Overuse and Misuse of “But”: A Corpus Analysis ComparingEnglish Writers and Native Writers
Abstract
in the learner corpus (BAWC-Chinese author) and the native speaker corpus (BAWC-English author). The results show that, compared to
native speakers, Chinese learners overuse the conjunction “but”. Native speakers use “but” more flexibly, expressing contrasts, concessions,
and multiple transitions, while learners often misuse “but” to express contrasts, leading to semantic contradictions. This indicates that Chinese
learners have a limited understanding of the pragmatic features of conjunctions.
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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.70711/wef.v2i7.5789
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