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Part of
Advances in Corpus-based Research on Academic Writing: Effects of discipline, register, and writer expertise
Edited by Ute Römer, Viviana Cortes and Eric Friginal
[Studies in Corpus Linguistics 95] 2020
► pp. 33–58

Give constructions in Korean EFL learner writing

| Georgia State University

This study aims to investigate constructions of the verb give used by Korean EFL learners, along with an in-depth analysis of ditransitive use and L1 influences. The use of give in a Korean EFL learner corpus and a reference native speaker corpus is analyzed in terms of different construction types and their frequencies. In-depth analysis of ditransitive use of give was conducted using three factors: pronominality, weight, and semantic classes. L1 influence was discussed and a Korean language corpus was used to provide evidence to strengthen the arguments. This study concludes with the discussion of limitations, and future directions for understanding Korean EFL learners’ developmental trajectory of construction acquisition within the usage-based framework.

Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Literature review
    • 2.1Constructions of the verb give
    • 2.2Contrastive corpus studies and L1 influence in corpus studies
    • 2.3The current study
  • 3.Method
    • 3.1Corpora
    • 3.2Data extraction
    • 3.3Data analysis
  • 4.Findings
    • 4.1Constructions and frequencies
    • 4.2In-depth analysis of ditransitive constructions
      • 4.2.1Pronominality
      • 4.2.2Weight
      • 4.2.3Semantic classes
    • 4.3L1 influence found in collocations and idiosyncratic usage
      • 4.3.1Syntactic errors in ditransitive/to-dative constructions: Word order
      • 4.3.2Overuse of the causation sense
      • 4.3.3Idiosyncratic use: Collocational transfer
  • 5.Conclusions
    • 5.1Limitations
    • 5.2Future directions
  • References
Published online: 20 February 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/scl.95.02nam
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