The Overuse of the All Purpose Word Make by Chinese College English Learners

摘要

This article deals with a phenomenon that can be frequently observed in Chinese college learners writing and speaking—the overuse of an all-purpose verb:make.This overproduction can be broadly classified into two types:make+noun+to do and make+object+complement.The former can be explained by the morphological difference between Chinese and English.In Chi nese,the word category is very flexible depending on the context.By contrast,in English word category can be changed by affixing.For the overproduction of the structure:make+object+complement,three contributing factors have been identified.Firstly positive inter-language transfer is one of them.The similarity between the causative construction in Chinese“shi+object+complement and the counterpart in English“make+object+complement”leads to the overproduction.Secondly exam-taking strategies tempt Chinese students to adopt“make+object+complement”to avoid making mistakes in the exam.Finally,for lack of causative verbs stocks in Chinese,Chinese college English learners avoid using other causative verbs in the realization of causative construction in their writing and speaking in English.