From The Perspective Of Variability: The Acquisition Process Of "le" By A Dutch Learner

This dissertation, adopting the perspective of language variability, aims toinvestigate the dynamic acquisition process of the Chinese aspect marker "le" by aDutch learner at the beginning level. The learner has been asked to write a text eachweek to tell a story on any topic that interests her, and the time she would like tospend on, the length of the texts, and the language forms that she may choose all werein her own control.The data of52texts during52weeks has been collected. When coding the data,this research distinguishes the context of past tense from that of present and futuretense, and in addition to the traditional classification of correct use, absence, andoveruse of "le", the correct nonuse of "le" in the past tense context is counted too. Tovisualize the longitudinal data, some new tools of Dynamic Systems Theory style areapplied.According to this research, â… . The stereotype of that the foreign students alwaysperceive Chinese "le" as a past tense marker is disproved as there is nonuse of "le" inthe past tense context much more than the use of it in the same condition. â…¡. In thecontext of past tense, the two target forms of "le" exhibit an obvious increase in the52weeks while the error form stays stable, it is the reverse in the context of presentand future tense. â…¢. The learner tends to express the meaning of completion with theverbal "le" in the past tense context, while the meaning of initiation and lasting withthe sentence final "le" in the present or future tense context. â…£. The existence of thesystematic variability in the syntactic and lexical context respectively indicates thatthe learner is able to perceive and capture the syntactic conditions limiting the use of"le" and has developed the knowledge of lexical aspect to help the marking of "le".