Chapter 1 Introduction
1.1 Previous Relevant Study
Language is changing every day. Learning the most important part of a languagecan help us know it fast and well. Verb pattern is an important part in English patterns.Having a good knowledge of English verb patterns is beneficial to understanding thestructure of sentence and can lay a solid foundation for language usage. Thus，it isobvious that it is important to have a research on English verb patterns.In domestic studies，there are many researches on English verb patterns. Forexample, In Research of Verb Patterns in Oxford Advanced Learner 's Dictionary, Liu(2007) compared v^b pattern in Oxford Advanced Learner 's Dictionary of eachedition and pointed out the shortcomings that still exist in the dictionary. In On EnglishVerb Pattern，Lin (1997) pointed out some rules that verb pattern should obey andstated his own opinion about verb pattern. In Corpus Based Study of Verb PatternMistake，Ji (2011) studied the wrong usage of verb patterns by Chinese learners. In ACorpus-based Study of Chinese Learner 's Acquisition of Verb Patterns^ Wang (2004)summarized Chinese learners' acquisition sequence of verb patterns by studying threedifferent groups of students，usage of English verb patterns.As mentioned above, although there are many researches on English verb patterns，it can be found that there is no study associated with the feature of verb patterns in onecorpus，almost none in Marine Engineering English corpus. Thus，the present studytries to fill in this gap in the field.
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1.2 Purpose and Significance of the Paper
Verb Pattern is the most important pattern in English patterns. Doing research on acorpus can help us have a good undestanding of this corpus. Nowadays，with thedevelopment of shipping business, English has become an essential and indispensablelanguage skill to marine staffs. The learning of operation principle requires them toleam English well. In the field of Marine Engineering, English is difficult for most students and workers. Of course, the vocabulary complexity is one factor, but sentencepattern is another important factor which influnces people's understanding. Doing aresearch on the verb patterns of Marine Engineering English (MEE) corpus can helpthem have a good understanding of the corpus and enhance their reading and writingskills.The purpose of the present study is trying to classify and summarize verb patternsin MEE and analyze the similarities and differaices of their frequeny distributions inqualitative and quantitative methods. This paper provides an empirical andstraightforward result of verb patterns in MEE and will be helpful for English learnersand users in the field of marine engineering.
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Chapter 2 Theoretical Background
2.1 Definition
Verb plays an important role in English. A verb is a word or word group thatexpresses an action, condition, or state of being. The verb may be a single word or itmay be preceded by one or more auxiliary words and followed by one or more particles.Every sentence must contain a verb，for the verb is the word (or word group) thatconveys what is said about the subject (a noun or nominal). As a result, the verb is themost important part of the sentence.As for the definition of verb，different authors give different definitions. Theexplanation of verb in Collins Cobuild (2000, p.xxii) is as follows: "The Verb is the partof a clause that tells you，for example, what someone or something does or whathappens to them." The book pointed out that the verb is a verb clause, e.g. Her husbandwas waiting for her. Here is Hornby's (1975，p.15) definition of verb in Guide toPatterns and Usage in English: "There is no useful or adequate definition of the termVERB. It is useful, however，to distinguish between finite and non-finite forms ofverbs.” Hornby (1975) pointed out that the non-finites are the infinitive (present andperfect, with or without td)，the present and past participles, and the gerund (or verbalnoun). The finites are those forms other than the non-finites. Thus，the non-finites of beare: (to) be, (to) have been, being and been, and the finites are am, is are, was, were.The non-finites of see are: (to) see, (to) have been, seeing and seen，and the finites aresee, sees and saw. When an infinitive is used with to (as in I want to go, I ought to havegone) it is called the /o-infinitive. When used without to (as in I must gone, I shouldhave gone) it is called the bare infinitive. The present participle and the gerund areidentical in form. In The boys are swimming，there is the present participle. In The boyslike swimming，there is the gerund.
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2.2 Classification of Verb Patterns
Different grammarians classified verb patterns in different ways. In Guide to Patterns And Usage in English (second edition), Hornby (1975) revised andrenumbered the 25 verb patterns set out in the first edition. The renumbered patterns ofthis second edition are identical with those used in the third edition of the OxfordAdvanced Learner，s Dctionary of Current English (Oxford University Press，1974),The 25 verb patterns are as follows: Collins Cobuild Grammar Patterns 1 : Verbs (2000) introduces 85 basic verbpatterns in the first four chapters. It includes simple patterns，simple patterns withprepositions and adverbs，complex patterns，complex patterns with prepositions andadverbs. In this second edition of Collins Cobuild Grammar Patterns 1 : Verbs(2000)，only the simplest and most superficial word-class labels were used. T
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Chapter 3 Data Collection and Processing.......... 16
3.1 Corpus-based Approach......... 16
3.2 Introduction to the Corpus MEE ......... 20
3.3 Software Used for Data Processing......... 22
3.4 Procedures for Data Processing .........25
Chapter 4 Data Analysis and Discussion......... 28
4.1 Distribution of Verb Patterns in MEE......... 28
4.2 Analysis of Simple Verb Patterns......... 30
4.3 Analysis of Complex Verb Patterns......... 33
4.4 Analysis of Verb Patterns with there as Subject.........35
4.5 Analysis of Verb Patterns with it as Subject......... 39
Chapter 5 Conclusion.........42
5.1 Findings......... 48
5.2 Pedagogical Implications......... 50
5.3 Limitations and Suggestions for Future Study......... 51
Chapter 4 Data Analysis and Discussion
4.1 Distribution of Verb Patterns in MEE
Frequency is one of the most important factors in the selection of words andphrases in language learning. According to the definition and categories of verbpatterns used in the study, the corpus was processed to extract and classify the verbpatterns fitting to the definition and classification. Verb patterns in the present studyare classified into four categories. With the aid of FoxPro programs，the frequencieswere retrieved and calculated. The proportions of the four categories of verb patternsare not balanced. The detailed percentage of each category of verb patterns is presentedin the following table. Table 4.1 shows the overall frequencies of verb patterns used in MEE. It gives aclear contrast that simple verb patterns are used more frequently than complex verbpatterns，accounting for 50.8% of all the verb patterns. The complex verb patternsoccur 1,818 times and take 43.1%. Verb patterns with it as subject occur 207 times, 3 times more than verb patterns with there as subject, acco ting for 4.9%. Verb patternswith there as subject occur only 51 times and accounts for only 1.2%. This can makeus have a general imderstaning of the verb pattern distribution in MEE. Then SPSS isemployed to see if there is statistically significant difference among the use of fourpatterns. SPSS provides a number of parametric statistical tests to analyze the data. Inthis study, we apply Chi-Square test. Chi-Square test is a commonly used method tocompare the frequencies actually observed in linguistic contexts. When the value ofsignificance is less than 0.05, it means statistically significant difference exists betweenthe four patterns.
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Conclusion
The present study is meant to explore the frequency distribution of verb patternsin MEE. This research has examined the frequency distribution of simple verb patterns,complex verb patterns，verb patterns with there as subject and verb pattOTis with it assubject. And it has also analyzed some frequently occurred verbs in MEE. The majorfindings can be concluded as follows: It is found that 3,000 s細pled sentences contain 4,217 verb patterns. In thefour types of verb patterns, simple verb pattern accounts for 50.8% of all verb patternsin MEE，far more frequently than complex verb patterns (43.1%). Verb patterns with itas subject account for 4.9% and verb patterns with there as subject account for 1.2%.Through Chi-Square test，we find that there are significant differences between the useof these four verb patterns.
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Reference (omitted)