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The (Non-)acquisition of the Chinese Definiteness Effect: A Usage-Based Account

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Learner Corpora: Construction and Explorations in Chinese and Related Languages

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Abstract

This chapter investigates the acquisition by French L1 learners of the Definiteness Effect (DE) that characterize Chinese existential–presentational constructions (EPC). Building upon a video-retelling task, oral elicited productions of 15 French advanced learners of L2 Chinese are analysed. In contrast to previous research on L2 DE, mainly conducted within generative approaches to second language acquisition, the present study adopts a functional, usage-based framework and reports on non-target-like performance at advanced levels of acquisition. It is argued that learners are aware of the DE that characterize the EPC in the target language, which is shown by the marginal use of definite pivots in referent-introducing EPCs. By contrast, what they seem not to be aware of is that the EPC should not be used in reintroduction contexts. As a consequence, learners use the EPC format when discourse-old referents are concerned. Strictly speaking, however, they do not ‘violate’ the definiteness restriction, since a different form, with a different function, is operating in the interlanguage.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The label “existential-presentational construction” (EPC) is borrowed from Li (2014) (“existential-presentative construction” in her terminology, see also Givón, 1988). While the label “existential” points to some semantic property characterizing the construction, i.e. that of asserting the “existence” of an entity (or rather its location from a situation-based perspective, see Creissels, 2019), “presentational” refers to its pragmatic function which is that of introducing (“present”) an entity into discourse. In the literature, “existential construction” generally defines monoclausal forms (e.g. there is someone in the house), while biclausal constructions (e.g. there is someone looking for you) are more often named “presentational” (see Sarda and Lena, Forthcoming, for a recent review). In this study, the term EPC is used to denote both monoclausal and biclausal you-constructions.

  2. 2.

    For the purpose of this study, it is sufficient to note that French monocausal (‘existential’) sentences sometimes include definite pivots, as in Tiens, il y a Jean ‘Hey, there is Jean!’ (Creissels, 2019). At the same time, the literature offers numerous examples of biclausal (‘presentational’) constructions with definite NPs (e.g. il y a le chat qui miaule ‘there is the cat meowing’; see Lambrecht, 1988 and Karssenberg, 2017).

  3. 3.

    Karssenberg’s (2018) study focuses on il y a clefts, that is, ‘biclausal constructions’ following the terminology adopted in the present article.

  4. 4.

    As Karssenberg (2018: 98) notes, however, the use of proper nouns such as Jean in (4a) is motivated by the familiarity between the interlocutors, which is virtually absent from the corpora she consulted.

  5. 5.

    The Korean group does not seem to make distinctions on the basis of the definiteness of the pivot, as several grammatical target items including indefinite pivots are also rejected.

  6. 6.

    Interestingly enough, lower learners tend to use BNs for indefinite reference, while using a definite NP for definite reference. As the proficiency increases, indefiniteness is then encoded formally (Chaudron & Parker, 1990).

  7. 7.

    As Li (2014) puts it, “PCs [presentative constructions] are used sparingly and never in series, especially those with a foregrounding function. This is reasonable considering the fact that foregrounding PCs introduce important participants into discourse. Such participants are deemed to be small in number”.

  8. 8.

    Note that bare-head NPs can also denote unique reference:

    (#Na/#Zhe ge) Taiwan (de) zongtong hen shengqi.

    [#that/#this CL Taiwan SUB president very angry]

    ‘The president of Taiwan is very angry.’ (Jenks, 2018).

  9. 9.

    Sentences of this kind (which are found in the L1 corpus as well) question the ‘indefinite’ reading typically associated to BNs when appearing within EPCs. While the definiteness distinction is clear for prototypical examples such as Rén lái-le ‘the (expected) person(s) came’ versus Yǒu rén lái-le ‘there’s someone who came (= someone came)’, it is not unproblematic to assume that the BN jǐngchá ‘police’ changes its referential interpretation between the two sentence patterns Jǐngchá dào-le ‘[the] police arrives’ and Yǒu jǐngchá dào-le ‘there’s [the] police who arrives’ (9). In fact, the noun jǐngchá ‘police’ seems to refer in both cases to an inherently uniquely identifiable referent (see also Lena, Forth. (a)). Out of the 4 instances of you-construction including a BN in learners’ productions, 3 are used to introduce the referent of the police officer. A look at the lexical nature of BNs in their corpus show a similar tendency: learners seem to use BNs to denote uniquely identifiable referents while less prone to use it in (purely) anaphoric contexts (e.g. nǚhái ‘[the] girl’).

  10. 10.

    In general, learners produce significantly less embedded relative clauses, be them modified by a demonstrative or not. This is noteworthy given that such forms in Chinese serve not only to identify a referent but also to encode backgrounded portions of the narrative. The link between entity referring and event grounding, and how do learners achieve the same distinctions in their narratives is an interesting one that will be left aside for further research. For the purpose of the current study, the label “DEM + N” embraces any NP modified by a demonstrative determiner, thus including relative phrases whose head is modified by a DEM, as dǎjiù tā de nà ge xiānsheng [rescue 3SG SUB that-CL gentleman] ‘the [lit. that] man who rescued her’. All those forms virtually commute with the unmarked forms (e.g. dǎjiù tā de xiānsheng [rescue 3SG SUB gentleman] ‘[the] man who rescued her’).

  11. 11.

    When compared to NS’ discourse, learners’ productions differ in their overuse of pronominal reference (namely, third person pronoun ) not only over zeros but also with respect to BNs (see also Ryan, 2015).

  12. 12.

    Note, however, that even Chinese L1 speakers’ judgment may vary in this respect. That is, you-constructions and canonical SV order might commute according to various factors including the discourse register (Liu & Zhang, 2004, Zhou & Shen, 2016: 113). In addition, it is not clear from my data which factors determine NS’ choice between quantified nouns and BNs as EPC pivots, in contexts such as the one presented in Fig. 6.

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Lena, L. (2023). The (Non-)acquisition of the Chinese Definiteness Effect: A Usage-Based Account. In: Chen, H.HJ., Mochizuki, K., Tao, H. (eds) Learner Corpora: Construction and Explorations in Chinese and Related Languages. Chinese Language Learning Sciences. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-5731-4_12

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