A Corpus Analysis on the Grammatical Patterns of “take” in College Students’ Writing

关文玉

【Abstract】This study identifies seven types of grammatical patterns of the high frequency verb take used in computerized corpora LOB（The Lancaster-Oslo/Bergen Corpus） ，and makes comparison with the samples chosen from CLEC（Chinese learner English Corpus）， and find out grammatical patterns that used in Chinese college students writing . The result shows that the Chinese students tend to overuse some patterns and underuse some other， hence calls for teachers and students special concern on the use of high frequency verbs take.

【Key words】CLEC； corpus； take； grammatical patterns

1. High-frequency verbs in EFL

All languages seem to have some basic verbs that are used again and again in discourse and consequently turn up early in frequency lists. In English， for example， we are likely to find the following fifteen verbs（lexemes） topping any corpus-based list of high-frequency verbs（disregarding Be and modal auxiliaries）， although their rank order may vary according to medium and text type（Altenberg &Granger，2001）： have， do， know， think， get， go ， say， see， come， make， take， look， give， find， use. High-frequency verbs have several characteristics that make them especially interesting in a cross-linguistic perspective. The result of these characteristics is that the high-frequency verbs tend to be problematic for foreign language learners.（Altenberg & Granger，2001） Zhangshujing（2002） investigated Chinese learners use of a high frequency word make， and found out that as the overall frequency of make is concerned， there is no significant difference between the second-year Chinese learners and the native speakers， but the fourth-year Chinese learners use less than native speakers.

This study aims to throw some light on EFL use of high-frequency verbs by focusing on one major representative of this group of verbs， the verb take. The main points we will investigate are： the grammatical pattern and of take in non-native students writing， do the learners tend to over-or underuse some grammatical pattern of this verb？ To achieve these purpose， authentic learner data has been compared with native speaker data using computerized corpora and linguistic software tools to speed up the initial stage of the linguistic analysis.

2. Data and tools

The computer learner corpus used for this study is made up of two corpus samples from CLEC. One is the 214，510 words of essay writing of first or second year English majors （CLEC5）. The other one is 226，106 words -essay writing of third year or fourth year English majors（CLEC6）. To compare EFL use with native English use， it is necessary to have a native speaker control corpus. For this purpose， samples from LOB are used， which are informative writings， to be exactly， the press and editorials or reviews in British English.

In this study， we have opted for wordsmith tools， the lemmatize， the concordance， and the collocation display are mainly used， which enabled me to group all the inflectional forms of the lemma take—take， takes， took， taken， taking.

3. Grammatical pattern

Francis et al （1996） identified the following kinds of grammatical pattern of verbs（Hunston & Francis， 1998）：

· The verb stands by itself： V

· The verb is followed by a group of a particular kind ：V n； V adj； V adv.

· The verb is followed by a clause of a particular kind， or by a particular form of a verb： V that； V wh； V wh to –inf； V to-inf； V-ing； V inf， V –ed.

· The verb is followed by a prepositional phrase beginning with a named preposition： V about N； V as N； V at n， etc， or by a prepositional phrase beginning with one of several prepositions： V prep

· The verb is followed by a noun group and then by another group of a particular kind：V n n； V n adj； V n adv.

· The verb is followed by a noun group and then by a clause of a particular kind， or by a particular form of a verb： V n that； V n wh； Vn wh to-inf； V n to –inf； Vn –ing； V n inf； V n –ed

· The verb is followed by a noun group and then by a prepositional phrase beginning with a named preposition： V n about n； V n as n ； V n at n， etc， or by a prepositional phrase beginning with one of several prepositions； V n prep.

· The verb has the word it as part of the pattern， e.g. it V that ； V it adj that， etc.

· The verb has the word there as Subject： there V n； there V prep/adv.

Linguistic expert Pujianzhong （2000） have used this pattern to study the Chinese learners use of English verbs listen， adapt， and serve in grammatical pattern， and found out that the learners tend to overuse some grammatical patterns， underuse some other grammatical patterns， and sometimes misuse a few grammatical patterns. Each verb has its own characteristic overuse， underuse and misuse. In the following discussion， we tend to find out the major grammatical pattern of the verb take and to see how Chinese student overuse or underuse the grammatical pattern of this verb in their writings.

4. Major grammatical pattern of take

In this paper， my purpose is to discuss the grammatical patterning of take when it is used as a verb， so we will take the noun phrase use of take into no consideration， including the compound words take-over， take-off， risk-taking， drug-taking， bus-taking.

According to the grammatical patterns identified by Francis et al （1996），we analyze the data in LOB， and identify the grammatical pattern of take. The following are some cases chosen randomly from LOB.（see fig.1）

In Fig.1， those samples are divided into seven pattern groups. This first group shows that the verb take is used by itself（V）. In the second group， the verb is followed by a noun or a noun phrase （V n）， while in the third group， the verb is followed by to-infinitive（V to-inf.）. In the fourth group ， the verb is followed by a noun and then an adverb （V n adv）. In the fifth group， the verb is followed by a noun and a preposition （V n prep），while in the sixth group， the verb is followed by a preposition （V prep）. In the seventh group， the verb is followed by a noun and then by to-infinitive.

In this way， we may identify the students writing and make contrastive analysis among CLEC， CLEC and LOB （ see Fig. 2）

From the above， we may see that in non-native student writing， student overuse the grammatical pattern V n prep of the verb take， and underuse the pattern V. As far as these two patterns concern， there is no significant difference between the first or second year students （CLEC5） and the third or fourth year students（CLEC6）. But the case is quite different concerning the use of the pattern V that；Vwh；V to-inf V-ing； V inf ； V ed， the first or second year students seldom use this pattern in their writing， while some of the third or fourth year students did use this pattern in their writing， and concerning the use of this pattern， there is no significant difference between the third or fourth year Chinese students and the native speakers.

5. Collocate display

In order to find out the words or phrases that followed by take， wordsmith tools is used to find out the collocate display. Fig.3. is only part of the results.

From the above results ， we can see that， the words most frequently followed by take are part， place， to， for， in ，care， etc. the third or fourth year students（CLEC6） use multi-syllable words like example， advantage， measures more frequently than the first or second year students. Speaking of the verbal phrase take part in ，take place， both Chinese students and native speakers use this phrase frequently， and Chinese students use the phrase take…for granted， take…as an example， more frequently than native speakers.

6. Conclusion

Each verb has its own characteristic overuse， underuse and misuse. This paper only discusses the overuse and underuse of the grammatical patterns of the high frequency verb take. Further study on the characteristic misuse of this verb is needed. The verb take is most frequently used in Chinese students writing. It is most frequently used by following a noun group and then a prepositional phrase beginning with a named preposition ， or a prepositional phrase beginning with one of several prepositions （V n prep etc）. This may due to pedagogical instruction， such as the textbook， teachers instructive effects and so on.

References：

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