Term paper for Corpus Linguistics and EFL Teaching
Name: 刘鑫意Class 英师4班Student No. 20150207034
1.Item investigated
Fear( as a noun)
2.Data
CHILD (Z:\EC\CHILD)
21st College English (Z: \EFL\BOOK\H\U)
3.Corpus tools used
AntConc (concordance, collocates, clusters)
4.Findings
4.1.Colligation patterns
(1)for fear (that) +adverbial clause (20 out of 200 examples, 10%)
e.g. But I never dared to ask anyone for fear she would tell me it wasn't.
She'll never miss her first chance for fear she might not get another.
Though not a human creature is allowed to go near for fear they'll look at him.
(2)for fear of doing sth. (15 out of 200 examples, 7.5%)
e.g. I am always afraid to say things to you for fear of making you angry.
But she did not say this aloud, for fear of hurting the poor Queen's feeling .
Alice got behind a tree, for fear of being run over, and watched them go by.
(3)feel/have (no) fear for/of sth. (8 out of 200 examples, 4%)
e.g. I have no fear for the man-cub.
They, because they live in trees, have no fear of any of our people.
But the Tin Woodman, having no fear of fire, averted the stampede by a few
sensible words.
(4) fear+ that +Noun Clauses (8 out of 200 examples, 4%)
e.g. The fear that something may happen rests like a shadow on my heart.
He said, "that is the fear that haunts me."
The princess, greatly surprised, could not resist the fear that seized her.
4.2.Semantic preference and collocates
Fear means emotion caused by the nearness or possibility of danger, pain, evil. It is often decorated by negative adjectives:
e.g. Sometimes a dreadful fear comes over me that I'm not a genius.
Marilla sharply, relieve from her horrible fear of the well.
He shut his eyes in mortal fear, and made a leap at random.
It often appears with negative nouns:
e.g. The hermit bowed his head again, but this time with great sorrow and fear.
In all the trouble and sickness and fear of that time, Margaret drove her cart of bread.
He also senses the rejection, indifference, fear, or hostility.
It is often used with negative verbs or verb phrases:
e.g. She had risen, and now at last a fear assailed him.
But pleasure soon dispelled her fear, and she continued to view the pleasing figure.
A sickening fear shot through her heart.
4.3.Set phrases
(1)with fear
(2)in fear
5.Implications for teaching
Fear means emotion caused by the nearness or possibility of danger, pain, evil. It’s particularly useful in writing since it can be used quite flexibly. However, it does not seem to appear often in textbooks. Its various patterns are not often used by Chinese students, either. When students need to use this word, they tend to use the word separately. Thus guidance and instruction is probably necessary for them to master various patterns including the word, the meaning as well as the use of them.
When teaching, teachers can introduce various patterns and semantic preference to students to help them express the feeling accurately. Meanwhile, teachers can make use of examples from native English corpora, especially stories writing corpora, as important complementary materials to the textbooks.
Word count: 550
References
Oxford Advanced Learner's English-Chinese Dictionary
