The Acquisition at the Interface of Ditransitive Constructions in Mandarin Chinese by French Adult Learners
The Acquisition at the Interface of Ditransitive Constructions in Mandarin Chinese by French Adult Learners
Author(s): Cécilia Yu XinyueSubject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Foreign languages learning, Theoretical Linguistics, Applied Linguistics, Syntax, Language acquisition
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego
Keywords: interface; ditransitive constructions; Mandarin Chinese; syntax; adult learners
Summary/Abstract: The semantically fine-grained ditransitive constructions in Mandarin Chinese show complex interaction between lexical semantics, constructional semantics, and syntactic frames. This study examines the acquisition process of the syntax as well as the semantics of these constructions by launching two experiments with French learners of Chinese. The experiment results reveal a ‘syntax-before-semantics’ learning process and the important role of input in implicit learning.
Journal: Theory and Practice of Second Language Acquisition
- Issue Year: 1/2015
- Issue No: 1
- Page Range: 69-96
- Page Count: 28
- Language: English