Sample Analysis

The data for this study is analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively in the process of error analysis (EA). The analysis of errors is conducted based on two broad categories: interlingual and intralingual errors. Under each category, there is an attempt to classify the errors into subcategories with specific reference to the sources of errors.

In the classification of English collocation errors, the criteria for judging English collocation errors was based on the inappropriate semantic selection of words and violation of English restrictive collocation rules between two content words as well as those grammatical rules in TL English There are seven types of collocation established in the present study, which are involved in the three areas shown below in table 3.3:

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Table 3.3

Areas and Types as well as Classifications of Collocations Established by the Present Study

Area of

Collocation

Type of Collocation Example Classification of

Collocation (1) Noun + Verb

1a) Noun + Verb They succeed. Lexical

1b) Noun + Verb The sun rises;

Problems occurred.

Grammatical

1c) Noun + Phrasal Verb The car broke

down.

Grammatical 1. Noun + Verb

Collocation

1d) Noun + Auxiliary + Act

Verb It will succeed. Grammatical

(2) Verb + Noun Collocation

2a) Verb + Noun achieve success Lexical

2. Verb + Noun Collocation

2b) Verb + Noun made machine Grammatical

2c) Phrasal Verb + Noun work out problems Grammatical

(3) Noun + Noun Collocation

3a) Noun + Noun light bulb Lexical

3b) Noun + Noun arts school;

school activities Grammatical

3c) Noun + PP attitude towards

life

Grammatical

(4) Adjective + Noun Collocation

4a) Adjective + Noun ordinary people Lexical

3. Modifiers + Head

103 (5) Verb + Adverb Collocation

5a) Verb + Adverb work hard Lexical

5b) Verb + Adverb do poorly Grammatical

5c) Adverb + Verb slowly turned Grammatical

5d) Adverb + Phrasal Verb unhappily looked around

Grammatical

(6) Adverb + Adjective + Noun

Collocation definitely true story Grammatical

(7) a / Numeral + Quantifier + (of) + Noun

7a) a + Quantifier + of + Uncountable Noun

a piece of bread Grammatical

7b) a + Measure Words + of + Countable Noun

a box of books Grammatical

7c) Numeral + Countable Noun

two books Grammatical

As shown in table 3.3 above, there are three areas of collocation: noun + verb collocation, verb + noun collocation and modifiers. Noun + verb collocation can be furtherly divided into: noun + single verb, noun + phrasal verb and noun + auxiliary + act verb / phrasal verb. Verb + noun collocation includes verb + noun and phrasal verb + noun collocations. The modifiers fatherly fall into: noun + noun, noun + prepositional phrase, adjective + noun, adverb + adjective + noun, verb + adverb (two types), adverb + verb, adverb + phrasal verb, a + quantifying noun + of + (head) noun and numeral + quantifying noun + of + (head) noun collocations. Among these three areas with reference to types of collocations established by the present study, both lexical and grammatical collocations classifications are involved.

104 Table 3.3 presents the types of collocation that are established by the present study. To facilitate the statistical computation in the EA, the types of collocation was narrowed down to seven clusters in the present study. Type 1 includes four categories from 1a to 1d. Errors relevant to these four categories were counted and entered into type noun + verb collocation. Likewise, errors in categories 2a to 2c were counted and entered into type verb + noun collocation…until errors in categories 7a to 7c were counted and entered into type a / numeral + quantifier + of + noun collocation. Based on this cluster analysis of data in terms of types of collocation, all figures and tabulations in the error analysis (EA) in chapter 7 were constructed.

Besides, software-based tools play an additional function such as MyFinder and WordSmith in the present study. MyFinder is used more frequently to identify and list all types / classifications of collocation errors, sources of collocation errors, and so forth. All types of collocation errors is marked by the present study from n + n collocation errors (including noun + prep. phrase), n + v (including noun + phrasal verb and noun + auxiliary verb + act verb), v / phrasal v + n, v + adv., adv. + adj. + n collocation errors to ‘a / numeral + quantifying n + of + n’ collocation errors. Sources of collocation errors are marked by the current study from interlingual, intralingual errors to circumlocution errors.

Equivalent KWIC (Key Word in the Context) in a certain subtype of collocations between learners (LC) and the English native speaker corpora (BNC) were contrasted with concordance lines using WordSmith Tool. Lists of “concordances” via computer display the two languages juxtaposed help the researcher to determine the frequent units in a language (MT / TL) and then examine their correspondences in the other language (TL). The node word selected in a certain type of collocation is searched within the span of 5 to the left and right of that node (for instance, shown as concordance line in ‘ultimate + success’ collocation in chapter 7).

105 The selected examples from Appendix A / B / C / D / E / F / G are presented in three columns. Enter the code of student essay in the left column, learner English (LC) in the middle column, and correct form of English in the right column.

The quantitative analysis involves the report of number and percentage of error occurrences, the report of number and percentage of interlingual and intralingual error occurrences as well as the report of number and percentage of errors occurrences from lexical and grammatical collocation classifications. The tabulation and figure were used in the statistical analysis.

The steps of error analysis (EA) and the manual identification of instances of English collocation errors in the data are followed by a process of English collocation error coding. The identification and collection of errors start from the grammatical errors due to MT Chinese interference since they are overt. Classify the following errors into interlingual errors: the grammatical errors due to Chinese non-morphological form in word formation of compound, Chinese non-phrasal verb, and violation of English grammatical concord in person and number, or Chinese non-copular “be” in syntax. Then move on to the grammatical errors due to intralingual cause. Finally, focus on the analysis of other subcategories making reference to sources of errors. Intralingual errors were based on the classification by Richards’s (1970): overgeneralization, ignorance of TL restrictions of TL rules, false hypothesizing concept of TL word or phrase and incomplete application of TL word.

The EA method was performed as follows:

1) Code 117 students’ essays at random. For example, the student essay will be coded as T which refers to Text, i.e. the first student essay is represented by T1, and the second student essay is numbered as T2, until the 117th student essay was coded as T117.

106 2) Mark the types of English collocation errors identified in this study with codes n +

n, n + v, v + n, adj. + n, v + adv., adv. + adj. + n, and a + quantifying noun + of + n., among 117 students’ essay, and interlingual errors with codes inter. and intralingual with intra.

3) The presentation of data is organized mainly based on interlingual and intralingual errors. Under each category, there is an attempt to classify the errors into subcategories with specific reference to the sources of errors.

The following is the detailed steps to collect and sort out as well as enter the data (noun + noun collocation, for instance) with reference to different sources:

- Step 3a: The identification of noun + noun collocation errors is making reference to the property of Chinese on grammatical collocation classification. As has already been described previously, Chinese noun + noun collocation

shenghuo (生活) + taidu (态度) = (生活态度) ‘life attitude’ is equivalent to

English ‘attitude towards life’. Therefore, the presentation of interlingual English noun + prepositional phrase collocation errors is entered in the type of English noun + noun collocation errors.

Since English grammatical collocation errors due to Chinese are overt, which are easy to be found, the interlingual errors were identified, collected and gave a statistics marked by item ‘1. Interlingual Errors in the Grammatical Structure: Chinese Coordinate NPs Interference to English Noun + PPs (1 text in total)’, which can be presented below in tabulation (as a model of presentation of errors) The following is table as a model how errors are counted and sorted into the types of collocation errors, which used tabulation.

Interlingual Errors due to Chinese Coordinate NPs Interference to English Noun + PPs

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Text LC Correct form

T 14 the world scientist the scientist in the world

The above table presents number of students’ essays (T14) in the left column, learner’s language ‘the world scientists’ in the middle and the correct TL expressions ‘the scientists in the world’ in the right column.

- Step 3b: Then presentation of the other sub-classification of interlingual errors marked by item ‘1.2. Errors due to Negative Transfer of Chinese Connotations’ below:

1.2 Interlingual Errors found in the Semantic Field: Negative Transfer of Chinese Connotations (one text only)

A tabulation is used as below:

Interlingual Errors due to Negative Transfer from Chinese Connotation

Text LC Correct form

T82 sunlight of success the best hope of success

4) Enter the data composed of all interlingual noun + noun collocation errors due to Chinese grammatical structure influence into the view columns in SPSS package and compute the sum of numbers of the errors automatically. Finally, put the result into the bracket of the subtitles of the tables. The subtitle of each table is the source of that type of errors.

In fact, if there is very few number of errors, manual counting is enough to do statistics like the counting of interlingual verb + adverb collocation errors. But in the case of noun + verb or verb + noun collocation errors, SPSS package tool is adopted to perform statistics.

108 5) Having processed the interlingual noun + noun collocation errors, the next

presentation is on the intralingual noun + noun errors due to context and from the grammatical structure. Collect, sort out and enter all intralingual errors in the differnt tables by making different sources of errors, which are carried out in the similar steps to interlingual errors. Finally, give a sum of separate interlingual, intralingual and circumlocution errors as well as total number of noun + noun collocation errors.

The detailed steps of statistics are presented below:

- Step 5a: Enter the whole data into the view columns in SPSS package tool. - Step 5b: Compute the data using SPSS tool automatically with reference to number and percentage of each intralingual source of n + n collocation errors. - Step 5c: Then move on to the presentation of errors due to circumlocution,

which are given in the third table.

- Step 5d: Enter and compute the total numbers of noun + noun collocation errors from interlingual and intralingual sources as well as errors due to circumlocution and enter them in the last table (which is on the top of page in Appendix D). Enter the name of the category of errors in the left column, statistical data of the total number of that category of noun + noun collocation errors in the right column.

It takes the order similar to noun + noun collocation errors to collect, enter and compute automatically the number and percentage of the rest subcategories of English collocations errors one by one and enter them in different tables in the presentation of errors. The rest of types of English collocation errors include: noun + verb (including n. + phrasal v., n. + auxiliary + v.), verb + noun (including phrasal v. + n.), adjective + noun, verb + adverb (including adv. + v., phrasal v. + adv., adv. + phrasal v.), adverb + adjective + noun, a + quantifying noun + of + head noun and numeral + quantifying

109 noun + of + head noun collocation errors.

All types established in the current study were identified and enter them as data in the appendices A to G. English noun + verb collocation errors were enter in Appendix A, verb + noun collocation errors in Appendix B, adjective + noun collocation errors in Appendix C, noun + noun phrase errors in Appendix D, a / numeral + quantifying noun + of + noun collocation errors in Appendix E, adverb + adjective + noun collocation errors in Appendix F, enter English verb + adverb collocation errors in Appendix G. Selected examples for presentation of data in this study were from these appendices.

Any word with misspelling is negligible in the identification of collocations errors in the present study. As for other problems in the case where English native speaker judges fail to reach a consensus on the ideal correction of errors and both native and non-native judges may not arrive at an agreement on the causes of some of the errors, the researcher turned to dictionaries and the British National Corpus to work out the problems.

In dealing with errors in the structure subject-verb-object collocation, if the mismatch happens between subject and verb but without problem with verb-object part, then this error is noun + verb collocation counting. If no problem with subject-verb collocation but mismatch takes place between verb and object, then this error is verb + noun collocation one.

Thanks to the new technology, corpus linguistics has attracted the attention of linguists in the last decade. Studies in collocations through corpus of the world and China are gradually becoming popular. One of the advantages obtained from corpus studies was the frequency of collocations (Koya, 2005 and Durran, 2008). Teachers need not rely any more on native speakers’ intuition about which combinations are wrong, but have access to corpus to check the high frequency of certain subtypes of collocations.

110 Accordingly, the present study also takes into consideration the high frequency of words in a subtype of collocations when determining certain collocation errors found in the data.

The percentage distributions of further classification of error occurrences were also figured out. They included percentages between intralingual errors due to context and grammatical structure, between violation of lexical and grammatical collocations, between interlingual errors from the grammatical structure and the semantic selection of words, and between interlingual errors and intralingual errors from the grammatical structure. In order to work out exactly how much each source of error subcategory accountable for English collocation errors, the manual job was done in this case.

3.4 Summary

This chapter presents the theoretical framework of the study, in which the types and classification of collocation are given. Based on structural linguistic methodology, lexical and grammatical classifications of collocation as well as types of collocation are described in great detail.

Theoretical CA is thought of as essential in the study of EA. Accordingly, both TL English and MT Chinese collocations are described and contrasted in this study, which forms an important theoretical underpinning for this study. The study also believes that the blending of CA into EA would be an effective approach to identify the errors made by Chinese learners of English in EA. CA can undertake a theoretical contrastive analysis between MT Chinese and English collocations. In the contrastive analysis, errors due to interference of MT can be solved and explained based on the similarities and differences identified from CA which can not be done by EA in terms of interlingual errors.

This chapter also gives an account of how qualitative and quantitative analyses of the data were made based on interlingual and intralingual error classifications and

111 subclassfications regarding other sources of errors. The data collection and processing as well as sample analysis are also discussed throughout the chapter.

In order to identify similarities and differences which is in line with research question one (RQ1): “What are the similarities and differences between Chinese and English collocation systems?” and ultimately to identify the areas of difficulty and the level of difficulties encountered by the Chinese learners in the use of English collocations as well as to identify the reasons for interlingual errors which is in agreement with research question three (RQ3): “What are the areas of difficulty involving the influence of the mother tongue and hierarchy of difficulties encountered by Chinese learners in the use of English collocations from the perspective of (a) Contrastive Analysis and (b) Error Analysis?” Chapter 6 will undertake a contrastive study from the perspective of CA, and chapter 7 will carry out an error analysis from the perspective of EA to identify the collocation errors of English made by the Chinese learners, which conforms to research question two (RQ2): “What are the types of collocation errors that are most frequently made by Chinese learners of English?” and also to identify all possible sources of errors.

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CHAPTER 4