Mandarin Chinese Research Articles

The Influence of Independence Curriculum Development on Mandarin Language Learning

The fundamental thing about curriculum development is that there are deep changes and have quite a big impact on Mandarin language learning in educational institutions, especially schools that collaborate with countries that use second international languages for communication. As the world becomes more connected, the need for effective command of Mandarin is more important than ever. With curriculum development, educators can gain insight into innovative approaches to teaching and learning Mandarin. The problem faced by teachers of Mandarin as a foreign language is a lack of understanding of the curriculum in accordance with the demands of the times. Curriculum development greatly influences Mandarin learning. This will have an impact on the difficulty of achieving language mastery by students. A literature and reference search was conducted to address this issue. Here the author explores articles that examine and discuss the findings conceptually, the implications of the development of the Merdeka curriculum which has been influential in the formation of Mandarin language learning. Innovation and renewal are also a necessity for Chinese language learners. Apart from that, it will challenge Mandarin teachers to organize teaching materials within the concept of curriculum development that follows developments and demands of the times.

The syntactic variety and semantic unity of the V de resultative construction in Mandarin Chinese

Abstract The V de resultative construction has been an intriguing issue in Chinese linguistics. Theories have been put forth regarding what the morpheme de (here called de result to avoid confusion) does in this construction. In this article, the preexisting theories are empirically questioned. It is shown that the presence of de result is not obligatory when the result predicate takes some special forms. A procedural account is proposed of how the typical V de result construction and its variants deliver the same logical form although they involve different functional morphemes. As a bonus, this account provides an improved model explaining the phenomenon that the V de result construction can have multiple readings.

Transfer five ways: applications of multiple distinctive collexeme analysis to the dative alternation in Mandarin Chinese

Abstract The dative alternation has been extensively studied in the world’s languages, and the meanings of the verbs participating in the alternation have been shown to play a key role in determining its argument realization options. The present paper presents a multiple distinctive collexeme analysis approach to the dative alternation in Mandarin Chinese, which involves a choice of one of five functionally similar alternants, and it does so by also discussing several ways to improve how this has been done statistically in most previous analyses. Linguistically, we identify the core semantic differences of the five constructions based on which verbs statistically prefer to occur in which pattern, focusing on semantic potential and direction of transfer. Methodologically, this study contributes to the slowly growing body of studies that use collexeme strengths that are not only less related to frequency than the traditional methods (i.e., association is measured in a less diluted way) and that are directional (i.e., we can focus on one direction of association from the verb to the construction).

The Semantic Features of Noun-verb Metaphorical Compound verbs in Mandarin Chinese

As a closed category, noun-verb metaphorical compound verbs are not productive but still frequently used in Mandarin Chinese. The internal relationship between the morphemes is subordinate, often with the noun morphemes suggesting the vehicles of metaphor processes and the verb morphemes indicating the tenors. Even though these compounds are already formed through metaphor, their meanings can further develop through metaphor and thereby gain new metaphorical meanings. In addition, we examine the usages and semantic features of two metaphorical compound verbs can-shi and jing-tun through a corpus-based collocation study to tease out people’s internal understanding of their meanings.

The Impact of Native Language on Mandarin Acquisition: A Study of Zhuang and Miao Students

This study was conducted with Zhuang and Miao students and Mandarin teachers in grades four to six in four township elementary schools in Dehou Township, Wenshan City, Yunnan Province. The purposes of this study were:1) to study the influences of the native language that affect Zhuang and Miao students when they learn Mandarin,2) to study teachers’ opinions about their students' native language affects their learning when teaching Mandarin to Zhuang and Miao students. Based on Krejcie and Morgan's table, 186 students for questionnaires and 14 teachers were selected for interviews. The study is a mixed method of quantitative and qualitative research, which was statistically analyzed using percentages, means (⎯χ), standard deviation (S.D.), and narrative analysis by coding the interview information. The research instruments were questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. The results revealed that 1) the influences of the native language that affect Zhuang and Miao students when they learn Mandarin consisted of four aspects: (1) social context, (2) learner characteristics, (3) learning conditions, and (4) learning process: Social Context was high level (⎯χ) =2.70 and S.D=0.36; Learner Characteristics was moderate level (⎯χ) =2.43 and S.D=0.35; Learning Conditions was moderate level (⎯χ) =2.46 and S.D=0.2936; Learning Process was high level (⎯χ) =2.51 and S.D=0.30. All four aspects had a high level (⎯χ) =2.52 and S.D=0.33; on Zhuang and Miao students' Mandarin learning, and 2) teachers’ opinions about their students' native language affect their learning when teaching Mandarin to Zhuang and Miao students. It showed that Zhuang and Miao’s students had difficulty pronouncing Mandarin when they learned it because of the influence of their language; the difference between Mandarin and the expression habits of the ethnic language also affects the learning of Mandarin by Zhuang and Miao students. This study suggests that the study should emphasize the creation of a Mandarin language environment for Zhuang and Miao students, enhance students' interest in learning Mandarin, improve the conditions for learning Mandarin, and innovate teaching methods.

Phonological processing in Chinese word repetition: Dementia effect and age effect

ABSTRACT This paper examined phonological processing as reflected in Mandarin word and non-word repetition. Issues related to dementia effects, age effects, and linguistic variables are discussed. Forty-five speakers of Mandarin Chinese in Taiwan took part in this study. Fourteen seniors with Alzheimer’s disease (AD), 14 healthy adults, and 17 healthy seniors individually completed a task of word repetition. Scores of accurate repetition were calculated, and error types as well as error frequency were analysed. Linguistic variables, including lexicality, frequency, non-word, and syllable length, were discussed. Major findings were indicative of a significant dementia effect, in which participants with AD were significantly impaired in repeating words with more syllables, specifically 5-syllable non-words of low frequency. Numerous significant age effects were noted. Theoretical implications and directions for future study are discussed.

The Semantic Features of Noun-verb Metaphorical Compound verbs in Mandarin Chinese

As a closed category, noun-verb metaphorical compound verbs are not productive but still frequently used in Mandarin Chinese. The internal relationship between the morphemes is subordinate, often with the noun morphemes suggesting the vehicles of metaphor processes and the verb morphemes indicating the tenors. Even though these compounds are already formed through metaphor, their meanings can further develop through metaphor and thereby gain new metaphorical meanings. In addition, we examine the usages and semantic features of two metaphorical compound verbs can-shi and jing-tun through a corpus-based collocation study to tease out people’s internal understanding of their meanings.

Two different language ideologies and conflicting representations of China in Chinese Mandarin and Hanja

AbstractThis article demonstrates the ambivalent sentiments of Koreans toward China as represented by the ideological construction of Hanja (traditional Chinese characters) and Chinese Mandarin embodied in Korean media. Adopting discourse analysis to examine what is described by different language ideologies, this article investigates language discourses concerning Hanja and Mandarin, locating the former mainly within linguistic nationalism and the latter within linguistic instrumentalism. This article puts forth two suggestions. First, investigating linguistic nationalism in relation to the use of Hanja not only displays negative and antagonistic attitudes toward China and the use of Hanja as an embodiment of humiliating historical experiences but also shows ambiguity, fluidity, and vulnerability of Korean national identity. Second, in contrast to Hanja, Koreans' heated enthusiasm to learn Mandarin shows their affection for China as a global market and becomes intertwined with linguistic instrumentalism, embodying an articulation of neoliberalism by reproducing structures of inequality.

Ancestry analysis using a self-developed 56 AIM-InDel loci and machine learning methods

Insertion/deletion (InDel) polymorphisms can be used as one of the ancestry-informative markers in ancestry analysis. In this study, a self-developed panel consisting of 56 ancestry-informative InDels was used to investigate the genetic structures and genetic relationships between Chinese Inner Mongolia Manchu group and 26 reference populations. The Inner Mongolia Manchu group was closely related in genetic background to East Asian populations, especially the Han Chinese in Beijing. Moreover, populations from northern and southern East Asia displayed obvious variations in ancestral components, suggesting the potential value of this panel in distinguishing the populations from northern and southern East Asia. Subsequently, four machine learning models were performed based on the 56 AIM-InDel loci to evaluate the performance of this panel in ancestry prediction. The random forest model presented better performance in ancestry prediction, with 91.87% and 99.73% accuracy for the five and three continental populations, respectively. The individuals of the Inner Mongolia Manchu group were assigned to the East Asian populations by the random forest model, and they exhibited closer genetic affinities with northern East Asian populations. Furthermore, the random forest model distinguished 87.18% of the Inner Mongolia Manchus from the East Asian populations, suggesting that the random forest model based on the 56 ancestry-informative InDels could be a potential tool for ancestry analysis.

Mandarin posture verbs

Abstract Posture verbs have attracted considerable interest within Cognitive Linguistics. This study continues this line of research by investigating usage-based patterns associated with these verbs when used in their literal posture senses. The data for the study comes from the Lancaster Corpus of Mandarin Chinese and the CALLHOME Mandarin Corpus. We investigate the frequencies and distributions of the Mandarin posture verbs 坐 zuò ‘sit’, 站 zhàn ‘stand’, and 躺 tǎng ‘lie’ in four construction types: directional constructions, aspectual suffixes, serial verb constructions, and locative constructions. The analysis confirms the primacy of zuò, zhàn, and tǎng and, among other results, reveals a significant absence of locative phrases with the dynamic forms of the verbs as used with directionals.

Derive the biased reading of <i>A-not-A</i> questions in Mandarin

Among many forms of A-not-A questions in Mandarin Chinese, the shi-not-shi question is found to be unique in that it obligatorily gives rise to a biased reading toward its prejacent, so-called positive bias. The previous pragmatic approach by Ye (2020) establishes a link between focus in polar questions and question bias to explain this biased reading. However, the current study finds that two other A-not-A questions formed by epistemic modals, hui-not-hui and keneng-not-keneng which are not focus markers, obligatorily produce positively biased readings as well. I propose that biased A-not-A questions are a type of high-negation questions with A-not-A residing outside of TP. shi, hui and keneng should all be analyzed as epistemic modals which are the overt realization of Goodhue’s (2019) epistemic operator scoped by the negator. The positively biased reading is derived from the resulting unbalanced partition based on general pragmatic principles. This analysis from the semantic aspect provides new evidence for the argument that the first A has reality only in PF. Furthermore, the Mandarin Chinese data lends evidence to Goodhue’s (2019) argument that there exists a doxastic speech operator between NegP and TP in high negation questions. The paper also provides explanations for previously remaining questions on bias cancelation by the stress marker daodi and factive predicates like zhidao (“know”).

The Impact of Social Media the Dissemination and Teaching of Mandarin Language: A Systematic Review

In the current digital landscape, social media has emerged as a vital conduit for the dissemination of information and the sharing of resources, demonstrating significant potential for language acquisition. This investigation delves into the impact and utility of social media in the arena of learning mandarin as a second language. Through a systematic examination of 29 scholarly articles, this study concentrates on the strategic employment of various social media platforms, including WeChat and Facebook, to furnish learners of mandarin with an authentic and immediate educational milieu, thereby facilitating the enhancement of their communicative proficiency. The sentence examines the unique characteristics and limitations of various digital learning environments in Mandarin language education. It suggests strategies to overcome cultural and technological challenges, aiming to improve teaching methods and the spread of the Mandarin language. The insights gleaned from this research will furnish mandarin language instructors and digital media analysts with a framework to foster pedagogical innovation in the digital epoch.

Revisiting the nature and the context of T4 alternations: insights from disyllabic, trisyllabic and quadrisyllabic word/digit productions in Taiwan Mandarin.

The tone values of a Tone 4 (T4) syllable are conventionally assumed to change from '51' to '53' when the syllable is followed by another T4 syllable in Mandarin Chinese. Literature focusing on T4 alternation is still inconclusive regarding the contexts for the alternations and whether the phenomenon should be better categorized as tone sandhi (i.e.,represented as an abstract phonological rule in mental grammar) or tonal coarticulation (i.e.,a natural articulation phenomenon at the phonetic level). The current study probes into these issues by focusing on disyllabic pseudowords, right-branching trisyllabic words as well as unstructured trisyllabic and quadrisyllabic digits. Productions from a total of 148 participants were collected and fundamental frequency (f0) contours, vowel lengths and f0 slopes were included in the analysis. The results from the experiments supported the tonal coarticulation view and showed that the trigger for the alternations was the high-onset tones following T4. Implications to the phonological analysis on tonal alternations in Mandarin Chinese are discussed.

THE ROLE OF L1 PROSODY IN L2 VOWEL DURATION PRODUCTION: EVIDENCE FROM ASIAN LEARNERS OF ENGLISH

The pre-fortis clipping pattern refers to vowels being shorter before voiceless consonants compared to vowels before voiced consonants. This study examined whether first-language (L1) prosodic properties affect the production of this vowel duration pattern in second-language (L2) English speech. Native speakers of Mandarin Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, and Japanese with varying English proficiency participated in a production experiment. Results showed that while speakers exhibited some pre-fortis clipping, there were no significant vowel lengthening patterns. Additional analysis revealed subtle differences based on the L1 prosody type. Native Mandarin and Vietnamese speakers, with lexical tone, had similar duration ratios. However, native Korean speakers, with no tone, showed less distinction in vowel duration by consonant voicing. Japanese speakers, with pitch accents, fell in the middle. The findings provide limited evidence that L1 prosody affects L2 vowel duration production. The results have implications for theories of L2 speech acquisition as well as pedagogical techniques when teaching English vowels.<p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/soc/0711/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

The Semantic Characteristics of Pronominal Nouns in Vietnamese and Translation into Chinese

This article explores the semantic aspects of pronominal nouns in Vietnamese, examining the usage of animal pronominal nouns in direct dialogues excerpted from the work 'The Adventure of Cricket' by writer To Hoai. It also compares these with their modern Mandarin Chinese translations. Based on the results, the article analyzes the methods of translating Vietnamese pronominal nouns into Mandarin Chinese and proposes recommendations and solutions based on translation options presented by Mona Baker.

Impaired speech input and output processing abilities in children with cleft palate speech disorder.

Cleft lip and palate is one of the most common oral and maxillofacial deformities associated with a variety of functional disorders. Cleft palate speech disorder (CPSD) occurs the most frequently and manifests a series of characteristic speech features, which are called cleft speech characteristics. Some scholars believe that children with CPSD and poor speech outcomes may also have weaknesses in speech input processing ability, but evidence is still lacking so far. (1) To explore whether children with CPSD and speech output disorders also have defects in speech input processing abilities; (2) to explore the correlation between speech input and output processing abilities. Children in the experimental group were enrolled from Beijing Stomatological Hospital, Capital Medical University, and healthy volunteers were recruited as controls. Then three tasks containing real and pseudo words were performed sequentially. Reaction time, accuracy and other indicators in three tasks were collected and then analysed. The indicators in the experimental group were significantly lower than those in the control group. There was a strong correlation between speech input and output processing tasks. The performance of both groups when processing pseudo words in the three tasks was worse than that when dealing with real words. Compared with normal controls, children with CPSD have deficits in both speech input and output processing, and there is a strong correlation between speech input and output speech processing abilities. In addition, the pseudo words task was more challenging than the real word task for both groups. What is already known on the subject Children with cleft lip and palate often have speech sound disorders known as cleft palate speech disorder (CPSD). CPSD is characterised by consonant errors called cleft speech characteristics, which can persist even after surgery. Some studies suggest that poor speech outcomes in children with CPSD may be associated with deficits in processing speech input. However, this has not been validated in mainland China. What this paper adds to existing knowledge The results of our study indicate that children with CPSD exhibit poorer performance in three tasks assessing speech input and output abilities compared to healthy controls, suggesting their deficits in both speech input and output processing. Furthermore, a significant correlation was observed between speech input and output processing abilities. Additionally, both groups demonstrated greater difficulty in processing pseudo words compared to real words, as evidenced by their worse performance in dealing with pseudo words. What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work? The pseudo word tasks designed and implemented in our study can be employed in future research and assessment of speech input and output abilities in Chinese Mandarin children with CPSD. Additionally, our findings revealed the significance of considering both speech output processing abilities and potential existence of speech input processing ability for speech and language therapists when evaluating and developing treatment options for children with CPSD as these abilities are also important for the development of literacy development.

A refinement of the analysis of the resultative V-de construction in Mandarin Chinese

Abstract This paper proposes two major modifications to previous analyses of the resultative V-de construction in Mandarin Chinese. First, while -de is argued to be prepositional in nature, it is shown at the same time that -de is different from other regular prepositions in that the former, but not the latter, undergoes head movement in a resultative. To reconcile these apparently conflicting observations, we propose to treat -de as the exponent of a prepositional categorizer. Second, we argue that a small clause analysis of the resultative V-de construction is not only conceptually motivated by the Direct Object Restriction but also empirically supported by the fact that it can participate in the bǎ alternation, as with constructions that are canonically assumed to contain a small clause.

Establishing a Material Description Table to Optimize Mandarin Proficiency for Indonesian Learners: An Applied Contrastive Analysis Perspective

Abstract. This study aims to elucidate the most contrasting differences between Mandarin and Indonesian language rules. Based on the analysis results, it is hoped that this can serve as a foundation for creating a learning media, namely a descriptive material table. The study reveals that the most contrasting rule lies in the Indonesian language auxiliary number words, which have no more than 30 auxiliary number words, whereas in Mandarin, or known as 量, there are over 200 such words. Additionally, there is a rule for constructing past tense sentences. In Indonesian, a word meaning “finished” is used to indicate the past, contrasting with Mandarin, which employs the particle “了”, which can also have different meanings according to different rules. Furthermore, there is a Numeral system rule where Indonesian simply translates numbers into letters, while Mandarin has specific and detailed rules; this clearly presents a contrasting difference. There is also a rule on reduplication, or in Mandarin termed 重叠, where the quantity of rules between the two languages is almost balanced, yet the functions of usage are vastly contrasting. Lastly, there is the rule of “离合词”, a Mandarin language rule that has no equivalent in Indonesian. The method employed is a mixed-method approach, along with a narrative elaboration model based on quantitative differences in the amount of data between Mandarin and Indonesian languages, which are then expounded upon qualitatively. The data source used is the Confucius Institute (孔子学院) recommended books: 标准教程 Standard Course HSK (Hanyu Shuping Kaoshi / Chinese Proficiency Tes) 1 - 6 下 (Part 2). Data analysis techniques include identification, classification, and presentation of the results of data analysis. The results of the research and presentation show that there is a big gap between Mandarin and Bahasa Indonesia linguistic tools, with each of the rules that bind it. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a learning media to reduce this gap.Keywords: Material description table, Applied Contrastive Analysis, Mandarin, Indonesian Learners.

Genetic association analysis of human median voice pitch identifies a common locus for tonal and non-tonal languages

The genetic influence on human vocal pitch in tonal and non-tonal languages remains largely unknown. In tonal languages, such as Mandarin Chinese, pitch changes differentiate word meanings, whereas in non-tonal languages, such as Icelandic, pitch is used to convey intonation. We addressed this question by searching for genetic associations with interindividual variation in median pitch in a Chinese major depression case-control cohort and compared our results with a genome-wide association study from Iceland. The same genetic variant, rs11046212-T in an intron of the ABCC9 gene, was one of the most strongly associated loci with median pitch in both samples. Our meta-analysis revealed four genome-wide significant hits, including two novel associations. The discovery of genetic variants influencing vocal pitch across both tonal and non-tonal languages suggests the possibility of a common genetic contribution to the human vocal system shared in two distinct populations with languages that differ in tonality (Icelandic and Mandarin).

The construction of “Wangmian Si-le Fuqin” in Mandarin Chinese: A Cardiff Grammar approach

This paper investigates the construction of “Wangmian Si-le Fuqin” (Wangmian lost his father) in Mandarin Chinese from the perspective of Cardiff Grammar. It aims to answer three key questions: (i) What Process type and Participant Roles are expressed by this construction? (ii) What is the functional syntactic structure of the construction under study? (iii) What are the functional motivations for using the construction? After reviewing the previous studies and explaining the basic notions of Cardiff Grammar, the semantics, syntax and functional motivations of this construction are analyzed and discussed. The results show that (i) this construction realizes a Possessive Relational Process, and has two Participant Roles of Affected-Carrier and Possessed, which is different in meaning from other similar constructions, such as Wangmian de fuqin si-le (Wangmian's father died); (ii) the functional syntax of the construction is “SˆMˆC”, with the Subject conflated with Affected-Carrier, the Complement with Affected-Possessed, and le after the Main Verb si is an Aspect Particle; (iii) the functional motivation of this construction is three-fold: emphasizing the Process of “gain or loss”, making Wangmian the Subject Theme, and representing background information.