本研究旨在探討英文複數的用法, 量詞的使用方面, 第一語言(國語)及其他語言對英語的干擾因數. 
這項研究針對約110位中文使用者的北台北某科技大學學生, 為實驗對象期間約五個學月之學生英文寫作樣本. 再者給予學生問卷以取得學生的語言背景資料. (學生學習英文的年限, 學習的場所, 是否在國外待過? 懂得幾種語言等等). 同時使用GEPT初級試題測試學生的聽說讀寫四種能力. 
 上述學生之英文寫作樣本子語料庫分析之, 分析軟體為Wordsmith, Tools, 6.0. 從學生的寫作句型中發現有關複數和量詞的各種錯誤. 
經過Wordsmith, Tools 6.0. 可得知飾句型中名詞的用法其中複數方面錯誤多半出於國語 (Mandarin) 和英語的基本語法的差異. 
 總之, 此研究顯示儘管部分研究對象過分使用或省略英文複數形式, 然而, 大部分參與本實驗之學生尚能正確的使用英文複數名詞來表達.

This study is aimed at investigating the difficulties relating to English plural usages whether affected by L1 transfer (inter-lingual) or intra-lingual interference, or perhaps, other factors.  Approximately, 110 participants, attending low-intermediate classes at a technical university in northern Taiwan, participated in this study. Data was collected in the form of writing samples over a five month period, that is, half an academic year. A standardised GEPT style test was developed and used to assess the participants’ English proficiency. A questionnaire was also used to assess the participant’s linguistic backgrounds.
The writing samples were collected together into a corpus. The corpus was entered into Wordsmith Tools 6.0., software for analysis. Patterns in EFL learners’ noun plural formation usages with number words and quantifiers were searched for and examined. 
The results obtained from the search were examined according to the use and form of the noun-phrase in each of the sample sentences. The errors found were compared to Mandarin as that is the mother tongue of the respondents. The errors were also examined to note whether they were due to syntactic or morphological factors.
The results obtained in this study suggest that although many EFL learners omit or overuse plural forms, many others form their plurals correctly.

Contents


Abstract  															ⅰ 
Contents																ⅲ
Appendices														    ⅳ
List of Tables	ⅵ 
List of Figures														ⅶ

Chapter 1 Introduction												 1
1.1	Introduction														 1
1.2	Background														 1
1.3	Research aims													 2
1.4	Summary 														 3
	
Chapter 2 Literature Review												 5
2.1 Introduction														 5
2.2 Corpus analysis 													 5
2.2.1 What is corpus? 												 5
2.2.2 Word frequency list 											 6
2.2.3 Concordance techniques 										 7
2.2.3.1 Concordance function											 7
2.2.3.2 Corpus collocation											 8
2.3 Morphology														 8
2.3.1 Definition of Morphology											 9
2.3.2 Overgeneralization										     	11
2.3.2.1 Definition of overgeneralization    					         	11
2.3.2.2 Overuse “-s/-es” forms for plural marking       					12
2.3.3 Omission					                                  	13
2.4 Correct usage of plural form                        					15

Chapter 3 Methodology 	                  							16
3.1 Procedure                                 						16
3.1.1 Participants                            						16
3.1.2 Data collection and analysis                  					16
3.2 Instruments                              							17
3.2.1 Questionnaire  							                    17
3.2.2 Z-value and Standard Deviation                                 		17
3.2.3 Participant’s language learning background                        	18
3.2.4 Test reliability                                               	22
3.3 Corpus data                                                  		24
3.4 Morphological analysis                                          		26
Chapter 4 Finding                                               		27
4.1 Word frequency list, concord and number with numbers and nouns       		27
4.1.1 Numbers and quantifiers word frequency                        		27
4.1.2 Concordance                                               	29
4.1.2.1 Collocation with numbers and quantifiers                       		29
4.1.3 Noun collocations with numbers and quantifiers                   		32 
4.1.4 Uncountable noun                                           	34
4.2 Morphological analysis                                        		35
4.2.1 Overgeneralization of plural usages with countable nouns          		35
4.2.1 Overuse plural forms for uncountable nouns    						36
4.2.3 Omit the plural form                        						37
4.2.3.1 Omission of plural form with countable nouns           				37
4.2.3.2 Omission of plural form with uncountable nouns          			42

Chapter 5 Discussion and Conclusion                       				45
5.1 Introduction                                    					45
5.2 Corpus analysis						45
5.2.1 Corpus wordlist						45
5.2.2 Word frequency by using Wordsmith Tools, 6.0.						45
5.2.3 Concordance with nouns						46
5.2.4 Collocation with nouns                     						46
5.3 Concordance analysis                  								47
5.3.1 No collocate with nouns									47
5.4 Error analysis with morphology         								48
5.4.1 Correct usages of plural forms									49
5.4.2 Overuse of plural forms										49
5.4.3 Omission of plural forms										50
5.5 Conclusion and suggestion										50

Bibliography                       									52
 















APPENDICES                                                      Page
    Appendix 1 GEPT style test                           				58
    Appendix 2 Questionnaire					65
    Appendix 3 Collocation error examples.					66







































List of Tables

Table 															  Page
Table 2.1 the different plural forms between English and Chinese       			15
Table 3.1 Participants’ mother tongue                             			19
Table 3.2 The year of students’ language English learning            			19
Table 3.3 Students language learning backgrounds                   			20
Table 3.4 Experience abroad                                     			21
Table 3.5 Other languages’ understanding rates                    			21
Table 3.6 Students’ test scores and average of GEPT test             			23
Table 3.7 An example of Participants’ z-value scores on
 the GEPT style test                                    			23

Table 4.1 Word frequency list of number words and 
quantifiers according to the corpus software                  		28
Table 4.2 Word frequency list of quantifiers from corpus software       			28 
Table 4.3 Collocation nouns number list with numbers and quantifiers   			29
Table 4.4 Showing the total noun’s number list with 
numbers and quantifiers                                 		31
Table 4.5 Noun totals according to total lists                          		31
Table 4.6 Total number of noun usages according to their type           		31
Table 4.7 Numbers and rate of collocate and no collocate with nouns     		31
Table 4.8 Numbers of nouns plural form change errors                 		32
Table 4.9 Rates of noun plural form-change errors                     		32
Table 4.10 Countable nouns with number / quantifier collocation         		33
Table 4.11 Numbers and rates of count nouns’ usages                  		33
Table 4.12 Rate and numbers of uncountable noun errors               		34
Table 5.1 Total number and rate of nouns error usages                 		48














List of Figures

Figure                                                            page
Figure 2.1 Word frequency list (Wordsmith Tools, 6.0)                   	                    	6
Figure 2.2 The example of Concordance lines for way from LCIE                 	                             8
Figure 2.3 “Two mouses”                                              	13
Figure 3.1 Setting of main sort in concordance software                     	                   25
Figure 4.1 Word frequency list according to Wordsmith Tools, 6.0.             	                             27
Figure 4.2 screen shot of word lists collocated with many (from data)          	                             30
Figure 4.3 example of overuse “-s” form corpus data.                                  	          35
Figure 4.4 “some pizzas”                                              	36
Figure 4.5 “a lot of foods”                                             	37
Figure 4.6 “two old man” in morphological analysis from corpus data         	                             39
Figure 4.7 “Two old man” in Chinese translation by morphological analysis                           	39
Figure 4.8 “four girl” which written by EFL learners                   		                   41
Figure 4.9 “Si ge nu hai” in morphology                             		41

Figure 4.10 “some dessert” by morphology                          		43

Figure 4.11 “youxie dianxin” by morphology                        		43
Figure 5.1   people with total position                                    	47

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