The phrasal verb is a unique type of verb phrase that consists of a main verb, usually of only one or two syllables, followed by a particle, that works as a single semantic unit. Such meaning, however, is characteristically expressed in idomatic terms, which poses a formidable problem for students of English as a second language. To be understood, this meaning must be figuratively interpreted as well as literally translated.

PhD (English) / Department of English / Learning English as a second language by the South African learners studying English First Additional language (EFAL) presents many challenges, such as poor competence in the use of tenses, because of the differences between the learners’ first and second languages. In Grade 11, which is the closest point with regard to the exit point to institutions of higher learning or to the workplace, learners still display certain discrepancies in the mastery of the English tenses. These discrepancies occur despite the fact that in many South African schools, English is used as a medium of instruction and is learnt as a First Additional Language. The study used pragmatist research paradigm to collect data from the sampled respondents. The study answered four questions based on the types of errors committed in the use of tenses, the description and evaluation of errors, establishment of the causes of errors; and remedial measures for the errors committed by the Grade 11 EFAL learners in the use of tenses. Thus, Error Analysis Approaches were applied to find learners’ errors committed in written tasks. The types of errors identified include the inter-lingual transfer, overgeneralisation, false concept hypothesised, inadequate learning, fossilisation and ignorance of rule restrictions. Learners’ errors occurred in the domains of the simple present, the simple past, the present perfect and the past perfect tenses, regular and irregular verb inflectional morphemes, third person singular and plural subjects; and subject-verb agreement. In essence, this study reveals that some learners still face challenges in the use of tenses. Thus, remedial measures were suggested for the errors committed. / NRF

by Choi Lai Kun, Annie. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1996. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves [122]-125). / Acknowledgements / Chapter Chapter 1 --- Second Language Acquisition Research: Background and the Present Study / Chapter 1.1 --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 1.2 --- Rationale for the Present Study --- p.4 / Chapter 1.2.1 --- Literature Background --- p.4 / Chapter 1.2.2 --- Finiteness in Verb Complementation as the Target for Research --- p.9 / Chapter 1.2.3 --- Differences between L1 (Cantonese) and L2 (English) --- p.12 / Chapter 1.2.4 --- Minimal Effect of Formal Instruction and Negative Evidence --- p.18 / Chapter 1.2.5 --- Research Issues --- p.19 / Chapter Chapter 2 --- Grammatical Analysis and Theoretical Issues / Chapter 2.1 --- Introduction --- p.21 / Chapter 2.2 --- Definition of Finiteness --- p.21 / Chapter 2.2.1 --- Properties of Finiteness --- p.21 / Chapter 2.2.2 --- Tense of the That-Clause and the Infinitival Clause --- p.23 / Chapter 2.2.3 --- The Infinitival Particle TO --- p.24 / Chapter 2.2.4 --- Modality of the That-Clause and the Infinitival Clause --- p.25 / Chapter 2.3 --- Classification of Clausal Complement Taking Verbs --- p.27 / Chapter 2.3.1 --- A Syntactic Classification --- p.28 / Chapter 2.3.2 --- A Semantic Classification --- p.32 / Chapter 2.4 --- Theoretical Issues on Syntactic-Semantic Mappings --- p.36 / Chapter 2.4.1 --- Canonical Structural Realization (Grimshaw 1981) --- p.37 / Chapter 2.4.2 --- Correspondence between Syntactic Structure and Conceptual Structure (Jackendoff 1991) --- p.37 / Chapter 2.4.3 --- Bootstrapping Proposals on the Acquisition of Verb Meaning --- p.43 / Chapter 2.4.4 --- Syntactic-Semantic Mappings of Clausal Complements --- p.47 / Chapter 2.5 --- Review of SLA Literature --- p.48 / Chapter 2.5.1 --- L1 Transfer in L2 Verb Lexis --- p.48 / Chapter 2.5.2 --- Semantics-Syntax Correspondence in SLA (Juffs 1994) --- p.51 / Chapter 2.5.3 --- Language Transfer (Martohardjono & Flynn 1993) --- p.56 / Chapter 2.5.4 --- Argument Structure in SLA (White 1991) --- p.59 / Chapter 2.6 --- Hypotheses to the Research Issues --- p.62 / Chapter Chapter 3 --- The Experiments / Chapter 3.1 --- Experiment I --- p.69 / Chapter 3.1.1 --- Introduction --- p.69 / Chapter 3.1.2 --- Subjects --- p.71 / Chapter 3.1.3 --- Procedure --- p.71 / Chapter 3.1.4 --- Logic and Hypotheses of the Test --- p.72 / Chapter 3.1.5 --- Results of the Experiment --- p.82 / Chapter 3.1.6 --- Analysis of the Results --- p.87 / Chapter 3.2 --- The Follow-up Test --- p.100 / Chapter 3.2.1 --- The Test --- p.100 / Chapter 3.2.2 --- Subjects --- p.105 / Chapter 3.2.3 --- Procedure --- p.106 / Chapter 3.2.4 --- Analysis of the Results --- p.106 / Chapter Chapter 4 --- Conclusion / Chapter 4.1 --- Conclusion --- p.112 / Chapter 4.2 --- Future Research --- p.121 / References / Appendix I / Appendix II

Mode of access: World Wide Web. / Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 278-284). / Electronic reproduction. / Also available by subscription via World Wide Web / xviii, 284 leaves, bound ill. 29 cm