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Acquisition of Japanese constructions with NO by Chinese speakers : a construction grammar approach

This study applies the Construction Grammar approach to analyze L1 Chinese learners' acquisition of the Japanese constructions with NO and investigates whether and how constructional transfer from L1 impacts the acquisition of the target construction in L2. The Construction Grammar approach holds that constructions are form-meaning pairings and primitives of language representation. The present study investigates the acquisition of the notoriously difficult Japanese constructions with NO and conducts an in-depth contrast with the seemingly related Chinese constructions with DE. In particular, this study examines three types of Japanese constructions with NO, namely, the [NP NO NP], [Clause NO], and [Clause NO(DA)] constructions, which are also referred to as prenominal, nominalization, and modal constructions, respectively. The Chinese constructions with DE which are the [XP DE NP], [Clause DE], and [(SHI) Clause DE] constructions are also examined to illustrate that they are significantly different constructions from the Japanese constructions with NO and are only superficially similar. This study also emphasizes the practical application of the theoretical framework to learning and teaching. By conducting a contrastive study of learners with different L1 backgrounds, this study describes the acquisition patterns by L1 Chinese learners as well as L1 English and Korean learners and how constructional similarities and differences impact the acquisition patterns at different proficiency levels. When there are constructions in L1 that are similar to the target construction in L2, learners have an advantage in learning the L2 construction. This can be observed in the case of L1 Korean learners when they acquire the Japanese [Clause NO] construction. Since the Korean [Clause KES] and the Japanese [Clause NO] constructions largely parallel each other in the form-meaning pairing, L1 Korean learners benefit from the constructional similarities and exhibit a significantly higher frequency of use and lower error rates at all proficiency levels than the other language groups. On the other hand, when there are constructions in L1 which do not overlap with the target constructions, then the L2 learners encounter learning difficulties with a low frequency of use and high error rates. This can be observed in the acquisition of the Japanese [Clause NO(DA)] construction by Chinese and English speakers. When there are constructions in L1 which are partially similar to the target constructions, learners may have misleading association of their L1 construction to the target construction and thus have relatively high error rates and persistent error patterns. This is manifested in the case of Chinese speakers when they acquire the Japanese [NP NO NP] construction. This study also investigates external factors such as textbooks and offers targeted and practical pedagogical implications for the teaching of the Japanese constructions in question. Although the focus is on L1 Chinese learners, similar research can also be extended to other L1 language learners.