Contrastive Analysis Of A-not-A Questions And Yes-No Questions With "Ma" And Their Acquisition

A-not-a questions and yes-no questions, those with "ma" in particular, are similar to a certain degree in the system of modern Chinese questions. Huang Guoxiang (1986) and Wu FUxiang (1997) prove that a-not-a questions and yes-no questions are cognate. They also hold that learners are apt to be confused with them in the Second Language Acquisition (SLA) Process. The previous studies mainly focus on their syntactic structure or pragmatic function and merely make systematical contrast of their syntactic structure or pragmatic function. Therefore, the problem of errors in SLA has not been solved effectively.According to the Small Triangle Theory put forward by Xing Fuyi in 1996, this thesis make a contrastive analysis of a-not-a questions and yes-no questions with "ma". There is little variant in yes-no questions with "ma" and the pattern of having modified components as predicator. In the aspect of context meaning,the difference between them are showed in questions'degree. The questions'degree in a-not-a questions is usually higher than yes-no questions with "ma". In syntactic structure, the former are flexible and appear frequently in abridged forms. While in the latter, modifiers can be superimposed before the predicate or enclosed after the predicate and the interrogative degree is correspondence with their intonation. In semantic meaning, the former are rather mild and objective while the latter are stronger and more objective. In pragmatic function, the former are mainly used in written language, especially in solemn political comments. On the contrary, the latter primarily appear in oral language.Considering the error analysis of SLA, the thesis comes up with the following teaching tactics. Apart from teaching by stages and grades, we should simplify the teaching methods to eliminate the foreign students'mentality of avoiding a-not-a questions. Meanwhile, the thesis maintains that learners should choose between these two kinds of questions according to the interrogative degree they want to express.