CHAPTER ONEINTRODUCTION
1.1Background of the Present Study
With the thriving of cognitive linguistic research in the past several decades,construction grammar has become a fast-developing research field (Croft, 2004;Goldberg, 1995，2006). Studies (Bencini & Goldberg, 2000; Goldberg，2003) show thatconstructions play an indispensible role in children's LI acquisition. This is also foundto be true in L2 learners' language learning process (Dong & Liang, 2004). The moreskilled an L2 learner is，his L2 learning will be more dependent on the acquisition of theconstruction units (ibid.).As the component of one of the basic English sentence structures, di-transitiveconstructions, the most common and early-leamt constructions, have drawn theattention of many researchers. Many studies (Aoim & Li，1989; Dryer, 1986; Goldberg，1995; Green, 1974; Gropen et al., 1989; He, 2003; Larson，1988，1990; Pinker，1989;Wang, 2008，2011; Xu，2001; Zhang，1999) have been carried out on di-transitiveconstructions, both English and Chinese, and the comparison and distinction betweenthe two as well.Another aspect of research fhdts lies in the English learner's dictionary. Manyresearch findings in the field of cognitive linguistics and SLA have found their ways inthe texts of ELDs in order to facilitate L2 learners' language learning process. As aneffective tool of learning English as a foreign language, English learner's dictionariesshould put much emphasis on the presentation of di-transitive constructions to fulfillEFL learners' decoding and encoding needs. However, the effects of such presentationsare not so pleasing. Particularly, the encoding needs of EFL learners are not thatsatisfactorily met. A major factor leading to this dissatisfaction is probably due tolexicographers' ignorance of the combination of linguistic findings anddictionary-compiling practice. The present study in this thesis tries to improve tiiedeficiencies of the presentation of di-transitive constructions in English learner'sdictionaries by applying latest linguist research findings to the dictionary-compilingpractice,
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1.2Necessity of the Study
The necessity of the present study is mainly triggered by the inability of ELDs tofulfill Chinese EFL learners' reference needs when they feel uncertain to usedi-transitive constructions, and the low efficiencies of ELDs in facilitating Chinese EFLlearners' English learning，di-transitive constructions in particular.A large number of corpus-based research (Hu，2007; Xiao，2012; Zhao，2010)have been done on Chinese EFL learners' acquisition of English di-transitiveconstructions. Zhao's (2010) and Xiao's (2012) findings reveal that Chinese EFLlearners tend to overuse those di-transitive verbs (and preposition dative constructions)that express the meanings of "explicit giving" and "implicit giving，,，while they seldomcorrectly use di-transitive constructions that express the meanings of "potential giving，，or other marginal di-transitive verbs. In some writings of Chinese EFL learners，thephenomena of overgeneralization of certain di-transitive consfructions can also betraced. Although these errors are clearly explained in the field of SLA，lexicographersdo not pay enough attention to these problems to try to make learner's dictionaries moreuseful and effective.The fact is，however, that the presentations of di-transitive constructions incurrent English learner's dictionaries are inadequate and unsystematic.
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CHAPTER TWOLITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Defining Key Terms and Concepts
The learner's dictionary, also known as pedagogical dictionary, is "speciallydesigned for the practical didactic needs of teachers and learners of a language, [and is]aimed primarily at non-native learners of a language，，(Hartmaim & James, 2000，p. 82;107). English learner's dictionary, abbreviated as ELD，is a kind of dictionary thatfacilitates EFL learners' English learning. In this thesis, the autiior does not distinguishfurther between monolingual learner's dictionaries and bilingual ones，because thepresent study intends to reveal the deficiencies of both monolingual and bilinguallearner's dictionaries and to find feasible principles to guide the compilation of ELDsfor Chinese EFL learners. That is to say, the term “ELD” used in this thesis refers toeither English monolingual learner's dictionary or English-Chinese bilingual learner'sdictionary, or even English-Chinese bilingualized learner's dictionary.The function of encoding, one of the main functions of learner's dictionaries,should be specially emphasized here in this thesis. The encoding function of learner'sdictionaries, or an encoding dictionary (also called an active dictionary)，is "designed tohelp with encoding tasks, such as the production of a text，，(Hartmann & James，2002，p.3). It is one of the primary features of ELDs to provide abundant, typical，and practicalillustrative examples and verb-patterns to present grammatical and encodinginformation of words (Tian & Chen, 2009; Xu et al.，2012). The present study will bemainly focusing on this kind of function of ELDs.
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2.2 Previous Studies
In this section，the author reviews the research relevant to the present study toform an overall picture of what has been done and what remains to be done in thisresearch field. Relevant previous studies mainly cover the theoretical and practicalaspects of the presentation of di-transitive constructions in ELDs，and Chinese EFLlearners' acquisition of English di-transitive constructions. As a kind of grammatical information of verb entries, di-transitive constructionscan be presented in ELDs in ways such as verb-patterns, illustrative examples, usageboxes，appendix, study pages，and parenthesis glosses (Cao，2001，pp. 101-103).Previous studies discussing how to present or improve the presentation of the aboveinformation categories are numerous, whereas those dealing solely with the presentationof di-transitive constructions in ELDs are rare. Two relevant studies on the presentationof di-transitive constructions in ELDs deserve to be reviewed in this part.
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CHAPTER THREE THEORETICAL CONSIDERATIONS..........21
3.1 Conceptual Difference Between English and Chinese Di-TransitiveConstructions..........21
3.2 Transformation Between English Double Object Constructions..........22
3.3Classifications of English Di-Transitive Verbs..........24
3.4Reconsidering Di-Transitive Verbs ..........28
3.5Summary..........29
CHAPTER FOUR METHODOLOGY..........31
4.1Research Questions..........31
4.2Subjects..........32
4.3Instruments..........32
4.4Data Collection..........35
4.5Data Analysis..........36
4.5.1Dictionary Text Analysis..........36
4.5.2Test Analysis..........36
4.5.3Questionnaire Analysis..........37
CHAPTER FIVE RESULTS AND DISCUSSION..........38
5.1Results from the Test Survey..........38
5.2Results from the Dictionary Survey..........44
5.3Results from the Questionnaire Survey..........47
CHAPTER FIVERESULTS AND DISCUSSION
5.1 Results from the Test Survey
Data collected from the test survey are processed in three groups: answers on thewhole，answers without the help of the dictionary，and answers with the help of thedictionary. The first and the second groups of data show the verbs students havedifficulty in learning, while the second and the third groups reflect the mal-treatmentsexisting ELDs have in presenting di-transitive constructions. The following table showsthe correct rates of each correct sentence by tiie above mentioned three groups. The three groups of verbs are pided on the basis of whether a verb can be usedin double object constructions or in dative constructions. Verbs in Group I can only beused in double object constructions, and verbs in Group 11 can only be used in dativeconstructions, while verbs in Group III can be used in either construction. This tablealone，however，cannot fully reveal the subjects' real knowledge of these di-transitiveverbs. Apart from the correct rates of correct answers shown in the above Table 5.1, theIauthor also inspects the incorrect answers the subjects chose，so as to gain the wholepicture of their command of these di-transitive verbs. The following Table 5.2 showsthe incorrect rates of the subjects' choosing of some confusing incorrect di-transitiveconstructions.
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CONCLUSION
The final chapter of this thesis is a general conclusion of the present study，statingthe major findings, implications and limitations of this study. In the end, the authorgives some suggestions for future researchers to carry out studies of the same or similarkind. As the findings of previous studies concerning Chinese EFL learners'acquisition of di-transitive constructions pointed out, mother tongue interference is themajor hindrance for the correct use of di-transitive constructions (Xu，2007; Wan，2012).Hence prepositions in dative constructions (Hu，2007) and di-transitive verbs whichIhave different passing directions between Chinese and English are the most mistakenly used by Chinese EFL learners (Shi，2004). The present study finds out more or less thesame results. In addition，the author finds that students are confused about whether averb can be used in di-transitive constructions，which poses as a big problem of learningdifficulty.
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Reference (omitted)