There exist differences between the usages of prepositions in English and Chinese, not only for the different cultural backgrounds, but for the different cognitive models. The use of English prepositions is a great ch...There exist differences between the usages of prepositions in English and Chinese, not only for the different cultural backgrounds, but for the different cognitive models. The use of English prepositions is a great challenge for Chinese English learners (CELs). This essay discusses the misuse of the English spatial preposition IN by CELs, using the data collected from Chinese Learner English Corpus (CLEC) against other corpora such as BNC, FLOB, FROWN as reference corpora. The statistical data, such as Frequency and Type/Token Ratio (TTR) of IN, shows that the overuse of IN is typical for Chinese English learners, and it also offers a reasonable explanation for the misuse of IN using the image schema in cognitive metaphor theory (CMT). The polysemy of the spatial preposition IN can be divided into different image schemas. Chinese English learners can avoid preposition misuse with the help of image-schemas.展开更多
文摘There exist differences between the usages of prepositions in English and Chinese, not only for the different cultural backgrounds, but for the different cognitive models. The use of English prepositions is a great challenge for Chinese English learners (CELs). This essay discusses the misuse of the English spatial preposition IN by CELs, using the data collected from Chinese Learner English Corpus (CLEC) against other corpora such as BNC, FLOB, FROWN as reference corpora. The statistical data, such as Frequency and Type/Token Ratio (TTR) of IN, shows that the overuse of IN is typical for Chinese English learners, and it also offers a reasonable explanation for the misuse of IN using the image schema in cognitive metaphor theory (CMT). The polysemy of the spatial preposition IN can be divided into different image schemas. Chinese English learners can avoid preposition misuse with the help of image-schemas.
