Analysis of English Complex Sentences based on Figure-Ground Theory

English is a language featuring its complex sentences composed of main and subordinate clauses. The subordinate clause conveys the unfinished messages in main clause and it becomes quite complicated. English complex sentence is a fair important sentence type and also of importance in English teaching. Analyzing complex sentence based on Figure-Ground Theory, especially the Adverbial Clause, is helpful to learn English and translate it. The Figure-Ground Theory originated in psychology studies and it was introduced in cognitive linguistics to explain some language phenomena. From Figure-Ground perspective, the essay studies attributive clause,adverbial clause and nominal clause and some critical sentence types have been analyzed carefully and the major finding is Figure-Ground Theory is dynamic not static.

A Development Study on the Ordering Distribution of Temporal Adverbial Clauses by Chinese EFL Learners Based on Dependency Treebank

Temporal adverbial clause is an important language structure and exhibits different features in English and Chinese,which brings about difficulties for Chinese EFL learners.Based on the theory of Dependency Grammar,the study attempts to investigate the ordering distribution of temporal adverbial clauses by Chinese EFL learners at the beginning,intermediate and advanced levels.The results show that:1)Chinese EFL learners at different proficiencies tend to precede temporal adverbial clause to main clause.With the increase of proficiency,the postposition of temporal adverbial clauses by learners increases and is approaching to the ordering preference of target language.2)The ordering distribution of subordinators for temporal adverbial clauses by Chinese EFL learners is consistent with native English,showing a tendency of 100%preposition,which ascribes to the high frequency and salience of subordinators in English.3)MDD is one of the significant motivations that cause the preference of prepositional temporal adverbial clauses by Chinese EFL learners.As a kind of natural language,interlanguage has a unique cognitive mechanism which distinguishes from both native and target language.This study provides a more comprehensive theoretical reference for learners at different proficiencies to understand and learn temporal adverbial clauses,as well as data support from empirical research for language teaching.

A Corpus-Based Study of Adverbial Connectors in Native and Non-native Students＇ Writing

In writing and speaking, adverbial connectors always play a part to connect different parts together at both semantic and syntactic aspects. For it is so important that a lot of scholars have made and are making a series of studies to their functions. On the basis of corpus-based study, this paper firstly makes a comparison to the usage of adverbial connectors in their writings of the native students and non-native students and then exposes a distinctive gap between these two types of writings in usage of adverbial connectors. In order to help Chinese second-language learners acquire English as well as English native speakers do, this study deeply digs this gap and in further provides several pedagogical suggestions for English teachers and second-language learners.

Elevative Deixis in Wano Exploring Human Social Cognition in Grammar

Wano, spoken by about 7,000 native speakers, is a Papuan language of Trans-New Guinea Phylum, Dani-Kwerba Stock, which is found in the interior of Papua of the regency of Puncak Jaya. The language is closely related to Dani, Walak, and Nggem. It is an SOV language typology that has a complex morphological system. Four spatial dimensions are morphosyntactically coded in elevative deixis, which are steepness/non-steepness distinction, proximity/distality distinction, adverbial/attributive expressions, and vertical/horizontal plane. This paper discusses the grammatical operation of a set of two-term system： ei ＂up＂ and ou ＂down＂ that serves as the basic forms for the elevational deixis in Wano.

Semelfactivity in Igbo

This paper examines semelfactivity in the Igbo language. It seeks to highlight semelfactive verbs and other semelfactive sentential elements. The data for the study were obtained through introspection which were confirmed by two native speakers of Igbo and were analysed descriptively. From the study, it was discovered that the semelfactive verbs in Igbo that co-occur with bound verb complements for emphasis are takwu ‘whisper’, lo‘swallow’, nwụ ‘die’ and hụpe ‘glimpse’ whereas kọ ‘scratch’, tabi ‘blink’, ze ‘sneeze’, kụ‘knock’, ti ‘shout’, wuli ‘jump’ (wu ‘jump’. -li ‘upward’ as opposed to wuda ‘jump downwards)’, gba ‘kick’, nyụ ‘fart’ and kwa ‘cough’ that take inherent complement verbs.The research also revealed that na mberede ‘suddenly’ and na ntabi anya ‘in a twinkle of an eye’ are semelfactive adverbials in the Igbo language. Based on the findings, the paper concludes that in Igbo, semelfactivity entails a one-time action and a spontaneous or instantaneous action.

On English Adverbials: An English Teacher’s View

For Grade two students in Senior High School,what is of vital importance is that students establish clear grammar networks at least after the second term to prepare themselves well for the firstround review of the third year and the following College Entrance Examination.With the scattered language points such as“with complex structure”,“participles used as adverbials”,or“absolute structure”learned by students in a gradual style,it is essential for them to clear out a main thinking path or thinking framework to make connections between knowledge points.The author finds in her years of teaching duration the relations between English adverbials,making it easier for students to know the know-how of learning English in a much scientific and reasonable way.Here are the findings.

Lexical and Syntactic Features of Insurance English

With the fast development of Chinese insurance market and the quickening process of globalization of the world economy,more and more English policies and wordings are coming up and the communication with the international insurance companies is much closer.Undoubtedly,to realize the insurance texts accurately and to manage the language features is very important to the insurance industry.Through the analysis of some English insurance policies and wordings,the stylistic characteristics of Insurance English are generalized at lexical and syntactic levels.At lexical level,Insurance English is mainly demonstrated with the following characteristics:the frequent use of archaic words,loan words,official words and technical words.Their characteristics at syntactic level are more complex,which are analyzed in terms of complicated long sentences,conditional adverbial clauses,restrictive attribute clauses,sentences with modal verbs and passive voice.

句子成份前移概述

本文主要阐述英语句子结构变化的一些问题。在英语文章中或日常英语谈话中,作者或说话人把句子中的某一成份前移,从而形成句子部分倒装或全部倒装,以适应语法结构、修辞或句子安排的需要。本文就谓语、宾语、表语和状语前移现象逐一进行阐述。有关定语后移现象另文立论。

THE EFFECT OF THE USE OF ADVERBIAL CONNECTORS ON CHINESE EFL LEARNERS' ENGLISH WRITING QUALITY

This paper reports a corpus-based study on the use of adverbial connectors by Chinese non-English major EFL learners with different English proficiency levels. Research results show that there is a significant correlation between the learners' use of adverbial connectors and their writing quality. The Chinese learners with higher linguistic proficiency use more tokens and types of adverbial connectors and perform better in the use of adverbial connectors in terms of stylistic awareness in their writings than those with lower linguistic proficiency.

USE OF ADVERBIAL CONNECTORS IN CHINESE EFL LEARNERS' ARGUMENTATIVE WRITING

Based on more comparable corpora, the present study verified some of the previous findings about the use of adverbial connectors by Chinese learners. Also some new insights have been gained: 1) the overuse of resultive and listing adverbial connectors implies that the learners adopt different ways of argumentation from the native speakers; 2) the use of adverbial connectors is relevant to the learners' proficiency;3) the command of a small variety of adverbial connectors is possibly one of the causes for the overuse of the high frequency ones. Comparisons with learners of other L1 backgrounds indicate that the following two features are common to EFL learners: 1) they tend to rely heavily on the top ten adverbial connectors for linking purposes; 2) the overuse and underuse reflect a general stylistic uncertainty about the use of adverbial connectors by the EFL learners.

A CORPUS-BASED STUDY ON CHINESE EFL LEARNERS' USE OF ADVERBIAL CONJUNCTS

The present paper carries a corpus-based study on the use of adverbial conjuncts in order to reveal the difference between Chinese EFL learners and native speakers. It is based on two corpora of CLEC and LOB. According to the data-driven analysis, the research shows that Chinese EFL learners tend to overuse listing conjuncts while underuse other categories. This may result from the limitation of writing topics and the lack of cohesion in their writings. Besides, the incomplete understanding of adverbial conjuncts may cause the avoiding of certain conjuncts and thus turning to the easier listing conjuncts for help.