Measure Words in Learning and Teaching Chinese as a Second Language Limei Zheng Submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of <Doctor of Philosophy> The University of Leeds <East Asian Studies> <October, 2014 > - II - I hereby confirm that this study is conducted on my own and that appropriate credit has been given where reference has been made to the work of others. This copy has been supplied on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement. © <2014> The University of Leeds and <Limei Zheng> - III - Acknowledgements It would be impossible to complete this doctoral thesis without the help and support from my supervisors, family and friends. I am most thankful to my supervisor Dr Yang Lan, without his insights, critical comments, effortless support and patient guidance, the success of the completion of this PhD project would not be possible. I also thank my second supervisor Dr David Pattinson for his support, comments and advice. My special thanks go to my mother-in-law Julia Smith for proofreading the various drafts of my writing. My thanks also go to my friend Dr Chris Thompson for patiently proofreading my thesis and providing important suggestions. I also thank all participants who have participated in the data collection. Thanks also go to my friend Dr Julien Wielputz for help and advice during my PhD study. I am also grateful for the support from my husband Chris Smith and my father-in-law Paul Smith. I am most grateful to my parents Zheng Yuanxiang and Ren Zhiqiong for their financial support and endless encouragement. - IV - Abstract Chinese measure words (CMW) are obligatorily used between numerals/demonstratives and nouns/verbs to count the items and actions. Comparing with Chinese, strictly speaking, there are no measure words in English. This cross lingual difference causes difficulties in the English native speakers’ application of CMW when learning Chinese as a second language according to Lado‘s (1957) Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis (CAH), i.e. the language elements that are different from learners’ native language will be difficult for them. This study adopted an empirical study to find out how L2 learners’ application of CMW is and what the problems are. Before the empirical study, a new categorisation was generated based on the existing studies on CMW categories, and a comparative study was carried out to underpin the study. A questionnaire and a proficiency test were adopted to gather information about the participants of the empirical study. A CMW test was designed to collect data on the English native speakers’ application of different CMW categories and usages. The results of the empirical study suggested that CMW are difficult for the English native speakers who are learning Chinese as a second language. The results also indicated that even though English native speakers have difficulties in the application of most of the CMW categories, some are easier than others. The English native speakers are better at weights and measures, collective nominal measure words and container measure words than standard verbal measure words, borrowed verbal measure words, individual nominal measure words and temporary nominal measure words. Although the cross lingual difference between Chinese and English count for the difficulties, the complexity of some CMW is also the reason. After revealing the difficulties in the English native speakers’ difficulties, some suggestions on teaching CMW in second language learning and application were tentatively proposed. - V - Table of Contents Acknowledgements .................................................................................... III Abstract ....................................................................................................... IV Table of Contents ........................................................................................ V List of Tables .............................................................................................. XI List of Figures .......................................................................................... XV List of Abbreviations .............................................................................. XVII Chapter 1 Introduction ................................................................................ 1 1.0 Research Context ......................................................................... 1 1.1 Hypotheses and Objectives ............................................................. 3 1.2 Research Question.......................................................................... 4 1.3 Methodology .................................................................................... 5 1.4 Significance of the Research ........................................................... 7 1.5 The Structure of the Thesis ............................................................. 9 Chapter 2 Chinese Measure Words: A Linguistic and Applied Linguistic Account ............................................................................ 11 2.0 Introduction ................................................................................... 11 2.1 Categorisation of Modern CMW .................................................... 11 2.1.1 CMW Categorisation of Previous Scholars ........................ 12 2.1.2 A New CMW Categorisation ............................................... 23 2.1.2.1 Nominal Measure Words ......................................... 25 2.1.2.2 Verbal Measure Words ............................................ 29 2.1.3 CMW Usages ..................................................................... 32 2.1.3.1 CMW Repetition ...................................................... 32 2.1.3.2 CMW in Literary Context ......................................... 35 2.2 The Comparative Study of CMW and EMU ................................... 36 2.2.1 Nominal Measure Words and their ‘English Equivalents’ ......................................................................... 37 2.2.2 Verbal Measure Words and their English ‘Equivalents’ ...... 43 2.3 Conclusion .................................................................................... 46 Chapter 3 A Theoretical Account and Literature Review on CMW in L2 Learning and Acquisition ........................................................ 49 3.0 Introduction ................................................................................... 49 - VI - 3.1 SLA Hypothesis/Theories and CMW ............................................. 50 3.1.0 Introduction......................................................................... 50 3.1.1 Contrastive Analysis, Error Analysis and Interlanguage ..... 50 3.1.2 Model of the Process of CMW Acquisition ......................... 53 3.2 Review on CMW in Learning and Teaching Chinese as a Second Language ....................................................................... 58 Chapter 4 Research Methodology ........................................................... 67 4.0 Introduction .................................................................................... 67 4.1 Survey ........................................................................................... 67 4.2 Questionnaire ................................................................................ 70 4.3 Chinese Language Performance Test ........................................... 71 4.4 CMW Test ..................................................................................... 72 4.4.0 Introduction......................................................................... 72 4.4.1 Closed-ended Items ........................................................... 73 4.4.2 Restricted-response Items (the Answers are Restricted) ........................................................................... 75 4.4.3 Open-ended Items .............................................................. 79 4.4.4 Summary ............................................................................ 80 4.5 Sampling ....................................................................................... 80 4.6 Data Analysis ................................................................................ 82 4.7 Ethical Considerations ................................................................... 83 Chapter 5 Results and Discussion of the Overall Result of the Tests ................................................................................................... 85 5.0 Introduction .................................................................................... 85 5.1 The Overall Performance of L2 Learners’ Application of CMW ..... 85 5.2 The Results of CMW Application in Different Tasks ...................... 89 5.3 The Discussion of the Results of Different Tasks .......................... 96 Chapter 6 Results and Discussion of the Application of Different Measure Words .................................................................................. 99 6.0 Introduction .................................................................................... 99 6.1 Learners’ Previous Knowledge, the Model of the Process of CMW Acquisition and the Results of CMW Application ............. 100 6.2 The Results of Weights and Measures ........................................ 103 6.3 The Results of Collective Nominal Measure Words .................... 106 6.3.1 The Results of Collective Nominal Measure Words in Phrase Translation ...........................................................