Abstract：This paper focuses on collocational framework “the * of”with corpus-driven method under the perspective of corpus linguistics, comparing the similarities and differences of the construction of units of meaning in Chinese and native university students' argumentative writing. The research results show that: collocational framework can construct the units of meaning through co-selection of collocation, colligational categories, semantic categories and functional categories; there are some differences between Chinese and English university students' writing, mainly on semantic categories; there are obvious boundaries at the two sides of units of meaning by high frequent reoccurrence, hence the units of meaning form independent phrases.

Keyword：collocational framework;units of meaning;Chinese and English university students;English argumentative writing;