A Corpus-based Study On The Use Of Adjective Reduplication By International Student

This research paper aims to investigate the acquisition and use patterns of adjective reduplication among learners of Chinese as a second language by analyzing the global corpus of the HSK dynamic composition corpus,Chinese interlanguage,and a self-built Chinese native language corpus.Firstly,a review was conducted on the adjectives in the HSK Standard Course with respect to their reduplication types and ability.Drawing on the Eight Hundred Words of Modern Chinese and the Structure of Chinese Vocabulary,it was revealed that most monosyllabic adjectives included in the textbook can be reduplicated in the form of AA(de),while most bisyllabic adjectives can be reduplicated in the form of AABB,and a few can be reduplicated in the form of ABB or A in AB.Secondly,a quantitative study was conducted on a massive amount of native and learner corpora to investigate the comparative usage of adjective reduplication of each group.The findings indicated that:(1)The frequency of use is consistent between the two groups,with AA(de)>AABB>other;(2)Learners generally tend to either overuse or underuse adjective reduplication,as reflected by the frequency,with underusing outnumbered by overusing;(3)This can be exemplified by the overusing of words such as“冷冷”and underusing of words such as“多多”,which highlights the need for teachers’sufficient concerns.Moreover,a comparison was conducted regarding the syntactic components the adjective reduplication serves when used by the two groups.The results showed that:(1)The proportion of the two groups in using it as syntactic constituents is relatively consistent,with gerunds and determiners as the main constituents,followed by predicates and complements,and rarely as subjects and objects;(2)Natives tend to use it as determiners,while learners are more likely to use it as gerunds;(3)Learners tend to overuse adjective reduplication as predicates,and some of the reduplicated adjectives are underused as complements and determiners.Therefore,it is recommended to strengthen the teaching of adjective reduplication as predicates,determiners,and complements.Furthermore,the frequency distribution of different types of deviations and mistakes was analyzed in the process of acquiring the adjective reduplication based on the interlanguage corpus.The analysis revealed that:(1)Reduplicated adjectives with a higher deviation and mistake rate were used less frequently and featured a higher likelihood of over-or under-use;(2)The AABB adjective reduplication had the highest deviation and mistake rates;(3)Learners’ deviations and mistakes were primarily found in the use of syntactic components and the use of “de”.(4)The reduplicated adjectives as gerunds caused the highest number of deviations and mistakes,accounting for 1220 cases,and the highest deviation and mistake rate was found in the use of reduplicated adjectives as gerunds and complements,both reaching 35% or above.Therefore,it is suggested that the teaching of adjective reduplication should be the main focus of teaching materials and be considered by both teachers and learners.Finally,suggestions were proposed for improving the arrangement of the textbook and school teaching by examining the overall arrangement of adjective reduplication-related grammatical knowledge in the representative Chinese textbook HSK Standard Course and combining the results of the corpus comparison and the deviation and mistake analysis.These findings are expected to provide useful references for international Chinese teaching.