Abstract
As one of the verbs with the highest frequency of co-occurrence with Chinese ditransitive constructions, “SONG” can be used in various ditransitive constructions (Zhang 1999). In the second language acquisition process, it is also a verb that learners can acquire more quickly (Liu 2006; Wang 2017). Therefore, compared with other verbs, “SONG” is a suitable verb for understanding the influence of verb semantic preferences and the given-before-new principle on construction preference when exploring learners' use of ditransitive constructions. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how Japanese Chinese as a Second Language (CSL) learners and native Chinese speakers use the verb “SONG”, how constructions containing “SONG” interact with verb meanings, differences in the distribution of constructions influenced by information structure, and whether “SONG” behaves similarly to other ditransitive verbs. In this study, we combined the experimental data of Japanese CSL learners and Chinese native speakers with a survey of a native speaker corpus to investigate the construction distribution and information structure performance of the verb “SONG”. In general, Japanese CSL learners and Chinese native speakers differed in their preferences for constructions containing “SONG”, with Japanese learners preferring VgeiDO and geiNVN constructions over native speakers. While compared to other ditransitive verbs, “SONG” is used relatively high in VgeiDO construction. In addition, learners were more influenced by the given-before-new principle when using the verb “SONG” than the native speakers, with this phenomenon inferred to be related to Japanese word order.
Translated title of the contribution | An exploration of the usage of “SONG” in ditransitive constructions by Japanese CSL learners |
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Original language | Chinese (Traditional) |
Pages (from-to) | 91-124 |
Number of pages | 34 |
Journal | Chinese as a Second Language Research |
Volume | 12 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2023 May 1 |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Education
- Language and Linguistics
- Linguistics and Language