1 Introduction

This section introduces the phenomenon of multi-word co-occurrence expressions in English acquisition by learners, pointing out that valence grammar, as a lexical grammar, can reflect the logical relationships between lexical items in sentences and serves as an important standard for measuring the accuracy of learners' language use. The cross-category word "lack," frequently used yet often misused by learners, can serve as a typical case for studying the usage characteristics of learners' cross-category words. This paper will conduct a study from the perspective of valence.

2 Literature Review

First, the phenomenon of cross-category words is discussed, noting that such words are common across languages, with definitions provided from various perspectives, including morphosyntactic categories, phonetic-semantic levels, and usage levels. Next, valence patterns are introduced, emphasizing their importance in language; valence grammar can explain the number of nouns governed by verbs, and when combined with pattern grammar, its explanatory power is enhanced. Finally, it is pointed out that current valence research is increasingly application- and evidence-oriented. Studying learners' vocabulary knowledge from a valence perspective, by analyzing differences and misuses in valence patterns between learners and native speakers, provides an entry point for vocabulary teaching, making it essential to investigate learners' use of valence patterns for cross-category words.

3 Research Design

This section elaborates on the research design, including research questions, corpus selection, and research procedures. The study aims to explore differences in the use of valence patterns of "lack" between native speakers and Chinese learners, as well as the misuse and causes among Chinese learners. The corpus is sourced from TECCL and the LOB corpus. Through steps such as target word retrieval, concordance extraction, data statistics, and statistical testing, the valence pattern characteristics of "lack" are compared and analyzed, and the causes of misuse are discussed in conjunction with second language acquisition theories.

4 Research Findings

This chapter applies the valence pattern description method to conduct an in-depth analysis of the usage of the word "lack" in different corpora. In the corpus used by native speakers, "lack" predominantly appears as a noun, accounting for 55.30%, followed by its verb form at 25.76%, with a preference for one-valency structures, such as the noun "lack" followed by a noun phrase introduced by "of." In terms of actants, when native speakers use "lack," the subject actants are primarily concrete nouns and pronouns, while the object actants are mainly abstract nouns.

When middle school students use "lack," their tendencies for noun and verb usage differ from native speakers, with an increase in the proportion of verb usage. In terms of valence patterns, middle school students also prefer the one-valency structure for the noun form, but misuses occur with the verb form, such as using "lack" as an adjective, redundant prepositions, and unnecessary participle functions. Regarding actants, middle school students are similar to native speakers, but the types of actants used are more limited.

When university students use "lack," they tend to use it more frequently as a verb, accounting for 52.86%. In terms of valence patterns, university students primarily use the noun "lack" in one-valency structures, while the verb "lack" often appears in two-valency structures. University students also exhibit misuses, such as treating "lack" as an adjective, redundant prepositions, and unnecessary participle functions. Regarding actants, university students are similar to native speakers, but the types of actants used are more diverse than those of middle school students.

Through comparative analysis of data from different corpora, it is found that learners and native speakers show no significant difference in the types of valence patterns when using verbs and nouns, but learners employ a greater variety of valence patterns. Learners also misuse "lack" as an adjective, among other errors. In statistical tests, university students show significant differences from native speakers in the use of one-valency structures for the noun form, while no significant difference is observed in the transitive usage of the verb form.

5 Discussion

This chapter compares and analyzes the differences in the usage characteristics of the cross-category word "lack" between native speakers and learners from three dimensions: part-of-speech usage, valence patterns and usage, and actants. In terms of part-of-speech usage, both native speakers and learners use "lack" as a verb and a noun, but learners misuse it as an adjective, and different groups deviate from native speakers in their part-of-speech preferences. Regarding valence patterns and usage, the verb "lack" mostly appears in two-valency structures. Although learners can master common usages, differences exist compared to native speakers, such as middle school students overusing intransitive constructions. Actants follow the pattern "abstract nouns > concrete nouns > pronouns," and learners' handling of actants becomes closer to that of native speakers as learning time increases. Learners' misuse of valence patterns for "lack" is mainly concentrated in the verb form, including misuse as an adjective, redundant prepositions, and unnecessary participle functions. The causes of misuse involve factors such as intra-lingual analogy, cognitive load, and insufficient mastery of part-of-speech knowledge, which collectively lead to deviations in learners' use of "lack."

6 Conclusion

This section summarizes the valence pattern characteristics of Chinese English learners in using the cross-category word "lack," pointing out differences between learners and native speakers in terms of part-of-speech usage, valence patterns, and actants. It analyzes the causes of misuse, proposes teaching suggestions, and looks forward to future research directions.