Language transfer is a vital part of second language acquisition. In addition, it is more prevalent in second language acquisition studies based on the cor-pus. This paper compares the collocation of word and semantic prosodies of HAPPEN in the Brown Corpus and the Ten-thousand English Compositions of Chinese Learners (TECCL). Two frequently occurring collocates, what and thing, are analyzed between two corpora. The results show that negative transfer and tense errors exist in Chinese learners’ use of the word HAPPEN, such as excessive use of positive semantic prosodies. The finding has a great enlightening effect on foreign vocabulary teaching.
Cite this paper
Fu, X. (2023). A Corpus-Based Study of Language Transfer in Chinese Learners. Open Access Library Journal, 10, e9743. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/oalib.1109743.
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https://doi.org/10.1075/fol.2.1.03stu
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