A Study On The Acquisition Of Chinese "在" Circumposition By Native English Speakers

It is a consensus that the typology of language often influences second language acquisition.As a prepositional language,English generally uses the form of "preposition + noun" to express spatial relations.However,as an adjunctive language,Chinese often uses the form of circumposition "preposition + noun + location word" to express spatial relations,especially the importance of location word need not be stated.This type difference between Chinese and English has a great impact on the acquisition of Chinese "zai" circumposition by Native English speakers.For example,the error rate of circumposition is high,the error types are widely distributed,and the causes of errors are complex,which makes the acquisition of Chinese circumposition a major difficulty for Native English speakers to learn Chinese grammar.Chinese academic circles(academic second language acquisition)has historically been much focused on the ontology of Chinese frame prepositions and acquisition research,its research results,but in the current domestic field of second language acquisition research on the frame prepositions "zai" type,see more at analyzing a frame prepositions errors,lack of certain types of learners acquisition frame prepositions of overall grasp of interlanguage situation and research.Therefore,we cannot accurately understand the acquisition rules and characteristics of Chinese circumposition by second language learners with English background,let alone provide strongly targeted strategies for the acquisition of Chinese circumposition.This thesis selects the four categories of "‘zai’X 上" "‘zai’X 下" "‘zai’X 里" "‘zai’X 中",which are most frequently used in the category of "circumposition" in Chinese.Based on the rich Chinese interlanguage corpus,this paper comprehensively and systematically investigates the acquisition characteristics and rules of Chinese circumposition by second language learners with English background from the semantic and syntactic levels.On this basis,from the different semantic types of "zai" circumposition,this paper describes the types and characteristics of learners’ errors in depth and detail,and tries to give some explanations from the aspects of Chinese-English language type characteristics and learners’ concept transfer.The thesis is divided into six chapters.The main viewpoints of this thesis are as follows:1.Semantic expression of "zai" circumposition by Native English speakers: scope meaning and square meaning are the most frequently used,while state meaning is the least frequently used.From the perspective of error rate,the error rate is higher for time,situation and aspect,while the error rate is lowest for process.In general,the acquisition of basic meaning(i.e.square meaning)and abstract spatial meaning(i.e.scope meaning)is relatively good in the acquisition of circumposition by Native English speakers,while the acquisition of other extended meanings is not ideal.There are differences in the acquisition of different semantic types when native English speakers acquire certain circumposition.Through the observation and analysis of corpus,the acquisition situation of the same semantic type in different circumposition may be completely opposite.For example,"‘zai’X 上" and "‘zai’X下" are the best and"‘zai’X 里"‘zai’X 中"are the worst.2.The advantage of English native speakers to acquire frame prepositions word order: frame prepositions are placed between subject and predicate as adverbials in sentences,and are slightly lower at the beginning of sentences than in the middle of sentences.There are few sentences with "zai" circumposition placed after verbs,and most of them appear in the expression of square meaning.From the perspective of error rate,the highest error rate is also between subject-predicate sentence,the other two sentence patterns have similar error rate,slightly lower than between subject-predicate sentence.The tendency of English native speakers to use "zai" circumposition sentences is basically the same as that of Chinese native speakers,and the choice tendency of sentence patterns in different semantics shows the personality characteristics of English native speakers.The proportion of the same sentence structure in different semantic expressions varies greatly.For example,the first adverbial sentence "在 XL" is used in "‘zai’X 上" with the lowest frequency and the highest error rate,while the learning situation is completely opposite for "‘zai’X 里" and "‘zai’X 中" with the highest frequency and the lowest error rate.By analyzing the characteristics and rules of "zai" circumposition of Native English speakers,this paper explores the factors that influence the sentence pattern selection tendency of Native English speakers and the root causes of word order errors.3.The number of words is much greater than the number of predicates,and the accuracy of the predicate is higher than that of the words.The top three most frequently used nouns are abstract nouns,proper nouns and common nouns,while the bottom three are verbs,time nouns and locative nouns.From the point of view of correct and false,the correct rate of adjectives,locative nouns and verbs is the highest,while the error rate of time nouns,abstract nouns and common nouns is the highest.In general,English native speakers learn "zai" circumposition,with abstract nouns and ordinary nouns acting as intermediate components.X occupies a high proportion and the error rate is high,which is the focus and difficulty of learning.The intermediate component X has a great influence on the acquisition of circumposition,so as to improve the ability of native English speakers to correctly use X to enter circumposition,starting from the comprehensiveness of the meaning of X,the restrictions on entering sentences,and the relationship with sentence patterns and semantics.In addition,we make a statistical table of the semantic types and frequency of the middle component X of the circumposition "in" by Native English speakers.4.The errors of "zai" circumposition acquired by Native English speakers mainly appear in postpositions.The errors of "zai" circumposition by Native English speakers mainly include missing,redundant and misuse.The frequency of errors from high to low are postposition,preposition,intermediate X and word order error respectively.In this paper,the error types are reclassified according to the composition of intermediate component X,and the characteristics of each type of error are summarized and the causes are analyzed.In general,among the errors of circumposition by Native English speakers,postposition words have the highest error rate and occupy an absolute advantage.The second is preposition and intermediate component X,and there are few errors in word order and the whole circumposition.This paper summarizes the characteristics and rules of native English speakers’ errors in circumposition of "zai" type,analyzes the causes of errors from multiple angles,and reveals the root causes of errors by means of word order typology and concept transfer theory.5.Through the analysis of the acquisition of four "zai" circumposition,we find that "zai" circumposition are difficult to be acquired by native English speakers.Native English speakers use zai prepositions more frequently,but their ability to correctly use zai prepositions needs to be improved.Postposition bias is a key problem in the acquisition of "zai" circumposition by native English speakers.English and Chinese belong to two different language types.The acquisition of Chinese circumposition by Native English speakers is often influenced by the language types of English prepositions,and the existence of Chinese postpositions is ignored,which leads to errors.At the same time,it is limited by the solidification conceptual pattern of VPP word order features of English VO language,which increases the difficulty of understanding and using Chinese PPV word order,thus leading to word order errors.In general,in addition to semantic and syntactic factors,the acquisition of "zai" circumposition by Native English speakers is greatly influenced by word order typology and the transfer of native language concepts.The conclusion mainly summarizes the acquisition of Chinese "zai" circumposition by Native English speakers,proposes the ultimate goal of comprehensively improving the ability of native English speakers to correctly use circumposition,and points out the innovations and shortcomings of this paper.