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A Study on Semantic Relations of “and” Used in Chinese EFL Learners’ Narrative Writing



Author(s)

LI Cai-hong

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DOI:10.17265/2159-5836/2022.11.012

School of Foreign Languages, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, China

Studies on conjunctions used by Chinese English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners over the past ten years have focused mainly on the use of conjunctions in argumentative writing, and there is little empirical work on conjunction “and” in narrative writing. The purpose of this paper is to explore the characteristics of the semantic relations of “and” used in the narrative writing of Chinese EFL learners from the perspective of text coherence. Through analysis of narrative writing of 29 sophomores, this study investigates the characteristics of semantic relations expressed by the conjunction “and” and the differences in the use of semantic relations of “and” between high-score and low-score writing. The results show different frequencies of the use of semantic relations of “and”. ELF learners prefer to use the term “and” to build progressive relation and parallel relation more than any other relation. Both high-score and low-score writing use a sizable number of “and” to build progressive relation and parallel relation, but high-score writing obviously contains more guiding relations and fewer supplementary relations. These findings have some pedagogical implications for teaching transitions.

Cohesion Theory, conjunction “and”, ELF learners, semantic relation

Journal of Literature and Art Studies, November 2022, Vol. 12, No. 11, 1169-1174