A Corpus-Based Research on Ditransitive Constructions with Tell and Say

Learners’ errors give insights to teachers, textbook writers, curriculum designers and many applied linguists about the learning difficulty in the acquisition of a target language. Studying systematically these errors is therefore considered indispensable in learning teaching process. Basing on the corpus-based model, this paper investigates the constructions of two ditransitive verbs: TELL and SAY which cause much trouble to second language learners. After analysing the exam copies of 200 second-year students in the English department of Cheikh Anta DIOP University of Dakar, the study comes up with two general observations. First, the analysis of the overall data shows that learners of the corpus largely prefer using TELL (62, 5%) to SAY (14, 5%). The second observation is, these students use more correctly the ditransitive form involving TELL than SAY. For instance, 79, 2% of them employ TELL in the double object construction corresponding to the basic structure TELL + someone + something, while only 5,1% correctly use the dative construction of SAY which is SAY + something + to + someone. These findings conform to several studies which claim that the dative form is the most complicated construction, and is consequently the rarely used one. All of this indicates, that even if these students are English majors, they are still in their basic level in the acquisition of ditransitive constructions. This suggests that special strategies and mechanisms are required in teaching and learning ditransitive verbs. More efforts are also needed in teaching and learning constructions in grammar (e.g. alternating pairs like Passive /Active, Will /Be going to, Verb-particle constructions etc.). This will help students become more accurate in using English, the target language.