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Abstract Abstract: Based on Talmy’s theoretical framework of motion event and Slobin’s “thinking for speaking” hypothesis, this paper discussed the difference of manner of motion expression in self-motion event between Chinese learners of English and Chinese and English speakers. It also investigates that how Chinese thinking pattern influence Chinese learners of English on the aspect of manner of motion expression. This paper examines 240 participants, and the results show there is a great significance between Chinese and English speakers on the sentence pattern of manner of motion and the usage of fine-grained manner verbs in self-motion event. Besides, the difference between various levels of Chinese learners of English is not so significant as native speakers, but they have their own characteristics. Low level learners of English prefer to use loose sentences and descriptive clause as well as coarse-grained manner of verbs and fine-grained adverbs to express specific manner of motion, while high level learners would prefer to use tight and loose sentences, though they can use fine-grained manner verbs. They would misuse the word class of fine-grained manner of motion verbs or add descriptive clause which are influenced by Chinese thinking pattern. So, their difference from English speakers is more significant than that from Chinese speakers, which demonstrates mother language has negative influence on the acquisition of manner of motion expressions for Chinese learners of English, but such influence would decrease as the improvement of their English level.
Key words: self-motion event; manner of motion; Chinese learners of English
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