The atypical uses of causative make in Arab EFL learner writing: A corpus-based study

Abstract

This study analyzed the atypical uses of make as a periphrastic causative in Arabic-speaking English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learner writing. Data from a learner corpus, The Arab College Corpus, were compared with data from The Louvain Corpus of Native English Essays, from which it was found that there was an overuse of the causative make and a preference for verb over adjective complements. The qualitative analysis revealed that the causative make sometimes substituted enabling causatives such as let or allow. Some usage patterns were attributed to proficiency limitations, and other usage patterns were related to the learner's spoken native dialect, namely Spoken Palestinian Arabic (SPA). The monolingual corpus of SPA Curras data confirmed that the causative xalla had both enabling and effectuating functions, with the two meanings forming a continuum. It is proposed that this continuum is being transferred to the causative make by Arab EFL learners.