非英语专业学生因果连接词使用情况调查──一项基于看图作文和WECCL语料库的研究

The use of casual connectives in non-English majors' writings: A study based on picture compositions and the WECCL corpus

本研究通过考察中国学生英语口笔语语料库中的笔语子库(WECCL)和学生看图作文语料了解非英语专业学生作文中因果连接词的使用情况。发现看图作文语料中因果连接词的使用和WECCL语料库样本中的整体趋势一致。某些连接词使用过度，缺乏多样性。不同水平的学生中，高分组学生比低分组学生使用因果连接词有节制，丰富度较高。研究再次证实了中国学生书面语中的口语化倾向，同时也注意到存在连接词误用、借助词汇手段表示因果关系等现象。

On the basis of the WECCL corpus and picture compositions, this paper investigates the use of causal connectives by non-English majors and finds that the general tendency of the use of causal connectives between the WECCL corpus and picture compositions is consistent. Certain types of connectives are overused and lack variety. Compared with low-score students, high-score students use less high-frequency connectives, but of more variety. Furthermore, the paper confirms the oral style found in students' written discourse, and also such phenomena as the misuse of connectives and the use of lexical cohesion to express the causal relation are noted.