Chinese EFL Learners' Acquisition Of English English Noun-Noun Construction

English Noun-Noun Construction (ENNC) is the most common morphological construction in English. Hence, it receives great attention from researchers. Previous researches on ENNC mainly explain it from three perspectives: Structuralism, Generativism and Cognitivism. However, there is insufficiency in empirical researches on ENNC, let alone studies of Chinese EFL (English as foreign language) learners as research subjects. In view of these, the author, under the framework of Cognitive Construction Grammar (CC_xG), tries to study acquisition of ENNC by Chinese EFL learners by means of test papers and a questionnaire, in an attempt to provide some enlightenment for research and teaching of ENNC.CC_xG is a construction-based research approach to language, which considers construction as a pairing of form and meaning, or a pairing of form and function (Goldberg,1995; Lakoff,1997; Kay & Fillmore,1999). According to the approach, the syntactic form of ENNC is"N1+N2"(N1 and N2 refer to the two component nouns of ENNC) and its constructional meaning is certainly not the simple addition of the meaning of the components, but a designation of a new entity, namely, a new gestalt. Therefore, the key to the acquisition of ENNC lies in whether Chinese EFL learners can grasp the holistic mental imagery of ENNC instead of the meaning of its components. The research results show that:(1)Chinese EFL learners'acquisition of ENNC follows a certain acquisition order: Conjunctive English Noun-Noun Construction (CC), Relational English Noun-Noun Construction (RC), Property-based English Noun-Noun Construction (PC), Hybrid English Noun-Noun Construction (HC) and Blended English Noun-Noun Construction (BC) (The degree of difficulty increases.)(2)Chinese EFL learners adopt different acquisition strategies of ENNC. Pre-intermediate group prefer to understand ENNC according to the meaning of its components; advanced group tend to grasp the holistic mental imager of ENNC; intermediate group subjects display no clear tendency.