英语关系从句是第二语言习得研究的热点，而对于中国学习者来说是一个难点。国内外学者专门就关系从句错误所作的研究还不多见，大多数研究都集中在研究关系从句习得，其中涉及到了错误情况。研究的主要是关系代词引导的关系从句，而忽略了关系副词引导的关系从句。此外在分析关系从句错误的原因时，只是对收集到的错误做主观判断和推论，在研究方法上大多数研究都是试验研究。鉴于前人研究关系从句错误方面及研究方法存在的局限性，本文以错误分析理论为基础，采用语料库的研究方法，所有数据来自于“中国英语学习者语料库”（CLEC）。本研究在对中国英语学习者写作中关系从句使用错误情况进行识别，归类和分析后，旨在探讨以下问题：中国英语学习者在书面语中定语从句错误类型分布的特点及原因：（1）中国英语学习者书面语中使用定语从句所犯错误的频率怎样？（2）所犯错误类型和学习者语言水平是什么关系？（3）不同语言水平的学习者所犯的常见错误类型有哪些？（4）造成错误的原因可能是什么？本文的研究对象来自于中国英语学习者语料库中标注为ST2和ST3的数据，分别代表初级（高中生），中级（通过大学英语四级学生）两种英语水平。在对数据进行统计分析后，有如下发现：

Research on relative clauses is a very hot field in second language acquisition (SLA) and learning to use relative clauses proves to be a hard nut as a foreign language learners’ grammatical development. A few studies touched upon relative clausal errors with shallow and abroad analysis in the research of the acquisition of relative clauses. Besides, the explanation of causes is deduced subjectively by their own observation and intuition. In terms of research approach, the empirical research is the main methodology. Very little research is exclusively concerned about relative clausal errors based on the corpus approach. As far as the existing limitations are concerned, the present study is to investigate relative clausal errors, with computer-aided error analysis. After identification and analysis of the data obtaining from Chinese Learner English Corpus (CLEC), the researcher attempts to identify and categorize the error types of relative clauses and to explore the causes for the occurrences of the errors in their written performance with an attempt to provide the implications for language teaching and learning.(1) What frequencies are errors types in written production of relative clauses? (2) What’s the relationship between error types and proficiency levels?(3) What are the most common types of errors made?(4) What are the possible causes of errors?After the analysis of the data from CLEC tagged by St2 andSt3, representing preliminary and intermediate proficiency levels respectively, the following is a summary of the major findings of the study: