（课程与教学论专业论文）基于语料库的大学英语四、六级写作中词汇衔接对比研究.pdf

a contrastive study on corpus-based lexical cohesion between cet4 and cet6 writings 基于语料库的大学英语四、六级 写作中词汇衔接对比研究 wu zongren 吴 宗 仁 硕士学位论文 mdthesis contents 独创性声明 . i abstract . ii 摘 要 . iv list of abbreviations . v list of tables and figures . vi chapter one introduction. 1 1.1 the background of this study . 1 1.2 the significance of this study . 2 1.3 the objective of this study . 3 chapter two literature review . 4 2.1 theoretical background: the researches on cohesion theory . 4 2.1.1 researches abroad . 4 2.1.2 researches at home . 6 2.2 researches on lexical cohesion in writing . 7 2.2.1 researches abroad . 7 chapter three theoretical framework . 12 3.1 cohesion theory . 12 3.1.1 text, texture, tie and cohesion . 12 3.1.2 cohesion and coherence . 13 3.1.3 types of cohesion . 13 3.2 contrastive interlanguage analysis (cia) . 20 3.3.1 the definition of interlanguage and its characteristics . 20 3.2.2 contrastive interlanguage analysis (cia) . 21 chapter four methodology . 23 4.1 research questions . 23 4.2 subjects . 23 4.3 instruments . 24 4.3.1 clec . 24 4.3.2 spss . 25 4.4 research procedures . 25 4.4.1 the lexical cohesive ties . 25 4.4.2 the tagging of the lexical ties and its principles . 26 4.5 data collection and analysis . 27 chapter five results and discussion . 28 5.1 result and discussion for research question one: the most commonly and least used lexical cohesive ties in cet4 and cet6 writings respectively . 28 5.2 result and discussion for research question two: the differences in number of lexical cohesive in between cet4 and cet6 writings. . 29 5.2.1 a contrast of total number of ties between cet4 and cet6 samples . 29 5.2.2 detailed discussion of lexical cohesion in cet4 and cet6 samples . 31 5.3 result and discussion for research question three: a contrast in types of lexical cohesive ties between cet4 and cet6 writings . 44 chapter six conclusion . 47 6.1 major findings . 47 6.2 pedagogic implications . 48 6.3 limitation . 49 references . vii appendix : an example of tagged cet4 samples . xii appendix : an example of tagged cet6 samples . xiv appendix : the raw data of cet4 samples . xvi appendix : the raw data of cet6 samples . xvii acknowledgements . xviii i 独创性声明 本人声明所呈交的论文是我个人在导师指导下进行的研究工作及取得的研究成果。尽我所知，除了文中特别加以标注和致谢的地方外，论文中不包括其他人已经发表戒撰写过的研究成果，也不包含为获得西北师范大学戒其他教育机构的学位戒证书而使用过的材料。 与我一同工作的同志对签名： 日期： 关于论文使用授权的说明 本人完全了解西北师范大学有关保留、使用学位论文的规定，即：学校有权保留送交论文的复印件，允许论文被查阅和借阅；学校可以公布论文的全部戒部分内容，可以采用影印、缩印戒其他复制手段保存论文。 （保密的论文在解密后应遵守此规定） 签名： 导师签名： 日期： ii abstract writing is one of important language skills in english learning. it is usually used as an important means of measurement to examine the students english proficiency in cet4 and cet6 test. cohesion proposed by halliday and hasan(1976) has a strong relation with writing quality. and lexical cohesion is one of most important cohesive ties, which consists of about fifty percent of all cohesion. many foreign and chinese researchers have also tested that the use of lexical cohesive ties is closely related to the writing quality. the framework of lexical cohesion adopted in this research is mainly based on halliday and hasans classification(1976,1984), and made some modification according to hoeys classification(1991). this research mainly examines the differences of lexical cohesive ties between cet4 and cet6 writings, including simple repetition, complex repetition, synonym, antonym, hyponym, collocation and general words. based on the chinese learner english corpus (clec), 33 cet4 and 30 cet6 samples are randomly selected from st3 sub-corpus and st4 sub-corpus respectively to analyze the use of lexical cohesive ties by college non-english major students, intending to explore the following questions: (1) which lexical cohesive ties are the most commonly used, and which ones are the least used in cet4 and cet6 writings respectively? (2) what are the differences in number of lexical cohesion between cet4 and cet6 writings? (3) are there differences in types of lexical cohesive ties between cet4 and cet6 writings? the results show that (1) in all seven devices, the most frequent lexical cohesive ties used in cet4 samples are simple repetition, collocation, and synonym, and in cet6 samples are simple repetition, synonym and collocation. while the least used lexical cohesive ties in cet4 sample writings are hyponym, general words, antonym and complex repetition, and in cet6 are hyponym, complex repetition, general words, and antonym. although there has difference in order, the distribution is approximately the same. (2) the total number of ties used in samples increases in general from cet4 to cet6 writing，which has a significant difference. for the subcategories of lexical cohesion, there exist significant differences in simple repetition, synonym, antonym and collocation between cet4 and cet6 sample compositions. there are not significant differences in complex repetition, hyponymy and general word. (3) the types of cohesive ties used in cet6 are more than in cet4, but there has not significant iii difference. the present research can help teachers have a better understanding of the characteristics of chinese college non-english major students adoption of lexical cohesion in cet4 and cet6 writings. teachers should consciously increase the explanations and exercises of cohesion in their teaching practice, especially, lexical cohesion, to develop and improve students writing ability using a variety of flexible and appropriate vocabulary. eventually, it will make the students use cohesive ties, especially lexical cohesion, consciously in their writing. key words：corpus；lexical cohesion；cet4 writing；cet6 writing iv 摘摘 要要 写作是英语学习中必须掌握的语言技能之一，在大学英语四、六级考试中，写作经常是测试考生英语水平的重要手段。作文质量的高低取决于很多因素，韩礼德和哈桑（1976）提出的衔接与作文的质量有密切的关系。在各种衔接手段中，词汇衔接无疑是最重要的一种，它占到了整个衔接手段的一半左右。许多中外的学者研究发现，词汇衔接与作文质量密切相关。 基于韩礼德和哈桑（1976，1984）对词汇衔接的分类，并根据侯易（1991）的分类做了一些修改。来分析非英语专业学生对简单的重复、复杂的重复、同义词、反义词、下义词、同现和概括词等七种词汇衔接手段在四、六级写作中的使用情况。从中国英语学习者语料库的 st3 和st4 子语料库分别随机选择了 33 篇四级作文和 30 六级作文组成本研究的被试。 主要探究以下三个问题: (1)在四、六级作文中,那些词汇衔接类型用的最多,那些用得最少? 有差异吗? (2)四级作文与六级作文比较,词汇衔接的总数以及各个子类在数量上是否存在差异? (3)在每篇作文所使用的词汇衔接的种类上, 四、六级作文是否存在差异? 研究结果表明： （1）在七种词汇衔接中，四级作文使用频率最高的依次是简单重复、同现关系、同义词；六级作文中使用频率最高依次是简单重复、同义词、同现关系。四级作文使用频率较低的依次是下义词、概括词、反义词和复杂重复；六级作文中使用频率较低的依次是下义词、复杂重复、概括词和反义词。可见，虽然四、六级作文中词汇衔接使用频率在排序上存在差异，但分布基本相同。 （2）spss 检验结果表明，四、六级作文在词汇衔接总数上有显著的不同，六级作文中总量多于四级作文。就七种词汇衔接子类而言，四、六级作文在使用简单重复、同义词、反义词和同现关系上存在显著差异，而在复杂重复、上下义词和概括词的使用上不存在显著差异。 （3）大学英语六级写作衔接关系类型多于英语四级写作中衔接手段，但不存在显著差异。 通过本研究，大学英语教师可以对中国大学非英语专业学生大学英语四、六级写作中词汇衔接手段的特点有更好的了解。在教学中，教师应该有意识地增加衔接手段的讲解与练习，尤其是词汇衔接，使学生使学生养成在写作中灵活运用衔接手段的能力。 关键词关键词：语料库, 词汇衔接, 大学英语四级考试作文, 大学英语六级考试作文 v list of abbreviations at clec cet4 cet6 cl cr gd hp il l1 l2 sr sn spss antonym chinese learner english corpus college english test band 4 college english test band 6 collocation complex repetition general words hyponymy interlanguage native language/mother tongue foreign language/second language simple repetition synonym statistics package for social science vi list of tables and figures table 3.1 the classification of lexical cohesion by halliday and hasan(1976) . 16 table 3.2 the classification of lexical cohesion byhallidayhasan(1985) . 18 table 3.3 the meaning triangle. 20 table 4.1 the information about the selected data. 24 table 4.2 the classification of lexical cohesion in present study . 26 table 5.1 the overall distribution of lexical cohesive ties . 28 figure 5.1 the numbers of subcategory lexical ties occurred per 1000 words . 29 table 5.2 the distribution of total number of ties in each sample composition . 30 table 5.3 the independent samples test result of total number of ties . 30 table 5.4 the independent samples test result of the differences in lexical cohesive ties . 31 table 5.5 the number of simple repetition in noun, verb, adj and adv . 32 table 5.6 the number of simple repetition in same word, plural, present participle, past participle . 34 table 5.7 the number and examples of complex repetition in two groups . 35 table 5.8 the number of synonym in two groups . 37 table 5.9 the examples of synonym in the sample compositions . 37 table 5.10 the number and example of antonym in two groups . 38 table 5.11 the examples of hyponymy/super-ordinate in two groups . 40 table 5.12 the examples of collocation in two groups. 42 table 5.13 the examples of general words in two groups . 43 table 5.14 the distribution of types of lexical cohesiveies in subcategory . 44 figure 5.2 the distribution of types of lexical cohesiveies in subcategory . 45 table 5.15 the independent samples test result of types of ties between cet4 and cet6 writings . 45 chapter one introduction 1 chapter one introduction this chapter will give a general introduction on the background, purpose and significance of this research. lexical cohesion is important in english writing, but in the teaching practice, it isnt given much attention. this study attempts to identify and quantify the features of lexical cohesion in cet4 and cet6 writings to give some implications to college english teaching and learning. 1.1 the background of this study writing is a creative mental process used language to reflect objective things, express thoughts and feelings, and pass down knowledge and information. writing activity has some salient features. when the writers write, they have specific purpose, for example, writing for greetings, for congratulations, for application and examination. writing is a comprehensive activity which requires learners to have solid language skills, including words, grammar, sentence structure, logic, etc. writing is one of language skills（listening, speaking, reading and writing）to be acquired in english learning. because english writing is an important aspect of language proficiency, it often is used as an important means of measurement to examine the students english proficiency. according to college english syllabus, for the cet4 students, they should write 120-150 word essays within half an hour according to an outline or certain topic. they can write messages and notes to express the meaning clearly with few errors. for the cet6 students, they should write 150-180 word essays within half an hour according to an outline, certain topic, tables or illustrations and can finish practical writings (such as letters, resumes, etc.) completely, well organized and fluent. writing can help students to improve their accuracy of english. in the procession of writing, students should use the skills such as syntax, diction, spelling, punctuation and cohesion. regardless of what kinds of genres they write, it need properly organization of material, thus, it is also a procession of analysis and problem solving, which can help the students to improve their logical thinking and analysis. after they finish it, students should check and modify it, it is also a way to improve their language proficiency. although writing is an important part in english test and can reflect students comprehensive language proficiency, in teaching practice, there still many problems. most colleges only open intensive reading and listening lessons for non-english major students, the writing training can only be interspersed a contrastive study on corpus-based lexical cohesion between cet4 and cet6 writings 2 in the teaching of intensive reading, so the teachers give little instructions for the writing，not to mention the cohesion in writing(zhang xiaohua,2003:176). cohesion, especially lexical cohesion, plays an important role in making a good writing. hoey (1991) calculates the cohesion ties (or devices) used in the text analyzed by halliday and hasan(1976) in cohesion in english, and find that half of the cohesion ties are lexical cohesion although halliday and hasan just give one of ten chapter to illustrate it. and chinese researchers (xu weicheng ,1999;fang cheng,2002) found that lexical cohesion distinguish good and bad writings. and liu dalin(1997,2000) find that many teachers of english for speakers of other languages (esol) focuses on connectives instead of lexical ties. 1.2 the significance of this study although writing plays an important part in the teaching of english, the teaching of writing in english has been a weakness in the china. instead, much attention is focused on the form of words and the grammatical errors, and cohesion device applied in writings are ignored sometimes. based on cohesion theory by halliday(1976) and the new approach by hoey(1991), the author also consulted some researches made by scholars including chinese scholars and foreign country scholars. on the basis of these theories, the author tried to explore the factors influencing the application of lexical cohesion in cet4 and cet6 writings of non-english major students in order to find a much easier way to learn how to use lexical cohesive ties into college students writing. there are some significances of present study. firstly, diachronic point of view is taken to observe the patterns of lexical cohesion differences between cet4 and cet6 writings. in other words, this research tries to trace the progress of students writing ability in terms of lexical cohesion by quantitative examination. by comparison of the differences, some developmental problems in college english learners use of lexical cohesion in writing can be diagnosed. moreover，some pedagogical implication can be drawn to help college english teaching. secondly, this study focuses on the lexical cohesion in cet4 and cet6 writings, trying to uncover the characteristics of the lexical cohesive devices in their writings, which give some implications for college english writing teaching. on the one hand, in the teaching of writing, teachers should consciously increase the explanations and exercises of cohesive devices, especially, lexical cohesion, to develop and improve students writing ability using a variety of flexible and appropriate vocabulary. on the other hand, if teachers introduce the lexical cohesion to the students in the classroom, analyze the lexical cohesion in chapter one introduction 3 their writings; it will improve their ability of self-assessment and self-error correction for their own writings. eventually, it will improve their ability of writing as well as their cognitive ability. lastly，the results of present research can provide some empirical evidences for cohesion theory，and they are conductive to further construction of the theory. 1.3 the objective of this study lexical cohesion is the semantic relations of two or more lexical words beyond the sentences, that is, establishing the links through the selection words to make text coherence. the words appear repetition or by other alternative. according to the research of halliday and hasan(1976), half of the cohesive ties is lexicon. cohesion is one of the significant features of discourse. in recent years, many scholars make efforts to study the cohesion devices and its function in the discourse. some researchers have analyzed the cohesive in writing. others have studied the characteristics of cohesion in writing of senior high school students and college students respectively. however, few of them do the quantitative research on the lexical cohesion in chinese english learners writings, so this study attempts to identify and quantify the features of lexical cohesion in cet4 and cet6 writings. the purposes of this study include: (1) to explore the characteristics of lexical cohesion in cet4 and cet6 writings. (2) to identify the differences of lexical cohesion between cet4 and cet6 writings. (3) to apply the findings to the teaching and learning in cet4 and cet6 writings. it is expected that this study might lead to a better understanding of the use of lexical cohesion in college students english writing and have some significant pedagogical implications for the teaching practice. a contrastive study on corpus-based lexical cohesion between cet4 and cet6 writings 4 chapter two literature review harris (1952), in discourse analysis, suggests the idea that in grammar it is possible to analyze the distribution of linguistic elements in connected speech and writing and set up distributional equivalence. mitchell (1957) discusses it in a different view. he presents a semantically motivated analysis of discourse. since then, discourse analysis becomes a branch of linguistics and develops rapidly. halidays systemic functional grammar set a framework for discourse analysis, which has made the greatest influence in discourse analysis. halliday and hasan(1976) proposes the concept of cohesion, which makes great contribution in discourse analysis. many studies have conducted on cohesion after that. in the following section, the researches on cohesion theory as well as the researches on cohesion theory applied in writings home and broad will be introduced to know about what kind of researches on cohesion have been conducted and what can be done in the future. 2.1 theoretical background: the researches on cohesion theory 2.1.1 researches abroad halliday and hasan(1976) mainly studies the cohesion of discourse in their work, cohesion in english. they define the cohesion as the “relation of meaning that exist within in the text, and that defines it as a text.”(halliday and hasan,1976:4). from this definition, they claim the function of cohesive as such, “the concept of cohesive accounts for the essential semantic relations whereby any passage of speech or writing is enabled to function as a text” (halliday and hasan, 1976:13). obviously, they think that cohesion is the device which connects the sentences into a whole text, rather than a pile of separated sentences. in order to identify the semantic relations of a text, they say, “we can systematize these concepts by classifying it into small number of distinct categories” (halliday and hasan, 1976:13). so according to its particular features, they divided cohesion relations into grammatical and lexical cohesion. grammatical cohesion