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The uses of Spanish copulas by Chinese-speaking learners in a free writing task*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 November 2008

AN CHUNG CHENG ,
HUI-CHUAN LU  and
PANAYOTIS GIANNAKOUROS
AN CHUNG CHENG*
Affiliation:
University of Toledo
HUI-CHUAN LU
Affiliation:
National Cheng Kung University
PANAYOTIS GIANNAKOUROS
Affiliation:
University of Missouri–Kansas City
*
Address for correspondence: An Chung Cheng, Department of Foreign Languages, University of Toledo, Toledo, OH 43606-3390, USA[email protected]
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Abstract

This study investigates the developmental rate of estar production by Chinese-speaking learners in planned written production. The forms of Spanish copula verbs have no equivalent forms in Chinese in pre-adjectival position (i.e. no copula verb exists between a referent and an adjective in Chinese). This contrast between languages provides a number of opportunities for novel insights into copula acquisition, including universality and developmental dynamics. Thus, this research examines, particularly, factors that are associated with estar use in a pre-adjectival position. Unlike early copula acquisition studies which examined accuracy rates, this research examines semantic, pragmatic, and lexical characteristics of copula use (Geeslin, 2000, 2003) within the context of free written essays. Beginner and intermediate level Chinese-speaking learners of Spanish seem to acquire copula choice through a lexical and semantic approach. As learner vocabulary expands, pragmatic and semantic features (prior experience and animate-change) become most salient in relation to higher rates of use of estar in a free writing task. While the research methods of this study differ from those of Geeslin (2000, 2003), some findings are comparable. Results indicate that the methods used here can be used to glean further novel insights from the SLA process of Chinese-speaking learners.

Type
Research Article
Information
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition , Volume 11 , Issue 3: LANGUAGE ACQUISITION, BILINGUALISM AND COPULA CHOICE IN SPANISH , November 2008 , pp. 301 - 317
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

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Footnotes

*

We would like to thank the participants in the Corpus of Taiwanese Learners of Spanish (CATE) 2005 for their input, the National Science Council in Taiwan for funding the construction of CATE, and, particularly, the anonymous reviewers and the volume editors for their helpful comments and suggestions. We are also indebted to Lihua Chen of the University of Toledo, Department of Mathematics, for her valuable discussion, explanation, and clarification of theoretical issues regarding our choice of statistical analysis.

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