Mandarin Chinese Research Articles

Exploring the Impact of Mandarin Language Proficiency, Networking, and Popularity on Career Support in Medan, Indonesia

Exploring the Impact of Mandarin Language Proficiency, Networking, and Popularity on Career Support in Medan, Indonesia

Resultativity and Mandarin Chinese Directional Verb Compounds

Resultativity in natural language is closely tied to the category of aspect. It is semantically close to the perfective aspect, so it often receives little attention. The focus of this discussion is primarily on syntax, specifically how this category is realised in a sentence. Due to the typological differences between Mandarin Chinese and English or other Indo-European languages, the description of resultatives has to be oriented towards Chinese syntax, particularly Resultative Verb Compounds (RVCs). In addition to these verb-complement syntagmas, Directional Verb Compounds (DVCs) are also common in MC. Although directionality is not typically considered a category related to aspect or resultativity, there are visible similarities between Chinese RVCs and DVCs. This article aims to provide a general framework that outlines these categories and similarities between them. The semantic approach is especially relevant to this discussion, which adopts a basis of semantic research combined with cognitive linguistics.

Systematic exploration of genetic traits in Qinghai Salar ethnic group through a validated InDel panel for individual identification

BackgroundInsertion/deletion polymorphism (InDel) markers, mainly characterized by diallelic length polymorphisms, have been extensively investigated in forensic applications. The Salar ethnic group is one of the ten officially recognized Muslim minorities in China, with a large population mainly residing in Qinghai Province, China, yet there have been few population genetics studies on the Salar ethnic group, let alone those using InDel markers. AimThe present study aims to explore the genetic traits and enrich the genetic resources of the Qinghai Salar ethnic group through a validated InDel panel developed in-house. Subjects and methodsForensic performance of the novel self-constructed 43-InDel panel, designed for individual identification, was evaluated in the Qinghai Salar ethnic group from China. In addition, based on these 43 InDels, the genetic characteristics of the Qinghai Salar ethnic group were systematically explored by incorporating 27 reference populations from five continents. ResultsThe results indicated that most loci in the 43-InDel panel were genetically polymorphic in the Qinghai Salar ethnic group, and the novel panel could serve as an efficient tool for individual identification of the studied group, with a combined discrimination power of more than 0.9999. Population genetics analyses demonstrated that the Qinghai Salar ethnic group was genetically closer to East Asian populations than to other continental populations, especially the Hui ethnic group in Northwest China and Han Chinese in Beijing. ConclusionIn summary, the in-house developed 43-InDel panel could be an effective tool for individual identification and provide additional genetic information for the Qinghai Salar ethnic group.

An investigation of parents’ decisions to enroll in Mandarin-English dual language immersion programs

ABSTRACT Mandarin-English dual language immersion (ME-DLI) programs have been growing rapidly in recent decades. Most dual language immersion programs are not mandated by the school or district but are initiated based on parents’ demands. To better understand the need for ME-DLI programs, this study explored factors associated with ethnic Chinese parents’ decisions to enroll their children in ME-DLI programs. We collected 235 parents’ survey responses. Participants were divided into six groups based on their enrollment status when ME-DLI programs were available (currently enrolled; currently enrolled in other Mandarin language programs; not currently enrolled) and willingness to enroll when unavailable (willing to enroll; may be willing to enroll; not willing to enroll). Results revealed that parents with positive attitudes toward bilingualism were more likely to enroll or willing to enroll in ME-DLI programs, suggesting a strong connection between parents’ attitudes and their enrollment decisions. Parents in the currently enrolled group also reported higher levels of English reading frequency and more advanced bilingual skills in their children than the not currently enrolled group. However, when ME-DLI programs were unavailable, parents who reported higher child engagement in English reading were less willing to enroll in ME-DLI programs.

Data from role plays and elicited conversations: What do they show about L2 interactional competence?

In research on second language (L2) interactional competence (IC), data elicitation is commonly done either through role plays or elicited conversation tasks. It is unclear, however, what aspects of IC these two methods make visible, where they elicit similar or different data and which research questions they are most suited to answer. In the current study we compare performances in role play tasks with those in elicited conversation tasks from 54 learners of L2 Mandarin Chinese and 12 native Mandarin Chinese speakers. Using conversation analysis to analyze learners’ performance, we found that role plays were highly suitable for making visible the sequential and linguistic tools interactants deploy for preference organization. Elicited conversation was useful for making topic management visible, including topic extension and topic shift. While role plays also included features of topic management and elicited conversations included features of preference organization, these did not occur with sufficient frequency and elaboration to allow defensible conclusions to be drawn. We suggest that role plays and elicited conversations can supplement each other to provide a well rounded picture of interactants’ IC.

Influence of topic-prominent L1s on the use of L2 English copula be: a corpus-based study

Abstract This study explores the influence of first language (L1) on the acquisition of second language (L2) English, specifically examining the use of copula be as a topic marker. Although prior research suggests that L1 transfer may impact L2 acquisition of copula be, the evidence remains inconclusive. To address this issue, the study analyzes the use of be in L2 English spoken by learners with topic-prominent L1s (viz., Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, Korean) and those with non-topic-prominent L1s (viz., Filipino). Using the ICNALE corpus, the study investigates whether L1 topic-prominence affects the use of be in L2 English. The findings reveal that L2-English learners with topic-prominent L1s use copula be more often with definite NPs than those with non-topic-prominent L1s, indicating the influence of L1 topic-prominence properties on the use of copula be. Additionally, learners from topic-prominent L1s more frequently produce nontargetlike topic-comment structures using be verb (e.g., restaurant is many people eat their foods). Based on these findings, the study discusses the implication of L1 transfer effects in L2 acquisition and emphasizes the importance of a more global and refined understanding of language variation in L2 teaching and learning.

How do we understand ‘age’ and ‘aging’? Cultural constructions of the ‘aging’ experience in British English and Chinese from a linguistic perspective

This study investigates the cognitive constructions surrounding the aging experience in British English and Mandarin Chinese. The study employs corpus data to explore how fixed phrases manifest the perceptions of ‘age’, ‘aging’, and by extension ‘old age’. It lays out the linguistic patterns that are common in each language. By analyzing the similarities and differences, the findings show that the same biological phenomenon is not expressed in the same linguistic patterns consistently across languages, and that culture plays an important role in structuring conceptual preferences. Most distinctively, ‘age’ in Chinese can be a separate entity with an upward-oriented path on the aging JOURNEY which is unfound in English. This study sheds light on the associations between language, thought and culture to foster sensitive communication under the background that aging perceptions may have an impact on older adults' general wellbeing and health behavior.

Specifier-to-head reanalysis: evidence from mandarin and Cantonese

Abstract Mandarin numeral phrases display two characteristics. First, the numeral yi ‘one’ differs from other numerals in many respects. Second, classifiers can appear without any overt numerals, resulting in Cl-N phrases (e.g., ben shu ‘one book’): Cl-N phrases, like numeral phrases with yi ‘one’ (e.g., yi-ben shu ‘one book’), always denote singularity, but also contrast with numeral phrases with yi ‘one’ in various respects like scope. Although some of these patterns have been discussed before (e.g., Cheng, Lisa Lai-Shen & Rint Sybesma. 1998. Yi-wan tang, yi-ge tang: Classifiers and massifiers. Tsing-Hua Journal of Chinese Studies 28(3). 385–412; Chen, Ping. 2003. Indefinite determiner introducing definite referent: A special use of ‘yi ‘one’ + classifier’ in Chinese. Lingua 113. 1169–1184; Huang, C.-T. James. 2015. On syntactic analyticity and parametric theory. In A. Li, A. Simpson & W.-T. Dylan Tsai (eds.), Chinese Syntax in a cross-linguistic perspective. Oxford University Press; Li, Y. H. Audrey & Shengli Feng. 2015. ‘yi’ zi shenglüe de yunlü tiaojian [The prosodic conditions on yi-deletion]. Yuyan Kexue [Linguistic Sciences] 14(1). 1–12; Zhang, Niina Ning. 2019. Complex indefinites and the projection of DP in Mandarin Chinese. Journal of East Asian Linguistics), previous analyses could cover some but not all these observations. This paper provides a unified account for these two puzzles and a number of related issues. It will be argued that due to an ongoing grammaticalization process, Mandarin yi is ambiguous between a numeral and an indefinite article. The grammaticalization of yi is an instantiation of a well-known phenomenon: specifier-to-head reanalysis (e.g., van Gelderen, Elly. 2004. Grammaticalization as economy. John Benjamins Publishing Company; van Gelderen, Elly. 2019. Cyclical changes and problems of projection. In Anne Breitbarth, Miriam Bouzouita, Lieven Danckaert & Elisabeth Witzenhausen (eds.), Cycles in language change. Oxford University Press; Roberts, Ian. 1993. Verbs and diachronic syntax. Dordrecht: Kluwer; Roberts, Ian & Anna Roussou. 2003. Syntactic change: A minimalist approach to grammaticalization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press). Furthermore, with cross-linguistic evidence from Cantonese, I argue for an intermediate stage of specifier-to-head reanalysis: a functional category starts as a specifier of a phrase; it then adjoins to another head before being reanalyzed as an independent head projecting a separate phrase.

EXPRESS: The Effect of Lexical Semantic Activation on Reasoning About Evolution: A Cross-linguistic Study.

We hypothesized that people of different language backgrounds (English vs. Mandarin Chinese) might think about evolutionary relationships among living things differently. In particular, some reasoning heuristics may come from how living things are named. Our research examined if sub-word and sub-lexical elements in written Chinese influence people's inferences. Some taxon names in Chinese are conjunctive concepts that include another taxon: e.g., panda is called bear cat in Chinese, and the skunk character has a semantic radical (semantic component of a character) that means mouse. These conjunctions might influence Chinese readers to infer that conjunctive concepts share biological characteristics with their constituents (e.g., that skunks share biological properties with mice). Readers in a language (English) without lexical activation from constituents of conjunctive concepts would not be expected to show such effects. This research provided insights into how differences in prior knowledge due to different language backgrounds affect thinking and reasoning.

Examining how topicality impacts pronoun resolution in second language processing.

In research on second language (L2) processing, the processing of reference has been highlighted as a domain of particular difficulty, but the source of the difficulty is not well understood. The present study examines whether differences in the pronominal systems of the first language (L1) and L2 impact processing. We take a novel approach, testing a group of intermediate-advanced L2 learners in both their L1 (Mandarin Chinese) and L2 (English), allowing us to directly examine whether L2 learners show similar or different patterns when processing the L1 and L2. We also test a group of L1 English speakers. The study focused on two topicality-related factors, subjecthood and pronominalization, that have been shown to increase the prominence of an entity in the discourse, making it more likely that an entity in subject position (subjecthood) or an entity that has been referred to with a pronoun (pronominalization) will be considered as an antecedent for a subsequent pronoun. We developed a picture verification task with visual-world eye-tracking in both English and Chinese. This task provides a measure of both pronoun interpretation and online processing. Results showed subtle differences in how subjecthood and pronominalization are weighted in English and Chinese as L1s: pronominalization played a stronger role in L1 Chinese than in L1 English both in the interpretation measure and in the eye-movement data. The results for the L2 English learners showed an interesting pattern in which their results were more similar to the L1 English results on the measure of pronoun interpretation, but were more similar to the L1 Chinese results in the eye-movement data. These results show successful use of discourse cues in L2 pronoun interpretation but differences between L1 and L2 speakers during processing. It is proposed that decreased sensitivity to morphosyntactic information that is not present in the L1 (case on pronouns) leads to differences in L2 referential processing, in line with proposals that L2 learners face challenges with integrating different kinds of linguistic information online, particularly morphosyntactic information.

Revealing hidden interactions in mean performance through distributional analyses: Evidence from Chinese lexical decision performance.

Important insights in visual word recognition have been provided by studies examining the combined influence of multiple factors on participants' mean response times to English words in the lexical decision task. However, to make progress towards a complete understanding of how meaning is activated by print, researchers need to conduct more detailed analyses of behavioral patterns beyond mean response latencies and accuracies, particularly how variables influence different components of response time distributions. Moreover, it is critical to extend patterns found in English to the diverse scripts encountered by readers across the world. The present study is the first to explore the theoretically important effects of stimulus quality and word frequency on lexical decisions involving two-character Mandarin Chinese and Cantonese Chinese words, using participants from Singapore and Hong Kong, respectively. Despite the profound differences between the English and Chinese writing systems, we observed remarkably similar trade-offs in the stimulus quality × word frequency interaction across different portions of the response time distribution for both orthographies, indicating that the optimization of lexical processing by leveraging available codes in response to task demands extends across multiple and highly diverse writing systems.

COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF TEMPORAL PROSODIC PARAMETERS IN THE SPEECH OF FOREIGN STUDENTS LEARNING THE BULGARIAN LANGUAGE

The work examines the prosodic realization of the Bulgarian word stress in the speech of Chinese Mandarin speakers, with the aim of outlining the parameters that make the comprehensibility of their speech difficult. Instrumental phonetics methods are used and recordings of read speech are analyzed with the speech signal processing program Praat. The research is focused on the duration of the vowels as one of the acoustic ques of the word stress. To minimize the "inconsistency" of the binary division of stressed and unstressed units in connected speech (discussed in the literature), taking into account the fact that the acoustic keys of stress are subject to intonational shaping by tonal accents and boundary tones, we separately compare the duration of stressed vowels, the unstressed non-final and the unstressed final. The results show that the characteristic ratio of stressed and unstressed non-final vowels for Bulgarian language, in which the former outweigh the latter by about one and a half times, is not reached among Chinese speakers. Therefore, it is difficult to determine which vowel/syllable is stressed in their speech. The unstressed final vowels are longer than the stressed ones in both groups, which is an expected result due to the final lengthening before pause.

A Study of Pattern Path Expressions in Mandarin Chinese From the Perspective of Motion Event Typology

Given that pattern paths, one type of fictive motion, have been understudied so far, this paper examines pattern path expressions from the perspective of motion event typology. Through manually collecting Mandarin pattern path data from books and magazines, we first explored the semantic elements in pattern path expressions with a focus on the Figure and the Ground, and then investigated their lexicalization pattern by studying the grammatical slots encoding the Path, the semantic elements integrated in the verb, the expression of manner information, and the complexity of Ground information. The results showed that, in Mandarin pattern path expressions, typical semantic elements include the Figure, the Ground, the Motion, the Path, and the Cause, among which Figural entities are usually large-scale geographical or architectural entities, and the Ground is often left out linguistically; second, the Path is encoded in both the verb and the satellite, but more frequently in the verb; third, the number of manner verbs is low in both type and token while that of path verbs is high, and accordingly, alternative expressions of manner information usually modify path verbs rather than manner verbs. Our findings suggest that pattern path expressions are an economical way to express the state change of large-scale entities and that Mandarin Chinese behaves more like a V-language when expressing pattern paths.

Predicting the intelligibility of Mandarin Chinese with manipulated and intact tonal information for normal-hearing listeners.

Objective indices for predicting speech intelligibility offer a quick and convenient alternative to behavioral measures of speech intelligibility. However, most such indices are designed for a specific language, such as English, and they do not take adequate account of tonal information in speech when applied to languages like Mandarin Chinese (hereafter called Mandarin) for which the patterns of fundamental frequency (F0) variation play an important role in distinguishing speech sounds with similar phonetic content. To address this, two experiments with normal-hearing listeners were conducted examining: (1) The impact of manipulations of tonal information on the intelligibility of Mandarin sentences presented in speech-shaped noise (SSN) at several signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs); (2) The intelligibility of Mandarin sentences with intact tonal information presented in SSN, pink noise, and babble at several SNRs. The outcomes were not correctly predicted by the Hearing Aid Speech Perception Index (HASPI-V1). A new intelligibility metric was developed that used one acoustic feature from HASPI-V1 plus Hilbert time envelope and temporal fine structure information from multiple frequency bands. For the new metric, the Pearson correlation between obtained and predicted intelligibility was 0.923 and the root mean square error was 0.119. The new metric provides a potential tool for evaluating Mandarin intelligibility.

Chinese nouns are mass nouns: An information-theoretic computational proof

The mass–count distinction in Mandarin Chinese has been heatedly debated in linguistics. Previous research investigated the mass–count distinction primarily through qualitative methods. Our study applied mutual information and created three variation conditions to explore the relationship between Chinese nouns and the individuation function of classifiers. Furthermore, we examined the mass–count distinction by quantitatively analyzing 1,000 instances of Num–CL–N (numeral–classifier–noun) structures. The computational results indicate that the individuation function of classifiers is influenced by noun homogeneity. Moreover, we argue that Chinese nouns exhibit an inclination for homogeneity and the deep semantic processing of nouns is similar to classes or sets, providing evidence for the broad mass noun hypothesis and the collective-name hypothesis in the philosophy of language.

The perception of emotional prosody in Mandarin Chinese words and sentences

Emotional prosody refers to the ways in which the tone of voice can be modulated to convey emotions, feelings, and attitudes. Previous studies have explored the perception of emotional prosody and whether native speakers (L1) have an in-group advantage in recognizing the emotional prosody of their own cultural groups over non-native speakers. However, little is known about whether these findings in non-tonal languages can be generalized to tonal languages. Mandarin Chinese uses the tone of voice to encode word meanings in addition to emotional prosody. This study investigates the perception of emotional prosody in Mandarin Chinese using an emotion judgment task, focusing on the effects of emotion type (e.g., neutral, joy, anger, sadness) and syllable length (e.g., monosyllable, disyllable, trisyllable, and sentence). Three groups were included, consisting of 20 native Chinese speakers (native group), 20 L1-English L2-Chinese learners (second language group), and 20 native English speakers without Chinese learning experience (non-native group). The results revealed that all three groups can identify emotional prosody well above the chance level in Mandarin Chinese words and sentences. Moreover, the native group and the second language (L2) group showed an in-group advantage in recognizing emotional prosody compared to the non-native group, highlighting the impact of linguistic experience in addition to cultural backgrounds on the perception of emotional prosody. Notably, the effects of emotion type and syllable length differed across the three groups in terms of their perception of emotional prosody. The native group had difficulty identifying positive emotional prosody, whereas both the L2 group and the non-native group showed a pattern of improved accuracy as syllable length increased, with an interaction effect with emotion type.

Grammatical Representations of the Verb Phrase in Mandarin Chinese: Evidence from Syntactic Priming in Five-Year-Olds.

Background/Objectives: Debates regarding how to represent verb phrases (VPs) consisting of the verb plus the complement and the aspectual marker -le in Mandarin Chinese remain an issue. Methods: Syntactic priming under a memory disguise paradigm was employed to investigate the issue using the SVO-ba alternation, where the SVO structure consists of a subject verb object, and the ba structure of a subject ba object verb, in five-year-olds (n = 216), an age with fully fledged grammatical knowledge but little interference from literacy. Results: The results indicate that both the complement and the marker -le should be represented in terms of phrasal rather than morphological structures. When -le is inflected to the verb alone, realization, which makes an event a fact, rather than completion, which makes an event finished, is accomplished. The event must be telicized to a state through a resultative complement to induce reliable production of the ba construction. The postverbal elements represent their own phrasal structure and challenge the verb-centered lexico-syntactic account because there are no additional representations left within a verb. Conclusions: More elicitations of the SVO than the ba invite future neurolinguistic explorations to disentangle the impacts of the frequency and thematic arrangement of agent and patient on grammatical representations cross-linguistically.

What R Mandarin Chinese /ɹ/s? - acoustic and articulatory features of Mandarin Chinese rhotics.

Rhotic sounds are well known for their considerable phonetic variation within and across languages and their complexity in speech production. Although rhotics in many languages have been examined and documented, the phonetic features of Mandarin rhotics remain unclear, and debates about the prevocalic rhotic (the syllable-onset rhotic) persist. This paper extends the investigation of rhotic sounds by examining the articulatory and acoustic features of Mandarin Chinese rhotics in prevocalic, syllabic (the rhotacized vowel [ɚ]), and postvocalic (r-suffix) positions. Eighteen speakers from Northern China were recorded using ultrasound imaging. Results showed that Mandarin syllabic and postvocalic rhotics can be articulated with various tongue shapes, including tongue-tip-up retroflex and tongue-tip-down bunched shapes. Different tongue shapes have no significant acoustic differences in the first three formants, demonstrating a many-to-one articulation-acoustics relationship. The prevocalic rhotics in our data were found to be articulated only with bunched tongue shapes, and were sometimes produced with frication noise at the start. In general, rhotics in all syllable positions are characterized by a close F2 and F3, though the prevocalic rhotic has a higher F2 and F3 than the syllabic and postvocalic rhotics. The effects of syllable position and vowel context are also discussed.

Chinese Folk Songs Can Facilitate Chinese Language Learning - A Pilot Study.

While previous research has demonstrated the beneficial role of pop music in foreign language learning, there is a lack of studies exploring the potential impact of Chinese folk songs on Mandarin language acquisition. This study aimed to investigate whether a curriculum based on Chinese folk songs enhances the outcomes of Mandarin Chinese learning in foreign speakers. International students in a university in Beijing who were attending regular Mandarin courses were allocated into two groups: the group receiving an additional Chinese folk song-based curriculum (intervention) and the group not (control). Mandarin proficiency after one and two semesters between the two groups was assessed using the Chinese Proficiency Test (i.e., Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi, HSK) by the Generalized Estimating Equations (GEE) analyses. 16 international students were analysed (intervention: 8; control: 8). After adjusting for time, the intervention group showed a significantly higher HSK score in listening section (adjusted β = 7.86, p = 0.015) than that of the control group. In conclusions, Chinese folk song-based curriculum has the potential to enhance Mandarin listening among foreign speakers.

Developing Second Language Mandarin Fluency Through Pedagogic Intervention and Study Abroad: Planning Time, Speech Rate, and Response Duration

AbstractThis longitudinal study examines the effects of a pre‐study abroad (SA) pedagogic intervention and subsequent SA experience on second language (L2) Mandarin fluency. It explores two temporal aspects of oral fluency—planning time and speech rate—along with one performance measure, duration of response. Additionally, L2 contact data were included as a supplementary variable in the analysis. The experimental group was assessed at three points: before instruction (T1), after 2 weeks of instruction (T2), and post‐SA (T3). A non‐instructed control group that participated in the SA period provided baseline data. Both groups demonstrated improved fluency after the SA period, with the experimental group showing superior performance in planning time, speech rate, and duration of response. The greatest reduction in between‐group differences occurred at T2 and persisted over time. These findings highlight that combining targeted instruction with exposure is highly effective, with L2 contact strongly correlating with overall fluency gains.