Study On The Acquisition Of The Overlapping Meanings Of Three Chinese Volitive Auxiliaries

In this thesis we studied second language learners’acquisition order of three overlapping meanings of three Chinese volitive auxiliaries, namely, "neng", "hui", and "keyi". We used quantitative methods like error analysis and correlation analysis, and studied students’acquisition sequence, influencing factors of acquisition, and the difficulties in learning.This work can be divided into 6 chapters.The first chapter is the preface. In this chapter, we introduced the purpose and value of this study, as well as the methods we used in this research.In the second chaptef, we reviewed relative research and studies of these three Chinese volitive auxiliaries, including grammatical studies and acquisition studies.In the third chapter, we concluded and classified the overlapping meanings of these three Chinese volitive auxiliaries, which were the basis of our research. Our classification of the meanings was based on existing research as well as our own analysis.The fourth chapter is about the quantitative research based on the intermediary language database. We studied the acquisition order of second language learners on the overlapping meanings of the three Chinese auxiliaries. Our study was based on multiple criteria, such as the output, emergence criterion, and the accuracy percentage.In the fifth chapter, we carried out the quantitative study based on a questionnaire research. We also studied the acquisition sequence of Chinese language learners, as a verification and supplement of the previous quantitative study based on language database. In addition, we also discussed the influencing factors of acquisition, such as the mother language and Chinese proficiencies of learners.The sixth chapter is the conclusion. We summarized the main contents and results of our research, and offered some suggestions about classroom teachings. Besides that, we also talked about some topics which we could study further.