A Study On The Acquisition Of The Occurrence Of The Preposition "Zài" By Chinese Second Language Learners

The preposition "Zài" is not only one of the most frequently used prepositions in written language by native Chinese speakers,but also one by second language learners of Chinese.We found that the usage of the preposition "Zài" has certain rules.For example,"Zài" sometimes should appear while sometimes should not.What’s more,whether the preposition "Zài" is used or not has a great influence on the meaning of the sentence.As a result,for the learners of Chinese as a second language,to use the preposition "Zài" in a right way in the written language,they must figure out the rules of using the preposition "Zài".In order to help Chinese learners have a better understanding of the preposition "Zài" and use it properly in the written language,this paper firstly analyzes the occurrence rules of the preposition “Zài”,then systematically analyzes the use of the preposition "Zài" in written language by Chinese learners,finally provides practical suggestions aimed at solving the problems that the Chinese learners they may encounter.This study is conducted with a combination of qualitative and quantitative analysis.For one thing,the preposition structures introduced by the preposition "Zài" are divided into seven semantic categories: referring to location,time,range,condition,aspect,process and subject.With specific sentences as examples,the occurrence rules of "Zài" are analyzed and concluded considering the roles of the preposition structures play in a sentence,such as attributive,adverbial,complement,object and subject.For another thing,this paper quantitatively analyzes the corpus of the preposition "Zài" from 1143 essays written by sophomore foreign students of the Institute for International Students,Nanjing University to know how they use the preposition "Zài" and the occurrence errors they make,both in different semantic types and different syntactic functions.After analysis on correct usages of "Zài" as well as errors related to the occurrence of preposition "Zài",we have found that,in written language,Chinese second language learners often use the preposition "Zài" introducing a place as an adverbial while seldom use the preposition "Zài" introducing the subject as an adverbial in a sentence.Among the errors,that "Zài" must occur but is missing mainly appears when the preposition structure serves as an adverbial in the sentence,while the unnecessary usage of "Zài" mainly appears when the preposition structure serves as an attributive in the sentence.Finally,the paper puts forward suggestions accordingly from different perspectives.