The Error Analysis of De Structures: A Corpus-based Research

Abstract

This article analyzes the errors in de structures produced by learners studying Chinese as a second language based on the Global Chinese Interlanguage Corpus. The research is hoped to open up a new vision for error analysis of de structures with methods of corpus linguistics and provide some empirical evidence that can be used to adjust the teaching of Chinese grammar to make it more problem-oriented. The article begins with a brief review of relevant studies and an explicit definition of the de structure. Data used in the article all come from the Global Chinese Interlanguage Corpus, which has been sifted carefully to make them better adapted to the research objective. Errors in de structures are categorized into five different types based on the ways surface structures are altered. The characteristics of each error type are given by the description and correction of example sentences. Two mechanisms are given as the possible explanation for the roots of errors in de structures: L1 transfer and overgeneralization. The contrastive analysis between Korean, English and Chinese explains the occurrence of serval types of errors, and some erroneous sentences created by CSL learners also confirm the existence of overgeneralization.