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Second language acquisition of the ba-construction in contemporary Mandarin Chinese
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Second language acquisition of the ba-construction in contemporary Mandarin Chinese
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Content
SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION OF THE ^-CONSTRUCTION IN
CONTEMPORARY MANDARIN CHINESE
Copyright 2002
By
Shenglan Zhang
A Thesis Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree of
MASTER OF ARTS
(EAST ASIAN LANGUAGES AND CULTURES)
December 2002
Shenglan Zhang
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UMI Number: 1414860
UMI
UMI Microform 1414860
Copyright 2003 by ProQuest Information and Learning Company.
All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against
unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code.
ProQuest Information and Learning Company
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UNIVERSITY O F SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
T H E GRADUATE SC H O O L .
UNIVERSITY P A R K
L O S A N G E L E S . C A L IF O R N IA 90007
This thesis, written by
under the direction of h... .Thesis C om m ittee,
and approved by all its members, has been pre
sented to and accepted by the Dean of The
Graduate School, in partial fu lfillm en t of the
requirem ents for the degree of
Diem
D ate December 18, 2002
THESIS COMMITTEE
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my advisor, Professor Yen-hui Audrey Li,
who inspired me to embark on this topic, directed me through the course of writing this
thesis, and has spent countless hours reading the drafts of my thesis. I am also indebted to
her for her patient guidance throughout my graduate study at USC.
I am also very grateful to Professor William Rutherford for his inspiring instruction.
Without his unceasing encouragement, the completion of my thesis will not be possible.
I wish to express my thanks to my committee members: Professor George Hayden and
Professor Namkil Kim for their supports, and to the 14th NACCL members for their
thoughtful comments and suggestions, which have helped me improve this thesis.
To my dear colleagues and friends, Chunya Chen, Roger Hong, Guanjun Feng, Yan Li,
Yanhong Zhu, Stephanie Chen, Ruixue Fu, Haiyong Liu, and Professor David Honey in
particular, my appreciation for their generous help and friendship is indelible. I am also
indebted to the 95 participants in the study for their time and patience doing the experiment.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.......................................................................................................ii
LIST OF TABLES...................................................................................................................... v
LIST OF FIGURES................................................................................................................... vi
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS.................................................................................................... vii
ABSTRACT............................................................................................................................ viii
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 Rationale of the Research............................................................................................... 1
1.2 Range of the Study .......................................................................................................3
1.3 Theoretical Framework..................................................................................................4
1.4 Research Questions......................................................................................................... 5
1.5 Organization of the Thesis..............................................................................................6
2. LINGUISTIC PROPERTIES AND LITERATURE REVIEW ON THE SECOND
LANGUAGE ACQUISITION OF THE BA-CONSTRUCTION
2.1 Historical and dialectal studies of the ^-construction.................................................7
2.2 Properties of the ha-construction...................................................................................9
2.2.1 The counterpart of the ha-construction and its pragmatic contexts....................9
2.2.2 B a ..........................................................................................................................11
2.2.3 Ba-NPs..................................................................................................................12
2.2.4 Semantic Constraints on the Verbs in the Ba-construction................................16
2.2.4.1 Activity verbs.................................................................................. 17
2.2.4.2 Accomplishment verbs............................................................................18
2.2.4.3 Achievement verbs..................................... 19
2.2.4.4 State verbs...............................................................................................20
2.2.4.5 Transitivity and the verbs in the ha-construction.................................. 21
2.2.5 Result complements............................................................................................22
2.2.5.1 Resultative Compounds.......................................................................... 22
2.2.5.2 Aspectual marker as the result................................................................ 23
2.2.5.3 Locative complement/directional complements:........................ 24
2.2.5.4 Verb reduplication...................................................................................24
2.3 Empirical studies of the ha-construction..................................................................... 25
2.3.1 Jin (1992)..............................................................................................................25
2.3.2 Fahn (1993)................................... 27
3. RESEARCH METHODS AND RESULTS..................................................................... 30
3.1 Subjects.......................................................................................................................31
iii
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3.2 Methodology............................................................................................................... 32
3.3 M aterials....................................................................................................................... 35
3.4 Procedures.................................................................................................................... 36
3.5 Results................................................................................................................ 37
3.5.1 Aspectual marker L E .......................................................................................... 39
3.5.2 Verb selection..................................................................................................... 40
3.5.3 Word order ^ .............................................................................................. 40
3.5.4 Directional complements.................................................................................... 41
3.5.5 Verb reduplication.............................................................................................. 42
3.5.6 Resultative compounds....................................................................................... 42
3.6 Summary..................................................................................................................... 43
4. FURTHER DISCUSSION OF THE RESULTS AND PROPOSAL FOR COMPILING
TEACHING MATERIALS AND CLASSROOM TEACHING
.............................................................................................................................................46
4.1 Interlanguage hypothesis, U-shaped behavior, and Second language
Acquisition................................................................................................................... 46
4.1.1 Procedure of the acquisition of the ha-construction.......................................... 49
4.1.2 Acquisition of the Ba-construction’s individual properties............................... 51
4.1.3 Students with different dialectal backgrounds and those with no background in
Chinese languages...............................................................................................53
4.2 Compiling teaching materials.......................................................................................54
4.2.1 Repetition............................................................................................................ 54
4.2.2 Exercise design....................................................................................................55
4.3 Classroom teaching...................................................................................................... 55
4.3.1 Separate students from different backgrounds...................................................55
4.3.2 Level three needs more attention........................................................................ 56
4.4 Questions needing further research............................................................................56
4.5 Summary of Chapter four...........................................................................................57
BIBLIOGRAPHY....................................................................................................................58
APPENDIX A: Questionnaire for subjects’ background information.................................... 62
APPENDIX B: Sample test sentences used in the GJ task......................................................63
APPENDIX C: Test sentences used in the TT task ................................................................. 64
APPENDIX D: Sample picture used in the PP task..................................................................65
APPENDIX E: Questionnaire for the control group information............................................66
iv
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LIST O F TA BLES
Table 2.1 Use of the ba-construction (from Li & Thompson, 1981, p. 487) ...............11
Table 2.2 Verb classification (Vendler 1967, p. 102)........................................................ 16
Table 2.3 Linguistic features of Ba-construction (Jin 1992)...........................................26
Table 3.1 Subject information ................................................................................... 30
Table 3.2 Subject motivation ........ 31
Table 3.3 Distribution of the features................................................................................. 35
Table 3.4 Aspectual “le” report....................................... 38
Table 3.5 “Verb selection” rep o rt ....... 39
Table 3.6 “Word order” rep o rt..........................................................................................40
Table 3.7 “Directional complement” rep o rt...................................................................41
Table 3.8 “Verb reduplication” rep o rt ....... 42
Table 3.9 “Resultative compounds” rep o rt.......................................................................4 3
Table 3.10 Correlations among the ta sk s.................................................. 43
Table 4.1 Correlation between subject level and acquisition of the ba-construction ...48
v
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L IST OF FIG URES
Figure 3.1 Continuum of different data collection methods (Seliger 1989, PI 59) ....32
Figure 3.2 Mastery of Aspectual marker “le” ..................................................... 37
Figure 3.3 Mastery of “verb selection” ....... .38
Figure 3.4 Mastery of “word order” .......................................................................... 39
Figure 3.5 Mastery of “directional complements” .............................................................40
Figure 3.6 Mastery of “verb reduplication” .......................................................... 41
Figure 3.7 Mastery of “resultative compounds” .................................................................42
Figure 3.8 Grammatical judgment task perform ance........................................................ 44
Figure 3.9 Translation task perform ance....................... .44
Figure 3.10 Picture-cue task perform ance...........................................................................45
Figure 4.1 U-shape (Kellerman, 1985).................................................................. 47
Figure 4.2 U-shaped behavior in the acquisition of the ^ -co n stru ctio n ....................... 49
Figure 4.3 Acquisition of individual properties of the ^-construction...........................50
Figure 4.4 Acquisition order of the ^-construction properties....................................... 52
Figure 4.5 Task performance across different backgrounds......................... 53
vi
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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS
ANOVA analysis of variance (SPSS)
ASP aspect marker
GJ grammaticality judgment task
LI first language
L2 second language
NP noun phrase
PP picture-cue production task
SLA second language acquisition
sov subject object verb
SP subject prominent
svo subject verb object
TP topic prominent
TT translation task
use University of Southern California
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ABSTRACT
Based on the Interlanguage Hypothesis (Selinker, 1972) and the U-shaped
Developmental Hypothesis (Kellerman, 1985), acquiring a foreign language is a
movement along a continuum of grammar, which can appear as different
developmental processes. The present study aims to investigate the developmental
process of the ^-construction acquisition across different proficiency levels. The
subjects were 71 students of Chinese from levels two, three, and four USC and 24
native speakers of Chinese as the control group. Grammatical Judgment Task,
Translation Task, and Picture-cue Production task were conducted to achieve the goal
of understanding the L2 acquisition of the ^-construction.
The results show that there is a U-Shaped developmental pattern in the
acquisition of the ^-construction across different proficiency levels. The acquisition
order of the six properties of the ^-construction is: Word order -> Aspect marker Le
-> Verb selection -> Directional complement^/ erb reduplication/Resultative
complements. Among subjects with a Chinese language background compared to
those lacking this background, there are differences in performance. Following the
analysis of the results, it is proposed that teaching materials need to add the repetition
of the ^-construction use, and the exercise design should be more communicative. It
is also advised that classroom teaching should differ to cater to different learners from
different language backgrounds. Finally, I point out that the acquisition of the aspect
marker le needs further research. More subjects from higher levels need to be included
in future research.
viii
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CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Rationale of the research
The ^-construction is a unique structure in modem mandarin Chinese. A great
amount of linguistic research has been done on it. The earliest research can be dated
back to Wang (1947), who treats the ^-construction as a disposal structure since the
object (and sometimes non-object elements) is preposed and the construction indicates
how the object is disposed of or handled. The basic pattern of the ba-construction is
“Subject + BA + Object/non-object + Verb + Complements” as illustrated below:
(1) Taba pingguo chiwan le.
He BA apple eat-finish ASP.
He finished eating the apple.
(2) Qing ni ba cidian nalai.
Please you BA dictionary take-here.
Please bring the dictionary here.
In the above examples, pingguo “apple” and cidian “dictionary” are the objects that are
disposed of through the actions chi “eat” and na “take.” The results of the disposal are
wan le “finish” and lai “to here.”
Many other approaches than the disposal one have also been widely discussed. The
acquisition of the ^-construction, however, is still not a widely discussed topic. Fahn
(1993) did research on the first language acquisition o f the ba-construction based on the
1
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continuity theory proposed by Pinker (1984). She explored the developmental
procedure of the 6a-construction acquisition among Chinese children and explained the
factors influencing the procedure. As far as second language acquisition is concerned,
only Jin (1992) studied the typological transfer of the English-speaking subjects. She
treated the /^-construction as an SOV (Subject Object Verb) structure as opposed to
SYO (Subject Verb Object).
However, based on the OCLC first-search database, no research has been done
examining how second-language learners acquire the ha-constmction. In reality,
second-language learners of Mandarin Chinese do not use the /^-construction very
often. In the rare cases when they use it, they frequently make mistakes, for example
(my own observation from my classroom teaching):
(3) *a. Wo ba fangjian dasao.
I BA room clean.
I cleaned the room.
In (3), other elements must follow the verb, in other words, bare verbs cannot be used in
the /^-construction. Take a look at (3) b.
(3) b. Wo ba fangjian dasao wanle / de hen ganjing.
I BA room clean finish ASP/ de very clean.
I finished cleaning the room. / 1 cleaned the room very well.
Such a mistake as in (3a) indicates problems. This thesis explores the procedure o f the
acquisition of the /^-construction.
2
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1.2 The range of the study
The Z>a-construction is a very complex structure. In part, it involves the semantic
disposal of something both the speaker and the listener know about. It also contains
different complements following the main verb including prepositional phrases,
aspectual markers such as “le,” resultative compounds, etc. Conducting a thorough
study on the ^-construction entails a thorough study of its constituent elements.
Because of limited space, I can only focus on several properties of the ba-construction.
In addition to the above limitations, the range of the research is confined by the
subjects. The research subjects are students from Chinese II, III, and IY at USC. The
research is conducted on the basis of what the students from the above levels have been
exposed to. Therefore, some forms of the ^-construction, such as potentiality elements
functioning as the result o f the action, are not included. The exclusion of some types of
complements, however, does not influence this study o f the acquisition of the ba-
construction as a whole, since the basic constraints of the construction are all included
(see chapter two).
1.3 Theoretical framework
The present study was conducted in the attempt to come to a better understanding of
the second language acquisition process of the Chinese ba-construction. First of all, the
traditional theory about SLA is the Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis, which emphasizes
the influence on L2 from LI as stated by Gass and Selinker (1983: 1):
Individuals tend to transfer the forms and meanings and the distribution
of forms and meanings of their native language and culture to the foreign
language and culture.
3
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As we know, since there seems to be no similar expression of disposal or similar
syntactic structure as the ba-construction in English, the Contrastive Hypothesis seems
to be insufficient to explain the acquisition of the ba-construction by native speakers of
English. In this research, a theoretical framework is established based on the
interlanguage hypothesis in language acquisition.
Interlanguage is conceived as a “dynamic system” (Selinker, 1972) and regarded as
the “product of a psycholinguistic process of interaction between two linguistic
systems, those of the mother tongue and the target language” (Corder, 1981). The
interlanguage hypothesis assumes that the mastering of the grammar in a second
language is a process from G l, G2, G3...Gm. Acquiring a foreign language is a
movement along a continuum of grammar, which can appear as different developmental
processes. U-Shaped developmental behavior is one type of developmental pattern.
But U-Shaped developmental behavior is mostly observed in the first language
acquisition (Ervin 1964, Karmiloff-smith 1984), and also observed in the longitudinal
study of second language acquisition. It would be interesting to observe whether there
is a U-Shaped behavior pattern across different proficiency levels in the second
language acquisition.
1.4 Research questions
The present study is conducted with the intention to find out a better understanding
of the process of the acquisition of the ba-construction in the second language of
Chinese. The interlanguage hypothesis is adopted in analyzing the data collected in the
research. The basic concept of the interlanguage hypothesis is that the acquisition of a
4
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foreign language is a “movement along a developmental continuum” (Helmut Zobl,
1989). Based on this hypothesis, it would be enlightening to detect how the learners
acquire the ba-construction. If there is a certain pattern in the learning process, it would
be pedagogically significant to further propose a teaching method which maximally fits
this feature of acquisition. Bearing the main purpose in mind, this thesis therefore
addresses the following questions:
First, how is the ba-construction acquired? Is there a certain acquisition pattern of
the constraints in the ba-construction?
Second, is there any difference in the aspect of acquisition procedure between
heritage Chinese speakers and those who do not have any Chinese background? Since
as discussed in Li (2001), Taiwanese uses “A :a ” widely, do those who have Taiwanese
background perform differently from those who do not?
Third, what strategies do the teachers need to apply in teaching this structure? What
should be paid attention in compiling text materials?
1.5 Organization of the thesis
The thesis is organized as follows:
In Chapter two, the linguistic properties of the ba-construction are discussed
concerning pragmatic, semantic, and syntactic constraints that the ba-construction have.
Following the discussion of linguistic properties, two experimental studies on the
acquisition of the ba-construction are reviewed.
In Chapter three, I will discuss the data collection procedures and results of this
study concerning the ba-construction acquisition by native English speakers, heritage
5
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Chinese learners, and a group of native Mandarin speakers as control. The test
materials, procedures, and statistical methods used in the data analysis are clearly
stated. At the end of this chapter the results are shown.
Chapter four will discuss the results of the research. Based on the interlanguage
hypothesis and how learners acquire the ^-construction, a proposal of how to teach the
^-construction and how to compile teaching materials is put forward. Furthermore, I
will point out some problems that need further investigation.
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CHAPTER TWO
LINGUISTIC PROPERTIES AND LITERATURE REVIEW OF THE SECOND
LANGUAGE ACQUISITION OF THE BA-CONSTRUCTION
In this chapter, I will present the linguistic properties of the fra-construction and
some important research done on the acquisition of this construction. In section 2 .1 ,1
will simply recount the historical development of “fra” in Mandarin Chinese. In section
2.2, the linguistic properties are presented. In section 2.3, I will review two
experimental studies, one by Fahn (1993) and the other one by Jin (1992). Finally in
section 2 .4 ,1 will summarize this chapter.
2.1 The historical and dialectal studies of the fra-construction
The fra-construction has many different names. Basically there are three
categories. Wang (1957), Chao (1968), Li & Thompson (1981), and Tiee (1990) call
the fra-construction the “disposal construction.” Hashimoto (1971) and Teng (1975) use
the terms “executive construction” and “accusative construction” respectively. Y. C. Li
(1974) emphasize the transitivity aspect of the fra-sentences. This thesis will stay with
the traditional name of “disposal construction.” Traditionally, the fra-construction is
also called “fra zi ju ” or “chuzhi shi” (Wang, 1947), the basic structure of which is: NP1
+ BA + NP2 + Verb + Complements. NP1 is the subject of the sentence with no
difference from other normal sentences, and NP2 is usually the direct object of the verb.
Some indirect objects or other non-object elements sometimes can also be the NP1.
7
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The ^-construction is widely used in daily speech among Chinese speaking people.
The earliest meaning o f “ba” is “to take”, “to hold”, or “to use”. In the Sui Dynasty and
the early part of the Tang dynasty (late 6th century and early 7th century), “ba” was used
along with “ jiang” initially to indicate an instrument (Liu Jian 1982). By the late Qing
period (early 20th century), the pretransitive function of “ba” and “ jiang” had become
very clear (Wang Li 1957, 414). According to Chao (1968), the appearance of the
“pretransitive construction” is a very important development in the history o f the
Chinese language. In modem Chinese, only “ba” is used as a “pretransitive
preposition;” “jiang” is rarely used in spoken mandarin, but sometimes used in very
formal or technical writing.
Y.-H. Li (2001) did a cross-dialectal comparison between Mandarin Chinese “ba”
and Taiwanese “ka.” The ^-construction is used in Taiwanese with the same stmcture.
According to Li, “a 6a-sentence in Mandarin can always be translated into a ka-
sentence in Taiwanese;” but the ^-construction is more contextually adaptable than the
^-construction. The main differences as Li points out are the following:
i. The 6a-stmctures do not allow bare verbs, whereas the &a-structures do.
ii. A non -ba counterpart is always available for 6a-stmctures, whereas ka-
structures sometimes do not have non-ka counterparts.
iii Sometimes the ba and 6a-NPs can be preposed as a unit, whereas the ka and
&a-NPs can not.
Based on the similarities and differences between Mandarin ha-structures and the
Taiwanese £a-structures, I will be able to further test whether learners of Mandarin
8
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Chinese who have some background in Taiwanese are influenced by the fez-structure
while they learn the fra-structures.
2.2 Properties of the ^-construction
In this section, I will mainly discuss the main components of the fra-construction.
As we have learned, the structure of the fra-construction is:
Subject + BA + NP + Verb + Complements.
I will discuss the properties of the structure by separately explaining each
component. Before I come to the syntactic properties of the fra-construction, however, I
will first discuss the overall features and when the fra-construction would be used.
2.2.1 The counterpart of the fra-construction and its pragmatic contexts
Li (2001) argues that all the fra sentences have non-fra counterparts, for instance:
(4) a. Ta ba wode beizi da po le.
He BA my cup hit-break ASP.
He broke my cup.
b. Ta da po le wode beizi.
He hit-break ASP my cup.
He broke my cup.
(5) a. Ni yao ba naben shu du du.
You should BA that book read read.
You should read that book.
9
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b. Ni yao du du naben shu.
You should read read that book.
You should read that book.
In most cases, there are non -ba counterparts for the ba sentences such as (4) and
(5). But for the ba sentences with directional complements, topicalization seems to be
able to function as the non-ba counterpart. For example,
(6) a Qing ba naben cidian fang zai zhuozishang.
Please BA that dictionary put at desk-top.
Please put the dictionary on the table,
b. Naben cidian, qing fang zai zhuozi shang.
That dictionary, please put at desk-top
Please put that dictionary on the table.
Based on their consideration of the ba-construction as a structure involving
“disposal/affectiveness”, Li & Thompson (1981) clarified when the ba-construction
should be used, and also put forward a continuum on the use of the ba-construction
which was agreed upon by Li (2001). The two conditions on using the ba-construction
are (Li & Thompson, 1981, p. 483):
i. The ba noun phrase is definite, specific, or generic. In
most cases, the ba noun phrase is the direct object of the
verb; but it may also be a noun phrase directly affected by
the disposal event signaled by the verb plus the direct
object.
ii. The message involves disposal, something happening to
the entity referred to by the ba-noun phrase.
10
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b. Ni yao du du naben shu.
You should read read that book.
You should read that book.
In most cases, there are non-Sa counterparts for the ba sentences such as (4) and
(5). But for the ba sentences with directional complements, topicalization seems to be
able to function as the non-ba counterpart. For example,
(6) a Qing ba naben cidian fang zai zhuozishang.
Please BA that dictionary put at desk-top.
Please put the dictionary on the table,
b. Naben cidian, qing fang zai zhuozi shang.
That dictionary, please put at desk-top
Please put that dictionary on the table.
Based on their consideration of the ^-construction as a structure involving
“disposal/affectiveness”, Li & Thompson (1981) clarified when the ha-construction
should be used, and also put forward a continuum on the use of the ha-construction
which was agreed upon by Li (2001). The two conditions on using the ha-construction
are (Li & Thompson, 1981, p. 483):
i. The ba noun phrase is definite, specific, or generic. In
most cases, the ba noun phrase is the direct object of the
verb; but it may also be a noun phrase directly affected by
the disposal event signaled by the verb plus the direct
object.
ii. The message involves disposal, something happening to
the entity referred to by the ba-noxxn phrase.
10
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According to them, the more a sentence fulfills the above conditions, the more likely
the ^-construction is applied. They further point out that these two conditions still
“leave a certain amount of flexibility” (Ibid). One point, however, is certain: the less
the message involves the prominence or the disposal of the object, the more likely the
non -ba construction is applied. This generalization is expressed by means of a
continuum, as shown in table 2.1:
ba ba ba ba
impossible unlikely likely obligatory
Indefinite or non-referential object
No disposal
Definite and highly prominent object
Strong disposal
Table 2.1 The use of the ^-construction (from Li & Thompson, 1981, p. 487)
2.2.2 Ba
There are many opinions about what category the “ha” should belong to. Li
(2001) summarized the proposals as the following:
a. Ba as a lexical verb (Hashimoto 1971)
b. Ba as a preposition (Li and Liu 1955, Chao 1968, Lti 1980, Li 1990)
c. Ba as a dummy Case assigner (Huang 1982, Kooperman 1984,
Goodall 1987)
d. Ba as a dummy filler, inserted to fill the head of a CAUSE phrase
when verb raising does not take place (Sybesma 1999)
e. Ba as the head o f a base-generated functional category (Zoul 995)
Since I am not concerned about the categories ba falls into, the second proposal {ba
as a preposition) will be adopted for the sake of simplicity.
11
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2.2.3 JSa-NP: Definite NPs
In this section, I will discuss two things: the semantic restrictions on 6a-NP and the
functions o f the fta-NP.
As exemplified by the following sentences, the ba-NP is generally definite in
reference:
(7) Qing ba naben shu gei wo.
Please BA that book give me.
Please give me that book.
(8) Qing ba zheba yizi bandao loushang.
Please BA this chair move-to upstairs.
Please take this chair upstairs.
(9) Ta ba wode bi diu le.
He BA my pen lost ASP.
He lost my pen.
In (7) and (8), naben shu “that book” and zheba yizi “this chair” are the ba-NPs. The
demonstratives na and zhe mean “that” and “this” indicating definiteness. In (9), wode
“my,” the possessive pronoun is also a definite marker. Sometimes the ba-NP can be a
noun without definite marker, as shown in (10).
(10)Mama meitian ba fangjian dasao de ganganjingjing.
Mother everyday BA room clean DE clean.
Everyday my mom cleans the room very well.
12
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Fangjian “room” in (10) does not have any definite marker, but as both listener and
speaker know which fangjian “room” is referred to, fangjian “room” is still definite.
Besides being definite, the ha-NP can also be generic. See the following examples:
(1 l)Ta youde shihou ba yan dang tang chi.
He sometimes BA salt take-as sugar eat.
He sometimes eats salt thinking it’s sugar.
Yan “salt” in (11) (example quoted from Li & Thomspson, 1981) indicates the type of
entity called “salt”. The speaker presupposes that the listener has the knowledge that
“salt” exists as a generic class of entity, which makes the ba-sentence with a bare NP
acceptable.
While the occurrence of indefinite ba-NPs is highly restricted, there exists the
possibility that indefinite ba-NPs appear in the ba-construction.
(12) Ni bie ba yijian shi wang le. (Teng 1975)
You don’t BA one thing forget ASP.
You don’t forget that one thing.
These cases are rare. As argued by Teng (1975), as long as the indefinite NP is specific,
it would be acceptable in the ba-construction.
In summary, the ba-NP in most cases is definite and generic, but sometimes it can
also be indefinite. This no-clear-cut situation makes it almost impossible to investigate
whether the learners have known this restriction. For this reason, I do not include the
definite/generic in the research.
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As to the function of the ha-NP in the &a-sentence, there are several cases. Mostly
the ba-NP is the direct object of the main verb, as in examples (13)-(15).
(13) Wo ba Lisi da le.
I BA Lisi hit ASP.
I hit Lisi.
(14) Ta bu xiang ba natai diannao banzou.
He not want BA that computer move-away.
He doesn’t want to move that computer away.
(15) Wo ba naben shu songgei ta le.
I BA that book give-as-present him ASP.
I gave that book to him as a present.
Lisi in (13), natai diannao “that computer” in (14), and naben shu “that book” are direct
objects of the verb da “hit,” the verb banzou “move-away,” and the verb phrase songgei
“give as a present” respectively.
Sometimes the da-NPs can also be indirect objects of the verb, as is ta “him” in the
following example:
(16) wo ba ta wen le yidadui hennande wenti. (Li, 2001)
I BA him ask ASP one-big-pile very-difficult-de question.
I asked him many difficult questions.
Ba-NP can also be a possessor of the object NP (Li, 2001), as illustrated in the
following example, example (17).
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(17) Tufei ba ta sha le fuqin. (Li, 2001)
Bandit BA him kill ASP father.
The bandit killed his father.
Ba-NPs can also be in the part-whole relationship with the Object NP. (Li, 2001)
(18) Ta ba zuoye zuo le yiban.
He BA homework finish ASP half.
In the non-V-object cases, the function o f the NP in the result clause may be
subject as in (19) or object as in (20).
(19) Nage haizi ba shoupa kushi le.
That child BA handkerchief cry-wet ASP.
That child cried so hard that her handkerchief was wet.
(20) Nage haizi ba shoupa ku de meiren gan mo. (Li 2001)
That child BA handkerchief cry de nobody dare touch.
That child cried so that nobody dared to touch the handkerchief.
In short, as far as functions are concerned, the 6a-NPs can be identified as the
direct objects or indirect objects of the Verb, possessors of the Object NP or in a part-
whole relationship with the Object NP, or as subjects or objects of the result clause.
2.2.4 Semantic Constraints on the Verbs in the 5a-construction
In addition to the constraints on 6a-NPs, researchers also notice that not every type
of verb is compatible with the ^-construction (Chao 1968, Hashimoto 1971, Li 1974,
Li & Thompson 1984, among others), and that transitivity is a crucial matter in
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guaranteeing the use of the ^-construction. Before going further regarding restrictions,
in the first subsection, I will examine four types of verbs isolated by Vendler (1967).
Vendler classifies verbs into four types in terms of a time schema with which the action
is associated. In the second subsection, I will briefly discuss the transitivity concerning
the use of the &a-construction. First please see table 2.2 for Vendler’s verb
classification.
Types Examples
Activity run, walk, swim, push, pull, drive
Accomplishment grow up, draw, write, recover, paint, deliver, make, build,
read, attend, play chess
Achievement win, find, reach, cross, start, stop, recognize, realize,
spot, identify, lose
State know, love, believe, have, possess, desire, want, like,
dislike, love, hate, rule, dominate
Table 2.2 Verb classification (Vendler 1967, p. 102)
2.2.4.1 Activity verbs
Vendler demonstrates what activity verbs are from the perspective of a time
schema. As he states, “for activities, A was running at time t, which means that time
instant t is on a time stretch throughout which A was running.” Activity verbs in
Mandarin Chinese include da “hit”, tui “push”, kai “drive”, la “pull”. These verbs, if
used alone, sometimes are not acceptable for the 2f4-construction, as illustrated in the
following examples:
(21)? Ta ba che kai le.
He BA car drive ASP.
He drove the car.
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(22) * Wo ba didi tui le.
I BA brother push ASP.
I pushed my brother.
(21) does not have very clear result, i.e. che “car” is not affected by kai “drive”, nor is
didi “brother” affected by tui “push” in (22). These sentences are unacceptable.
However, by adding more after the verbs, these sentences become perfect, as illustrated
in (23) and (24).
(23) Ta ba che kaizow le.
He BA car drive-away ASP.
He drove the car away.
(24) Wo ba didi tuidao le.
I BA brother push-down ASP.
I pushed my brother down.
Che “car” is affected by kaizou “drive away,” because it is no longer here in (23). Didi
“younger brother” is affected by the action tuidao “push-down” in (24). The meaning
of the disposal is reinforced by the added phrases zou “away” to (21), and dao “down”
to (22). In brief, the examples in this subsection show that activity verbs are compatible
with the ^-construction if the disposal meaning is interpreted, especially with the help
of some added phrases that give a clear sense of result.
2.2.4.2 Accomplishment verbs
Vendler (1967) demonstrates what are accomplishment verbs from the perspective
of a schema. As he states, “for accomplishment, A was drawing a circle at t, which
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means that t is on the time stretch in which A drew the circle.” Accomplishment verbs
in Chinese are songlai “deliver,” zuohao “make,” jiancheng “build,” and so on. The
Chinese accomplishment verbs are usually polysyllabic, i.e. composed of two verbs,
one action, one result (Gao 1997). Such features allow this kind of verb to be fully
acceptable in the Z>a-construction.
(25) Ta ba sanmingzhi zuohao le.
He BA sandwich make ASP.
(26)Tamen ba fangzi jiancheng le.
They BA house build-fmish ASP.
They finished building the house.
(27) Ta ba bisa songlai le.
He BA pizza deliver ASP.
He delivered the pizza here.
The above examples are perfectly acceptable because the disposal meanings are overtly
expressed. Sanmingzhi “sandwich” is ready in (25), fangzi “house” has been built in
(26), and bisa “pizza” has been delivered in (27).
2.2.43 Achievement verbs
Vendler (1967) demonstrates what are accomplishment verbs from the perspective
of a schema. As he states, “for achievement, A won a race between tl and t2, which
means that the time instant at which A won that race is between tl and t2.”
Achievement verbs in Mandarin Chinese include zhaodao “find,” diu “lose,” ying
“win.” For example:
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(28) Wo ba wojiejiede dayi din le.
I BA my-sister-‘s coat lose ASP.
I lost my sister’s coat.
(29)?Ta zai lasiweijiasi ba na liangqiankuaiqian shu le.
He atLas YegasBAthe two-thousand-dollar lose ASP.
He lost the two thousand dollars at Las Yegas.
According to Smith (1991), achievement verbs convey “instantaneous changes of states,
with an outcome of a new state (p.28).” Jiejie de dayi “sister’s coat” and na
liangqiankuaiqian “the two thousand dollars” have undergone changes through the
action of diu “lose” in (28) and shu “lose” in (29). But still, the meaning o f disposal in
(30) will be intensified if more elements are added.
(30) Ta zai lasiweijiasi ba na liangqiankuaiqian shuguang le.
He at Las Yegas BA the two-thousand-dollar lose-empty ASP.
He lost the two thousand dollars at Las Vegas.
In (30), guang “empty” explicitly shows that the action o f shu “lose” has caused change
of state of the possession of na liangqiankuai qian “the two thousand dollars.” Most of
the time, the addition of the result gives the ^-construction a very strong sense of
disposal, therefore ensuring the proper use of the ba-construction.
2.2.4.4 State verbs
Vendler (1967) demonstrates what are state verbs from the perspective o f a schema.
As he states, “for states, A loved somebody from tl to t2, which means that at any
instant between tl and t2, A loves that person.” In Mandarin Chinese, xiang
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“think/miss,” ai “love,” zhidao “know,” xiangxin “believe,” hen “hate” are state verbs.
These verbs, which view a situation as a state and have no indication about the end o f
the state, are not compatible with the ^-construction. For example:
(31)* Wo ba ta hen.
I BA him hate.
I hate him.
(32) *Wo ba mama xiang.
I BA mom miss.
I miss my mom.
(33)*Wo ba zhejian shi liaojie.
I BA this-cl thing know.
I know this thing.
Since the verb hen “hate” in (31), xiang “miss” in (32) and liaojie “understand” in (33)
do not have the sense of disposal, the above three sentences are unacceptable. But after
we add something after the verb, these sentences become perfect.
(34) Wo ba ta hen de yao si.
I BA him hate de want die.
I hate him so much that I want to die.
(3 5) Wo ba mama xiang de fafeng.
I BA mom miss de become-crazy.
I miss my mom so much.
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(36) Wo ba zhejianshi liaojie de hen qingchu.
I BA this thing know de very clear.
I clearly know this thing.
Comparing (31) and (34), we do not notice any effect on ta “him” through the action
hen “hate” in (34) either. But according to Li & Thompson (1981), de yao si “want to
die” in (34) “hyperbolically creates an image that such intense love must have some
effect on ta ‘him’” (p.469). The verb together with the added expression implies that ta
“he/him” is dealt with. “An implication of disposal is, therefore, sufficient to warrant
the use of the ha-constmction” (p.469). The same situation applies to (32) and (35),
(33) and (36).
2.2.4.5 Transitivity and the verbs in the ^-construction
It is commonly observed that the ^-construction applies regardless of the transitivity of
the verbs. Li (2001) argues that there exist two kinds of intransitive verbs; one is “real
intransitive”, the other is “pseudo-intransitive.” The ^-construction does not allow a
“truly intransitive verb” (p.31). “The verb of a ba sentence must at least be able to be
linked to the ba NP in the sense that the verb takes the ba NP as its semantic object,
though not necessarily in typical syntactic object positions” (Ibid). The pseudo
intransitive verbs implicitly take an object (goal/recipient), but not the real intransitive
verbs. In summary, to test whether the verbs apply to the ^-construction, we need to
consider first the verb types and their following elements and second the true/false
status of intransitivity. In this study, we only consider the types of verbs, because being
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confined by the subjects, only a few verb types in relation to the ha-construction are
exposed to the subjects.
2.2.5 Result complements
Bare verbs are not allowed in the 6a-construction, since the complements “serve to
elaborate the nature of disposal” (Li & Thompson, 1981). The result complements have
been thoroughly explored. Lu (1955, 1980) classifies types of expressions in the
complements position in the ba-construction into 13 categories, and Sybesma (1999)
classifies into eight types. Liu (1997) gives nine. What is relevant to this thesis are
four types: Resultative compounds, Directional complements, Aspectual marker (Le),
and Verb reduplication. In the next subsections, I will explain the properties of the four
types.
2.2.5.1 Resultative Compounds
The resultative complements in some cases take the form of “de clause” indicating
the result of the verb, for instance,
(37)Ta ba cai chao de hen lan. (Li, 2001)
He Ba vegetable fry de very mushy.
He stir-fried the vegetable until mushy.
(38)Ta ba shoujuan ku de hen shi.
She Ba handkerchief cry de very web.
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Since the “Verb+Result” form is so frequently used in Mandarin Chinese, “the result
part has become a very productive ‘suffix-like’ element forming a complex verb with a
wide range of verbs” (Li 2001). We call these complex verbs used in the ba-
construction “resultative compounds.” The most commonly used ones are wan
“finish,” and hao “complete.”
(39) Wo ba zuoye zaowan le.
I BA homework do-finish ASP.
I finished my homework.
(40) Wo ba xin xiehao le.
I BA letter write-complete ASP.
I finished writing the letter.
2.2.S.2 Aspectual marker as the result
Aspectual marker “zhe” and “/e” can appear in the ^-construction. For example:
(41)Taba zang yifu bao zhe. (Li & Thompson 1981)
He BA dirty clothes hold zhe.
He was holding the dirty laundry.
(42)Ta ba shengfan chi le.
He BA left-over eat le.
He ate the left-overs.
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Since “zfe” is a progressive marker, it does not explicitly convey a sense of disposal,
and hence “z/ze” is rarely used in the ba-construction. “Le,” however, is commonly
used.
2.2.53 Locative complement/directional complements:
In a study o f ba sentences found in colloquial essays, stories, and speeches, about
forty percent of ba sentences ended with directional complements (Goodall 1987). The
locative complements/directional complements occur very frequently in daily speech.
(43)Qing ba naba yizi ban xialai.
Please BA that chair move down-come.
Please move the chair down here.
(44)Qing ba naben shu fang zai wode zhuozi shang.
Please BA that book put at my desk top.
Please put that book on my desk.
2.2.S.4 Verb reduplication
Usually activity verbs occur in the form Verb-(yi)-Verb in the /^-construction, as
illustrated below:
(45) Wo dei ba zhejian yifu xi(yi)xi.
I must BA this clothing wash-one-wash.
I must wash this clothing.
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(46)Qing ba zheben shu kan(yi)kan.
Please BA this book read-one-read.
Please read this book.
2.3 Empirical studies of the ^ -co nstruction
Although the ^-construction is an important and linguistically widely-discussed
topic in Mandarin Chinese, from the OCLC First search database, we can see that little
research has been done on the acquisition of the ^-construction. One was an
experiment study conducted by Fahn (1993) investigating LI acquisition of this
construction by children from 2 to 7 years old. As far as studies in the second language
acquisition of the ^-construction are concerned, only one undertaken by Jin (1992) is
known. In the following two subsections, I will review these two studies.
2.3.1 Jin (1992)
Jin supposes that the ^-construction manifests the Topic-prominent feature of
Mandarin Chinese. With many studies on syntacticization as a phenomenon of
language typological transfer from Topic Prominent (TP) to Subject Prominent (SP)
languages, Jin (1992) looked into the pragmaticization in L2 acquisition from SP to TP
through L2 Adult learners acquiring the da-construction. She addressed three main
questions in her research:
First, do native speakers of English (SP) undergo a process of pragmaticization
while learning Mandarin Chinese (TP) such as the Chinese ^-construction?
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Second, if a process of pragmaticization is manifested, what are the necessary steps
learners take to learn the TP language?
Third, what kind of learning difficulties do the L2 learners have in learning the
Chinese ^-construction?
The subjects in Jin’s study were 46 students from Middlebury Chinese school from
different levels: Level 1 are the beginners, Level II students have learned Chinese for
one year, Level III for two years, and Level Four for three years. The types of tasks the
subjects finished were comprehension and production. The grammaticality judgment
task included 30 sentences, and the production task consisted of 11 sentences for
translation and a story telling based on cartoon.
Linguistic features related to the ^-construction are shown in the following table,
table 2.3:
Type Feature Cluster I Cluster II Cluster III
Ba-N P’s Semantic Roles Patient Patient/Theme Theme/Experiencer
Disposability of VPs More strong Less strong Least strong
Surface word order s + o + v S + N P + V + O S + PP + V + 0
Likelihood of using ba Most likely More likely Optional
Table 2.3 Linguistic features of Ba-construction (Jin 1992)
The results of the grammaticality task show that there exists a positive correlation
between the level o f the learners and the degree of contextual dependency of the use of
the ^-construction. The results of the production tasks demonstrate that the occurrence
of the ^-construction increases the higher the proficiency level is. On the basis of
these results, Jin concludes that there is a process o f pragmaticization in which SP
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learners have to learn to resort to pragmatic strategies to judge or produce the TP
structures as specified by the 6a-construction. Three stages are involved in this process.
First, the &a-NP is treated as an object instead of a topic to be moved to the preverbal
position. Second, learners treat the ba-NPs partially as a topic and partially as an
object. Third, the ba-NP is viewed not as an object but as a topic. This process also
implies the learning difficulties the learners come across while learning this
construction.
2.3.2 Fahn
Based on the Maturation Hypothesis*, the Continuity Hypothesis**, and the
Incrementalist Hypothesis*** in developmental psychology, Fahn (1993) conducted an
experimental study. She classified the constraints of the ^-construction into five basic
groups: progressive markers can not occur in the ba-construction, only certain types of
verb can occur in the ^-construction, certain verbs need modifiers to occur in the ba-
construction, only resultative verb compounds can occur in the ba-construction, and the
ba-NPs cannot be indefinite. The five constraints thus became the starting point of her
research. The questions she addressed in her dissertation were:
First, how do children acquire the Z>a-construction?
Second, do children acquire some constraints earlier than others?
Third, if certain constraints are acquired earlier than others, what is the order of
emergence and why do they emerge earlier?
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Fourth, do non-linguistic factors such as frequency effects and perception influence
language development?
100 children from 2.6 to 7.5 years old participated in her study. They were divided
into ten groups with half-year intervals.
In her study, a correlation analysis, the one-way ANOVA, a percentile comparison, and
the chi-square test were applied. The result shows that age five is a critical point in
acquiring different constraints of the ^-construction, and that the five constraints can
be further divided into two groups in terms of acquisition order, i.e. the first group is
acquired earlier than the second group. The first group involves the Progressive, Verb
Selection, and Modifier Constraints, while the second group consists of the Compound
verb and the Definiteness of the ha-NPs. In explaining why such order of acquisition
appears, Fahn applied the theory of conservativism (Pinker 1989) and rapid learning. It
is argued that constraints on the definiteness of the ba-NPs will not emerge until
children have acquired the distinction between definite and indefinite articles according
to the conservatism. Once they acquire the contrast, the children start to apply the ba-
construction. Cumulative Complexity (Brown 1973) and Developmental Law
(O’Grady 1987) predict that the compound verb are acquired later than constraints on
progressive, verb selection and modifiers because the former is more complicated than
the latter.
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Note:
* Maturation Hypothesis: Maturationism is characterized by the strong belief in the
biologically determined schedule of maturational process. It assumes that Universal
Grammar itself matures (Felix 1984), principles of UG emerge at
different times and children’s grammar is constrained only by those principles that have
emerged (Felix 1984, Borer and Wexler 1987)
** Continuity Hypothesis: Continuity hypothesis assumes that UG is present in all the
stages o f first language development, even at the earliest stage. Pinker (1984) argues
that changes in the child’s lexicon can trigger restructuring of the grammatical system.
*** Incremental Hypothesis: Incremental Hypothesis states that language development
proceeds in increments, that is to say, more complex principles and notions will be
acquired later than their simpler counterparts (Brown, 1973).
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CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODS AND RESULTS
In this chapter, I will present my research methods and results. In sections 3.1 and
3.2, the subjects and the methodology of the present study will be reported. In sections
3.3 and 3.4, the test materials and data collection procedures will be described. In
section 3 .5 ,1 will present the results in terms of the features we are testing.
3.1 Subjects
A total of 95 people participated in this study, including 39 native speakers of
English from Level II, 24 native speakers of English from Level III, 8 native speakers
of English from Level IV, and 24 native speakers of Mandarin Chinese as the control
group. The L2 learners of Mandarin Chinese were all full-time students in the
department of East Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of Southern
California. The information about the subjects is listed below.
Level II Level III Level IV
Participants 39 24 8
Participants with background in Taiwanese 9 23% 5 21% 1 13%
Participants with background in Cantonese 12 31% 7 29% 2 25%
Table 3.1 Subject information
Some subjects can speak several dialects. I chose the most significant one for
him/her as the dialectal background. For instance, one subject wrote, “I speak
Cantonese, which was my first language since I was bom and I speak it at home. I
learned Mandarin in Chinese school on Saturdays for 10 years. I understand
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Fukienese and I was exposed to it for about 3 years.” Since she has spoken Cantonese
since she was a child and speaks it at home, I label this subject as having a background
in Cantonese.
As we can see from the table above, the percentages of the participants with a
Taiwanese background in Level 2, Level 3, and Level 4 are 23%, 21%, and 13%
respectively. The percentages of the participants with a Cantonese background in Level
2, Level 3, and Level 4 are 31%, 29%, and 25% respectively. There is no big difference
in the percentages of the subjects with Taiwanese and Cantonese backgrounds in each
level. Their motivation for studying Chinese was also investigated before they
participated in the research. The following table illustrates their motivations.
Groups Level II Level III Level IV
Interest 32 82% 19 79% 7 87%
Requirement 7 18% 5 21% 1 13%
Others 0 0 0
Table 3.2 Subject motivation
Some subjects checked both “interest” and “language requirement.” In this case, I
grouped him/her into the “interest” group. From the above table, we can see that 82%,
79%, and 87% of students in Level 2, Level 3, and Level 4 are studying Chinese out of
interest. 18%, 21%, and 13% of students in Level 2, Level 3, and Level 4 are studying
Chinese for language requirement. The slightly different distribution of motivations
should not become a significant influencing factor in deciding their performance of the
tasks.
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3.2 Methodology
Data collection is a very important issue in SLA. According to Seliger (1989), there
is a continuum of different data collection methods based on “the degree of explicitness
of the data collection procedure,” as illustrated in figure 3.1
Low explicitness High explicitness
Heuristic/synthetic research Analytic/deductive research
Diaries Structured interviews Metalinguistic tests
Record reviews Semi-structured questionnaires Grammatical judgments
Journals Structured questionnaires
Letters Structured observations
Unstructured interviews Discrete point tests
Conversations
Open Observations
Figure 3.1 Continuum of different data collection methods (Seliger 1989, PI 59)
Collecting data with procedures of a low degree of explicitness is often done by the
means of interview, observation, notes/records, diaries, conversation, etc. This way of
collecting data has some drawbacks in the study of second language acquisition. First
of all, certain language phenomena are infrequently used in daily conversation. The
researchers may spend days, even months, waiting for the subjects to utter some
language features in a natural context. The study therefore becomes longitudinal. The
second drawback is that sometimes the subjects avoid using certain language features
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that they are not sure about (White 1989). From my observation, the ^-construction is
often avoided in the speech of the subjects. At the other end of the continuum, methods
of high explicitness are often accompanied by “the use o f formal and structured types of
data collection procedures, such as questionnaires, discrete point tests, metalinguistic
judgment tests” (Seliger, 1989). In this study, I adopted methods of high explicitness: a
grammaticality judgment task (henceforth the GJ task), a translation task (henceforth
the TT task), and a picture-cue production task (henceforth the PP task).
The GJ task in this research was used to test the subjects’ intuition of the linguistic
properties of the ^-construction. In this study, I focus on six features of the ba-
construction. Each feature is represented by three minimal pairs of sentences, i.e. the
two 6a-sentences in each minimal pair are only different in terms of the feature that is
investigated. Furthermore, only one sentence in a minimal pair is grammatical. All
together there are 36 sentences, written in both Chinese characters and pinyin. With the
minimal pairs of sentences scattered randomly, the subjects are asked to do
grammaticality judgment to test their intuition or knowledge about the six important
properties of the ^-construction. The GJ task is widely used in the SLA research.
The TT task in this study is mainly used to test the learners’ pragmatic knowledge
about one property of the ^-construction, i.e. the directional complement in the ba-
construction. At the same time, the TT task also tests the learners’ knowledge about the
structure of the 6a-construction concerning the directional complement. There are nine
sentences in English. The subjects are asked to translate the nine sentences into
Mandarin Chinese. In case the subjects might not able to write Chinese characters well,
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they are asked to write either pinyin or characters in the TT task. Among the nine
sentences, three can only be expressed by the normal structure (SVO), three can be
expressed by either the ^-construction or the normal structure (SVO), and three can
only be expressed by the ^-construction.
In addition to the GJ task and the TT task, I also use the PP task to evaluate the
subjects’ performance on the use of the 6a-constraction. In the PP task, a series of
pictures is used to evoke the use of the ^-construction. Based on the context and some
hints provided in the picture-cues, the subjects need to produce the target structure.
This technique allows the data to be collected in a short session, whereas naturalist
observation or interviews might take months or even years to get the same results. As
we know, production and comprehension are two different procedures in language
learning. The PP task gives the subjects a chance to produce something with the help of
the pictures and the hints provided. By doing this, we can analyze the errors that the
subjects make so that we can get further results on their understanding about the ba-
construction.
In short, I designed three kinds of tasks to measure the understanding of the
subjects’ knowledge or intuition about six properties of the ^-construction. The three
tasks are the GJ task, the TT task, and the PP task. The former two are intended to
examine the competence of the subjects while the latter one aims to test their
performance. It is my hope that the competence-based task and the performance-based
task can work together to capture the real condition of the subjects’ understanding of
the ^-construction.
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3.3 Materials
This study mainly focuses on the following six properties of the ^-construction.
1. The word order of the ^-construction.
2. The use of directional complements in the ^-construction.
3. The use of resultative complements in the ha-construction.
4. The use of the aspect marker LE in the ha-constraction.
5. The reduplication of the verb in the ^-construction.
6. The selection of the verb in the ^-construction.
Accordingly, the materials in the research are designed to explore the subjects’
understanding of the above six features. The distribution o f the features in the materials
is illustrated in the following table, Table 3.3. The words used in the tasks are words
Level II students have already learned. Please see Appendix A.
Aspect
marker Le
Verb
selection
Word
order
Directional
complement
Reduplication
of the verb
Resultative
compounds
GJ 3 3 3 3 3 3
TT 1 0 9 4 1 1
PP 2 5 5 3 0 2
Table 3.3 Distribution o f the features
3.4 Procedures
After the three tasks were designed, a pretest was carried out to ensure that the tasks
were valid. Two Level I students were asked to do the three tasks, but they failed to
finish the tests. The Level I students have not been exposed to the ha-construction in
Mandarin Chinese, so they do not know what the ^-construction is. I therefore
exclude Level I students from participating in this study. One Level III student and
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one Level IV student were asked to do the three tasks before the experiment was carried
out in a large scale. The two students successfully finished the tests. They did not have
any problem understanding the instructions for each task, nor did they have any
problem understanding the picture-cue production task. They found some mistakes on
the numbering of the GJ task, which were revised later. Most of their responses were
within theoretical expectations.
With some minor revisions, the formal testing was conducted in different classes.
Before handing out the questionnaires, the experimenter explained the instructions
clearly and told them they could have as much time as they needed. The subjects first
wrote down some personal information such as their level of Chinese, their motivation
for learning Chinese, and their exposure to Chinese before, if any. Then they finished
the tasks in the order of GJ, TT, and PP. Overall the tasks took the subjects twenty-five
to forty minutes.
After the data collection, the scoring criterion was set. In the GJ task, one point is
given if a grammatical sentence is judged grammatical. One point is given if an
ungrammatical sentence is judged ungrammatical. One point is reduced if they judge
the sentence incorrectly. Therefore, in one minimal pair, if both sentences are judged
correctly, two points will be given. If both of the sentences are judged grammatical or
ungrammatical, they get a zero score. If the grammatical sentence is judged
ungrammatical, but the ungrammatical one is judged grammatical, a minus 2 score will
be given. By giving a minus score, we can see clearly which properties are
misunderstood.
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In the TT task, a correct sentence is given two points. But an ill-formed sentence
with the intention of using the correct structure will be given one point. If a sentence
that should not use the ^-construction is translated with the ^-construction, a zero
point will be given.
In the PP task, five points will be given to a very well-formed sentence. One point
will be reduced if one critical property of the ^-construction is violated. Errors the
subjects make will be analyzed and summarized.
3.5 Results
In this section, I will first present the results of the GJ task respectively. Then the
pragmatic usage of the fra-construction, i.e. the results of the TT task and the PP task
will be discussed.
3.5.1 Aspectual marker LE
Std. Dev = 2.27
Mean ® 2.3
-2.0 0.0 2.0 4,0 6.0
Aspect Le
Figure 3.2 Mastery of Aspectual marker “le”
The aspectual marker “ Le” is a very complicated phenomenon in Mandarin Chinese. It
has been very difficult to master for those learning Chinese as a foreign/second
language. There is no exception when it functions as a complement in the ba-
construction. As illustrated above, the mean score for the “aspectual marker le” in the
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^-construction is 2.3. Compared to the score of the control group (6), this score is
relatively low. The thing that seems out of the scope of our understanding is that when
we compare the subjects’ performance on the aspectual marker le of the ba-
construction, we find that the mean score of the level II students (2.79) is higher than
those of the other two levels, which are 1.75 and 1.67 respectively.
Aspect Le
Report
Level Mean N Std. Deviation
2 2.79 38 2.00
3 1.67 24 2.26
4 1.75 8 3.11
Total 2.29 70 2.27
Table 3.4 Aspectual “le” report
What causes the above-mentioned phenomenon is still unknown. Further research is
needed to find out the reason.
3.5.2 Verb selection
Figure 3.3 Mastery of “verb selection”
From the above figure, we can find out that the mean score o f the verb selection test is
1.7. Compared to the mean score of the control group, 6, it is very low. In level II,
students have been exposed to several hundred words; verbs are at most 29 percent. Is
it due to students’ not being familiar with the verbs, or is it because they are not sure
about the constraint of the ^-construction on the verb selection? From the following
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form, we can see that the higher the level is, the better the subjects perform on the verb
selection in the ba-constmction.
Report
Verb selection
Level Mean N Std. Deviation
2 1.68 38 2.00
3 1.58 24 2.04
4 2.00 8 2.14
Total 1.69 70 2.00
Table 3.5 “Verb selection” report
3.5.3 Word order
Figure 3.4 Mastery of “word order”
As we have seen from chapter two, the main difference between ba-sentences and
non-ba-sentences is the word order. In the ba-construction, the canonical word order of
Mandarin Chinese SVO is changed to S Ba O V. The mean score of the students’
performance on the word order is 3.3, and it seems most of the subjects did very well on
this. It seems that it is fairly easy to remember the overall structure of the ba-
construction, but this is not the case with the detailed components that we have
analyzed with the aspectual marker le and verb selection.
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Report
Word order
Level Mean N Std. Deviation
2 3.26 38 2.56
3 3.25 24 2.56
4 3.50 8 2.33
Total 3.29 70 2.50
Table 3.6 “Word order” report
From the above report, we can see that subjects from different levels perform similarly.
It seems that in the performance in basic word order the ^-construction does not
change with the level of proficiency.
3,5,4 Directional complements
Figure 3.5 Mastery of “directional complements”
Directional complements, as we mentioned in chapter two, are very important in
the ^-construction. People use directional complements in the ^-construction very
frequently, and sometimes it is one of the very few ways to express some meanings.
Unfortunately, the subjects did not understand the directional complements in the ba-
construction very well. The mean score of their performance is 1.3, which is rather low
compared with the mean score of the control group (6.00).
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Report
Directional complement
Level Mean N Std. Deviation
2 1.16 38 2.31
3 1.17 24 2.63
4 2.75 8 2.60
Total 1.34 70 2.47
Table 3.7 “Directional complement” report
From the above report, we see that the subjects’ understanding of the directional
complements in the &a-construction becomes better when their overall proficiency level
of Chinese language improves.
3.5.5 Verb reduplication
■
Std. Dev * 2J0
M ean = 13
N = 70.00
Figure 3.6 Mastery of “verb reduplication”
Verb reduplication is not emphasized in textbook materials. Generally speaking,
verb reduplication only happens when 1) the ha-construction is in an imperative
sentence; 2) the speaker wants to keep the tone down a little. With such a low mean
score (1.3), the subjects must have not understood the contextual meaning o f verb
reduplication. Let’s examine the following report about the situation among different
levels of proficiency.
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Report
Verb reduplication
Level Mean N Std. Deviation
2 1.26 38 2.10
3 1.25 24 2.27
4 1.75 8 2.71
Total 1.31 70 2.20
Table 3.8 “Verb reduplication” report
The improvement of the subjects’ overall Chinese language proficiency does not
change the situation much.
3.5.6 Resultative compounds.
Resultative compounds are a very representative phenomenon in the ^-construction in
that they are composed of a verb and its result. If the subjects do poorly on this, it
indicates that
Resultative compouids
Figure 3.7 Mastery of “resultative compounds”
they are not clear about the semantic application of the ^-construction. As illustrated
in the above figure, the mean score for resultative compounds is 1.3, which is
comparatively very low. Let’s examine the following report about the differences
among different proficiency levels.
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Report
Resultative compounds
Level Mean N Std. Deviation
2 1.26 38 2.00
3 1.25 24 1.65
4 1.50 8 .93
Total 1.29 70 1.77
Table 3.9 “Resultative compounds” report
The above report does not show any big change with their overall improvement in
Chinese.
3.6 Summary
In this chapter, I have described the subjects’ information and the methodology of
the present study. A detailed description of the testing materials and procedure was also
given. The scoring criterion has also been set. The results of the experiment are given
at the end of this chapter. The following is a summary of the results according to
different types of tasks. The three tasks are significantly correlated.
C o rre la tio n s
Translation
Task
Grammatical
iudament
Picture-cue
production
Translation Task Pearson Correlation 1.000 .294* .394*’
Sig. (2-tailed) .013 .001
N 70 70 70
Grammatical judgment Pearson Correlation .294* 1.000 .314*’
Sig. (2-tailed) .013 .008
N 70 70 70
Picture-cue production Pearson Correlation .394** .314** 1.000
Sig. (2-tailed) .001 .008
N 70 70 70
*• Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).
**• Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
Table 3.10 Correlations among the tasks
The significant correlations among the three types of tasks indicate that they are valid
tests for the same properties. The following is a summary of the differences in the
subjects’ performance regarding the task types.
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GJ task:
Figure 3.8 Grammatical j udgment task performance
In the Grammatical Judgment task, subjects as a whole did not perform well. The
mean score they got in this task is 11.1. Compared with the mean score o f the control
group (35.95), the mean score of the subjects was poor. Among the six properties
tested, word order is the best one that the subjects performed well on. Verb selection
has a tendency to be better with the improvement o f overall Chinese language
proficiency. The poor performance on the other four properties of the ^-construction
indicates that, although the subjects know the basic word order of the ^-construction
and some basic rules on verb selection, they still do not quite understand how to use the
Z>a-construction and the basic meanings the ^-construction conveys.
TT task:
Std. Dev = 5.38
M ein = l l .a
N = 70.00
Figure 3.9 Translation task performance
44
10
o
0.0 2.5 5.0 7.5 10.0 12.S 15.0 17.5
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My primary purpose of the TT task is to test whether the subjects know about
directional complements. They did fairly well here. It demonstrates that they were
conscious about the special usage of directional complements in the ^-construction.
But although most of the time they knew when directional complements should be used,
they made mistakes while phrasing.
Figure 3.10 Picture-cue task performance
With the help of the pictures, the subjects can apply the ^-construction in
production. Although some of them seemed a little frustrated in doing this, their
performance exceeded my expectations. In chapter four, a further analysis of the results
will be provided.
PP task:
0.0 2.5 5.0 7.5 10.0 12.S 1S.0 17.S 20.0 22.5 25.0
Picture-cue production
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CHAPTER FOUR
FURTHER DISCUSSION OF THE RESULTS AND PROPOSALS FOR
COMPILING TEACHING MATERIALS AND CLASSROOM TEACHING
In this chapter, I will further interpret the results of the research. In section 4.1, the
research questions raised in chapter one will be answered. Issues regarding second
language acquisition will be brought into discussion. In section 4.2, I will make a
proposal on compiling teaching materials concerning the ^-construction. In section
4.3, some suggestions on the classroom teaching of the bar-construction will be given.
Section 4.4 will present some questions that await future research.
4.1 Interlanguage hypothesis, U-shaped behavior, and second language acquisition
The term “interlanguage” was first used by Selinker (1972) to refer to the interim
grammars constructed by second-language learners on their way to the target language.
It is a major approach in second language acquisition research. The interlanguage is
neither the learners’ first language nor their target language. Generally speaking, the
term “interlanguage” means “the range o f interlocking systems that characterizes the
development of learners over time” (McLaughlin, 1987). It is the result of learners’
employing different internal strategies to internalize the input and manipulate the output
in the process of acquiring a second language. Selinker (1972) argued that
“interlanguage is a separate linguistic system resulting from the learner’s attempted
productive or the target language norm.” One of the crucial cognitive processes
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involves overgeneralization. Some elements of the interlanguage may be the result of
overgeneralization of the rules and semantic features of the target language.
Within the realm of interlanguage, U-shaped behavioral development is adopted in
second language acquisition to describe systematic linguistic behavior over time as
realized in three distinct stages (Kellerman, 1985). The first stage is characterized by
error-free performance on the part of the learners. The second stage is characterized by
deviant performance compared with the target language. As a result, the second-stage
performance on the part of the learners is different from the first-stage performance.
Performance on the third stage is a return to the performance on the first stage and
sometimes surpasses the first-stage performance. The tripartite sequence is illustrated
in the diagrammatic form below.
Proficiency level 1 Good performance Proficiency level 3
deviant performance
Proficiency level 2
Figure 4.1 U-shape (Kellerman, 1985)
The reasons why learners at stage two do not do as well as those at stage one and
stage three are still not very clear. It has been argued that the appearance of deviant
forms should not be regarded as “attrition” in linguistic competence, but as a “cognitive
advance” (Strauss and Stein 1978). But how the “cognitive advance” should be
interpreted under different conditions is not clearly defined. In the following
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subsections, I will argue that the appearance of U-shaped behavior in the cross-sectional
data is caused by unconfirmed assumptions in the learners’ mind at the second stage.
4.1.1 Procedure of the acquisition of the ba-construction
There does not exist a correlation between the overall acquisition of the ha-
construction and the level of the subjects.
Correlations
Level
Ba-constructio
n properties
Level Pearson Correlation 1.000 .028
Sig. (2-tailed) , .817
N 70 70
Ba-construction Pearson Correlation .028 1.000
properties
Sig. (2-tailed) .817
N 70 70
Table 4.1 Correlation between subject level and the acquisition of the ba-construction
The insignificant correlation between the level and the ba-construction properties
acquisition urges us to see what kind of relationship exists between the level and the
acquisition. The following figure shows U-shaped behavior in the acquisition o f the ba-
construction properties cross-proficiency levels.
1 3 .5
13.0
12.S
12.0
11.S
11.0
10.5
10.0
9.5
2 3
Level
Figure 4.2 U-shaped behavior in the acquisition of the ba-constraction
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In the above diagram, the Y axle indicates the mean score the subjects got in the tasks,
and the X axle indicates the levels. As we can see, the level-two subjects perform well
and the level-four perform better than level-two students. The one in the bottom is the
performance of level-three students. There seems to be a U-shaped developmental
pattern in the acquisition of the ^-construction with the level three having the lowest
scores and levels two and four representing the two higher ends.
As for level-two students, there was a short time between when they learned the ba-
construction and the time when I did this experiment. Students in level two still had
fresh memories about the Z>a-construction. They automatically remembered the rules of
the ^-construction. The tasks seemed to be some problem-solving exercises for them.
Level-three students, however, were formally exposed to the ^-construction at least six
months before. They were in the process of internalization with their own unconfirmed
assumptions, some of them right and some of them wrong. They were no longer
relying on their memories. Having been exposed to a large amount of Chinese
language materials, level four students were approaching the final state of
internalization as the result of having their assumptions confirmed or denied.
According to Strauss and Stein (1978), the performance of level-three students is not
retrogressing, but rather a “cognitive advance.” Level-three students are not forgetting
but rather internalizing through a very complicated process of confirming and negating
the assumptions they make according to former instructions. This stage is significant in
that they could never acquire the grammar without the process o f internalization.
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4.1.2 Acquisition of the 6a-construction’s individual properties
The acquisition of the ^-construction as a whole undergoes a U-shaped
developmental pattern. In this section, I would like to see how each property
considered in this experiment is acquired. The following figure shows the paths o f the
individual properties of the ia-construction across different proficiency levels.
2
4.0
3.5
3.0
2.5
2.0
1.5
2 3 4
A spect Le
D irectional com plem e
n t
Vert) reduplication
R esultative com pound
Level
Figure 4.3 Acquisition of individual properties of the &a-construction
As we can see in the above figure, the acquisition of each property manifests a U-
shaped pattern. The word order is the one in the highest position. The U-shape is not
very obvious, but there seems to be at least a mild U-shape. Word order actually is the
most superficial element in the ^-construction in that it does not imply the disposal
meaning of the ^-construction. The disposal meaning of the ^-construction is
reflected in the other properties of the ^-construction, such as verb selection,
resultative compounds. The more superficial a property is, the easier it is to internalize.
Therefore we do not see a very clear pattern of U-Shape in the acquisition of the word
order.
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The most prominent U-shape is represented by the acquisition o f the aspect marker
le and the directional complement. The acquisition of the directional complement is
characterized by the rapid improvement in level four. As we quoted Li & Thompson
(1981) in chapter two, the “obligatory” use of the ^-construction is often reflected on
the directional complement. This “obligatory” sense of the use o f the ba-construction
makes learners more conscious of this structural property of the ia-construction.
Internalization happens faster when a grammatical feature of the target language is a
prominent choice.
The aspect marker le seems to be another interesting case. Level-four students do
not perform as well as level-two students in terms of the aspect marker le in the ba-
construction. Since LE is a very complicated phenomenon in the Chinese language,
there must be some other influencing factor in the acquisition of the aspect marker le in
the ^-construction. In addition, the small sample of Level-four students may be
another influencing factor. Regarding this point, we need to do further research.
The acquisition of verb selection, verb reduplication, and resultative compounds
are all in the U-shaped pattern of development.
The acquisition order of the ^-construction properties is below:
3.S
3.0
2.5
2.0
1.S
..0
Figure 4.4 Acquisition order of the ba-construction properties
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The acquisition order seems to be: Word order -> Aspect marker Le -> Verb selection
-> Directional complement/Verb reduplication/Resultative complements
4.1.3 Students with different dialectal backgrounds compared to those w ithout
any background
Subjects from different dialectal backgrounds are recorded. The results presented
in Figure 4.5 show that the subjects with Chinese language background (heritage
speakers) perform far better than those without any Chinese language background
(non-heritage speakers) before they came to college. It seems that the background
knowledge of learners helps them acquire the &a-construction. English, as their native
language (LI), does not seem to be the reason that the subjects with Chinese
background perform better than those without background. Selinker (1972) pointed out
1 l 3 • » 5
Dialect background
1. Taiwanese
2. Cantonese
3. Mandarin
4. Without background
5. Control group
Figure 4.5 Task performance across different backgrounds
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that some items, rules, and subsystems of the interlanguage might result from transfer
from the first language. The same would apply to the heritage speakers in terms of their
background knowledge in some Chinese dialects. As we can conclude from the results,
early exposure to the target language or languages closely related to the target language
plays an important role in language learning.
While we compare the performance results of the subjects with Cantonese
backgrounds and those with Taiwanese backgrounds, it is easy to see that the latter did
not perform as well as the former. As we know, in Taiwanese there is a construction —
the ^-construction similar to the ^-construction in Mandarin Chinese. In Cantonese,
however, there is not anything similar to the ^-construction in Mandarin Chinese.
Based on this observation, the results should be expected to be the opposite from what
we get. What caused this seemingly unnatural result? Li (2001) discusses the
differences between the Taiwanese ka and Mandarin ba and concludes that ka is used
more loosely than ba. If ka is used more widely than ba, the subjects who know ka
before ba will be inclined to accept more sentences with the incorrect use of ba in
Mandarin Chinese. Those without any knowledge about the ba will totally depend on
the knowledge they get from textbooks and teachers. The possibility for them to accept
incorrect sentences with ba will definitely be reduced.
Notes:
• Heritage speaker: “Heritage speaker is used to refer to a student who is raised
in a home where a non-English language is spoken, who speaks or merely
understands the heritage language, and who is to some degree bilingual in
English and the heritage language." (Valdes, G. 2000)
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4.2 Compiling teaching materials
With the above analysis about acquisition procedures and the developmental
pattern regarding ^-construction acquisition, the following suggestions on compiling
teaching materials are proposed.
4.2.1 Repetition
In order to speed up the process of internalization, repetition of all kinds of ba
sentences in the textbooks is very necessary. The process of internalization is a course
of continuous negation and confirmation about the assumptions the learners make.
With more input, learners’ assumptions will be quickly responded to; therefore the
whole process o f learning will be shortened.
4.2.2 Exercise design: pragmatic considerations
More situational exercises on the 6a-construction should be designed in the
textbooks. The exercises should contain functional usage of the ^-construction, i.e.
not only the syntactic structure of different types of the ^-construction should be
presented but also the pragmatic should be considered. By doing this, a simulation of
the real world would be established. While the learners do the exercises, it seems that
they are put into the real world and they are doing real communication with what they
learned. Applying what the learners learn to actual speech is a way to hasten the
process of internalization.
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4.3 Classroom teaching
With the analysis about the acquisition procedures and the developmental pattern
regarding the fta-constmction acquisition, the following suggestions on classroom
teaching are raised.
4.3.1 Students with different background should be separate
Learners with background and learners without any background in Chinese dialects
perform differently. This tells us that they need different instruction and attention from
instructors. They should attend different classes and do different homework. The
specific reasons for the differences in performance should be further explored, and
classroom instruction should rely heavily on the reasons for these differences.
4.3.2 Level three needs more attention.
As we can see from the U-shaped developmental pattern, level-three students seem
to need more attention. A large amount of exercises on the ^-construction should be
given to them. If they cannot get enough input to confirm or negate their assumptions
about the simple properties of the ^^-construction at this stage, it will definitely have a
bad influence on their acquisition of more complicated properties o f the ba-
construction.
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4.4 Questions for further research
There are several questions that need further research. The main questions are:
1. How is the aspect marker “/e” acquired as a whole and specifically in the ba-
construction? In chapter four, we saw that level-two students did very well on the
aspect marker le in the ^-construction, but level-four students could not do as well as
level two students. If we include more levels, for example, level five, level six, and
level seven, which level starts to exceed the performance of level two and what leads to
success if there is any?
2. The different influence from dialectal backgrounds, especially Cantonese and
Taiwanese backgrounds, still needs further research.
Due to limited space, some points in this research still need improvement. First,
more higher-level subjects, such as level-four students, should be added. Second, there
should be a more detailed and restricted control over some variables, for instance,
detailed information on the students’ language backgrounds, textbooks they are using,
instructions the subjects get. Third, a more valid measurement of the tasks should be
provided.
4.5 Summary
In chapter four, I have interpreted the experimental results in terms of SLA issues.
First of all, I have shown that the acquisition of the ba-construction undergoes a U-
shaped developmental pattern across different proficiency levels. Then, I analyzed the
differences among subjects of different language backgrounds. Then proposals on
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teaching materials compiling and classroom teaching were put forward. Finally I
pointed out two main issues that need further research and the limitations of this
research.
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(ed.), Ergativity, 103-114. London: Academic Press.
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At: http://www.usc.edu/dept/LAS/ealc/chinling/audreyli.htm
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Chubanshe, Beijing
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Liu, F.H (1997). “An Aspectual Analysis of Ba,” Journal of East Asian Languages 6,
51-99
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371-80
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Chubanshe, Beijing.
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61
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A P PE N D IX A: Q U EST IO N N A IR E FO R SU B JE C T S’ BA C K G R O U N D
IN FO R M A T IO N
Student Information Form:
1. I’m a student in the class of
□ Chinese II
□ Chinese in
□ Chinese IV
2. Reasons of learning Chinese:
□ Personal interest
□ Major/Language requirement
□ O thers_____________________________
3. Please tell us what other languages or dialects you speak, how you learned it
(them), and how long you have you been exposed to it (them). For example, “I
also speak Taiwanese. I learned it from my family. I have been exposed to it
since I was 2.”
62
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A PPE N D IX B: SA M P L E T E ST SE N T E N C E S U SE D IN TH E GJ T A SK
T H 3 6 1 ^ 1 . “O” , “X” o
There are 36 sentences. Please write “O” in front of the sentences which you think are
grammatical, and write “X” in front of those which you think are ungrammatical.
For example: O 1. °
1.
Ba zhebei cha he le!
2 . 1 M ?T 7o
Wang Peng ba heimao da le.
3. fis m ± T o
Wo yijing ba na ben shu na dao loushang le.
4. i f iff #1 3^ 4" 1 hfo
Qing ni ba zhe ge zi xie.
5. i f IE isjjft Ml ± o
Qing ba cidian fangzai zhuozi shang.
6. f i .
Wo ba wode shu diu le.
7 . m m T o
Wo yijing na na ben shu dao loushang le.
8 . 1 H fG$s I T .
Wo de shu ba wo diu le.
9. iifciC W nfeo
Ta ba fan chi.
10. $t T o
Wo ba zhe ge zi xiecuo le.
11. 1 M H g JE I T # ‘ H i*o
Wang Peng jintian yao ba zuoye xie kuai.
63
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A P PE N D IX C: T E ST SE N TE N C ES U SED IN T H E TT T A SK
TT task:
Please translate the following sentences into Chinese (Pinyin or character). Use “ba-
sentences” if you can. “Ba-sentences” are sentences which contains ba. For example:
0. He finished eating the apple.
Ta ba pingguo chi wan le. °
1. Please take a look at this book.
2. Please pass me that dictionary (ffzfe: cidian)!
3. She finished eating the dumplings jiaozi).
4. Please put the book on the table.
5. I miss Xiaoming.
6. He loves Li You.
7. He knows Wang Peng.
8. Please write your name on the paper.
9. Please leave this apple to Wang Peng.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
A PPEN D IX D: SA M PLE PIC T U R E U SED IN T H E PP T A SK
PP task:
There are 5 pictures in this section. See if you can use ba-sentences to describe them; if
not, please use non-ba-sentences. Ba-sentences are sentences which contain ba. For
example: ta ba pingguo chiwan le. (He finished eating the apple.)
Picture 1:
/M j w m i « f rT (fzk
Xiaoming ganggang nazhe beizi heshui,
im tm io
Keshi xianzai beizi dasui le.
i& L B '7W M 7 if 7 & ,?
Ni keyi shuochu xiaoming zuo le shenme ma?
65
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APPENDIX E: Q U E ST IO N N A IR E FO R TH E C O N T R O L G RO UP
IN FO R M A T IO N
Student Information Form:
1- Age ___ _____
2. Other languages I speak:
3. Dialects I speak: ______ _
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
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Zhang, Shenglan
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Core Title
Second language acquisition of the ba-construction in contemporary Mandarin Chinese
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Master of Arts
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East Asian Languages and Cultures
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language, linguistics,Language, Modern,OAI-PMH Harvest
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