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- Volume 51, Issue, 2016
Chinese as a Second Language. The journal of the Chinese Language Teachers Association, USA - Volume 51, Issue 1, 2016
Volume 51, Issue 1, 2016
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Acquisition of time and locative phrases in Mandarin Chinese
Author(s): Hongyi Jia and Feng-hsi Liupp.: 1–28 (28)More LessIn this study we explore the role played by input saliency in L2 acquisition of the time phrase and the locative phrase in Mandarin Chinese. In Chinese the time phrase that indicates when an event takes place and the locative phrase that indicates where an event takes place are similar in that neither can occur after the verb. L1 English L2 learners of Chinese have to learn to place both phrases pre-verbally. Our goal is to find out whether learners acquire the placement of the two types of phrases equally well. On the basis of input saliency measured in terms of form-function mapping and type frequency, we predicted that the time phrase will be easier to acquire than the locative phrase. We then conducted an experiment and put the hypothesis to test on learners at an early stage. The findings largely support our hypothesis: Simple time phrases are easier to acquire than simple locative phrases for beginning learners. In addition, the same group of learners had difficulty with both complex time phrases and complex locative phrases, suggesting that structural complexity also plays a role.
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CFL learners’ recognition and production of pragmatic routine formulae
Author(s): Jia Yangpp.: 29–61 (33)More LessA pragmatic routine formula is any expression with a stable form that is commonly repeated in the routinized social interactions of a given culture. Previous research has reported that such pragmatic routine formulae are often underused by foreign language learners, even when they have been studying the language for a long time. To explore the reasons for this underuse, this study investigated the development of 59 Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) learners’ recognition and production of pragmatic routine formulae in situations they might encounter in China. Results showed that length of stay in the target language country had a significant effect on recognition but not on production. CFL learners with longer periods of residence abroad were able to recognize more pragmatic routine formulae, but which specific formulae were recognized depended on the interactional settings in which learners had engaged. Further analysis revealed that learning challenges may arise in three kinds of situations: (1) those requiring a pragmatic formula in the target language but a different formula in the learner’s native language, (2) those requiring a routine formula in the target language but no remarks in the native language, and (3) those in which the learner overgeneralizes a more familiar form.
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美国留学生词语搭配的偏误分析及其对词语教学的启示
Author(s): 李守纪 Shouji Lipp.: 62–78 (17)More LessUsing both quantitative and qualitative approaches, this study investigates the collocational errors in compositions written for the HSK (The Chinese language proficiency test) by American learners of Chinese. The results show that the vast majority of collocational errors are “verb + noun” collocations, and most of these errors are caused by the use of incorrect verbs. The main factors that caused these errors are also analyzed. The analysis shows that the misuse of synonyms, as well as orthographically and phonologically similar words, is the leading cause of the errors. The negative transfer of the learners’ mother tongue is also found to be a relatively important factor. Lastly, the study suggests that learners should be led by the teacher to notice collocations in texts, and then learn to construct collocation patterns on the basis of the analysis of the semantic features of most frequent words that collocate with the head words. The grasp of collocation patterns and the ability to generalize to more abstract patterns are some useful strategies to improve the outcomes of the teaching of vocabulary.
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The rise of catchword “被 bei-XX”
Author(s): Yun Xiaopp.: 79–97 (19)More LessRecent studies on Chinese language use show that the rapid development of Internet communication in China has created a new linguistic variety, Chinese Internet language (CIL). Marked with innovations and catch words, CIL is officially branded as 平民化 pingminhua (‘grassroots,’ ‘ordinary’), 低门槛 dimenkan (‘low-standard,’ ‘vulgar’) (Language Situation in China 2012: 205). Nevertheless, the new usages in CIL have attracted tremendous attention; prominent among them is the usage of 被 bei- XX. In Modern Chinese grammar, bei is a preposition followed by an agent (bei + agent + verb) in passive sentences. However, since the news broke out that Prisoner Li Guofu died in a prison hospital and was announced as “a suicide” by the administration in 2008, the usage of 被自杀 bei zisha (to be presumably murdered) started to appear in the Internet and was soon analogized; consequently, numerous new usages of bei-XX swept through the media like wildfire. Taking the grammaticalization approach (Hopper and Traugott 2003), this study intends to explore the semantic changes, linguistic features, and grammatical role of bei in the bei-XX construction. It examines the historical development of bei in the grammaticalization process and evaluates previous and recent analyses associated with it. Drawing on data from China’s national annual reports entitled 《中国语言生活状况报告》 Language Situation in China (2005 to 2013) and online CIL publications, the study proposes an alternative analysis of bei in the bei-XX construction and predicts that this new bei will become an established prefix in the Chinese language and, further, create large word families with bei-XX as the blueprint.
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