Systematic repetition of the first person singular pronoun wo in Mandarin conversation

2010 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 183-219 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jee Won Lee
Keyword(s):  
Mandarin Chinese ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Social Activity ◽  
First Person ◽  
Syntactic Features ◽  
Phonological Features ◽  
Interactive Strategies ◽  
Single Speaker ◽  
New Perspective ◽  
Mandarin Conversation

While repetition was once thought to be “just a marker of a ‘disfluent’ or ‘sloppy’ speaker,” it has been increasingly recognized as a “human social activity, clearly part of our everyday conduct or behavior” (Schegloff 1987). The present study, using video recorded natural conversation data, aims to describe ways in which native speakers of Mandarin Chinese employ repetition of the first person pronoun wo for interactional moves. Repetition of wo is analyzed in conjunction with other interactive strategies, such as syntactic features, phonological features, pragmatic features, gesture, self-grooming, and gaze, as a way to organize and negotiate stances toward the proposition expressed and the co-participants and at the same time to enable intersubjectivity. By showing that within the speech of a single speaker pronominal repetition acts as a stance marker, this paper provides a new perspective on Chinese pronominal use and enriches our understanding of the functions of “disfluent” language in general.

The morphology and syntax of Ulster Scots

2006 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 295-329 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Montgomery
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
17Th Century ◽  
Structural Features ◽  
The Other ◽  
Linguistic Landscape ◽  
James I ◽  
Syntactic Features ◽  
Phonological Features ◽  
The 1960S

Ulster differs from the other three historical provinces of Ireland in the presence of Ulster Scots, an off-shoot of Lowland Scots brought principally from the Western and Central Lowlands of Scotland in the 17th century through a plantation established by King James I and through periodic migrations, especially in times of economic duress in Scotland. Since that time Ulster Scots has been spoken in rural parts of Counties Antrim, Donegal, Down, and Londonderry/Derry, where it was mapped by Robert Gregg in the 1960s mainly on the basis of phonological features. The present article, based on eight years of fieldwork with native speakers in Antrim, analyzes a range of pronominal, verbal, and syntactic features, seeking to identify general patterns as well as variation within Ulster Scots. When possible, comparisons are made to Lowland Scots and Irish English in order to situate structural features of Ulster Scots within the larger linguistic landscape of the British Isles.

iCALL corpus: Mandarin Chinese spoken by non-native speakers of European descent

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nancy F. Chen ◽  
Rong Tong ◽  
Darren Wee ◽  
Peixuan Lee ◽  
Bin Ma ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mandarin Chinese ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
European Descent

scholarly journals THE MANDARIN ORAL MASTERY PROGRAMME AS PERCEIVED BY NON-NATIVE LEARNERS

2022 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-23
Author(s):  
Nurul Ain Chua ◽  
Goh Ying Soon ◽  
Mohd Yusri Ibrahim ◽  
Che Hasniza Che Noh ◽  
Noor Rohana Mansor ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Training Session ◽  
Language Instruction ◽  
Foreign Language Instruction ◽  
Oral Fluency ◽  
Part C ◽  
Strong Indicator ◽  
Level 1 ◽  
Mandarin Conversation

Background and Purpose: Pinyin is required in learning Mandarin. The challenge of Romanised Pinyin is that learners must decipher the meaning of words based on the change of tone. Communication research is often conducted without accounting for the effects of the change of tone in learning a language. With the aim of avoiding miscommunication while strengthening awareness, Campus Buddies Programme was employed to provide tone practice for learners and consequently explores the effectiveness of the intervention.   Methodology: This quantitative classroom-based research gathered information through the administration of a questionnaire. The questionnaire was distributed to 32 Mandarin Level 1 learners identified through purposive sampling. The students studied five topics from the syllabus. A total of 10 native speakers who scored A in Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) mentored the learners during the programme. The participants were instructed to answer both pre- and post-tests. Part A consists of demographic details, whereas Part B focuses on the effectiveness of questions and Part C consists of 30 questions of content learned by the respondents. The data were then analysed using SPSS 26 software.   Findings: The respondents demonstrated a positive response towards the programme and suggested further improvement ideas such as prolonging the training session and adding more topics and oral activities. The results implicated the programme as a motivator for oral fluency. Many non-native speakers can benefit from conversation with Mandarin native speakers because it is a strong indicator and sound oral mastery strategy.   Contributions: This research provides insights into the effectiveness of the current programme in motivating students’ oral learning. The outcome is essential in determining the Mandarin conversation strategy. More studies adopting different variables are proposed to explore correlations from different perspectives in order to improve students’ oral learning.   Keywords: Tonal pronunciation, native speakers, non-native speakers, foreign language instruction, Mandarin conversation.   Cite as: Chua, N. A., Soon, G. Y., Ibrahim, M. Y., Che Noh, C. H., Mansor, N. R., Embong Eusoff, A. M., Abdul Rashid, R., & Shen, M. (2022). The Mandarin oral mastery programme as perceived by non-native learners.  Journal of Nusantara Studies, 7(1), 1-23. http://dx.doi.org/10.24200/jonus.vol7iss1pp1-23

scholarly journals The use of discourse markers but and so by native English speakers and Chinese speakers of English

Pragmatics ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 479-506 ◽  
Author(s):  
Binmei Liu
Keyword(s):  
Mandarin Chinese ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Communicative Competence ◽  
Oral Proficiency ◽  
Discourse Markers ◽  
Native English Speakers ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Oral Discourse ◽  
Chinese Speakers ◽  
Native Speakers Of English

Abstract Previous studies have found that but and so occur frequently in native and non-native English speakers’ speech and that they are easy to acquire by non-native English speakers. The current study compared ideational and pragmatic functions of but and so by native and non-native speakers of English. Data for the study were gathered using individual sociolinguistic interviews with five native English speakers and ten L1 Chinese speakers. The results suggest that even though the Chinese speakers of English acquired the ideational functions of but and so as well as the native English speakers, they underused the pragmatic functions of them. The findings indicate that there is still a gap between native and non-native English speakers in communicative competence in the use of but and so. The present study also suggests that speakers’ L1 (Mandarin Chinese) and overall oral proficiency in oral discourse affect their use of but and so.

The acquisition of relative clauses by Spanish-Basque learners of L3 English: does dominance play a role?

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jon Ramos Feijoo ◽  
María del Pilar García Mayo
Keyword(s):  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Internal Factors ◽  
Language Dominance ◽  
Third Language ◽  
Third Language Acquisition ◽  
Syntactic Features ◽  
Factors Influencing ◽  
Native Speakers Of English

Abstract Several studies in the area of third language acquisition (L3A) have considered various factors influencing this process, but the effect of language dominance has not been thoroughly examined. The main goal of this study is to investigate whether the acquisition of relative clauses (RCs) in L3 English is influenced by language internal factors, such as the syntactic features of the target language, or by external factors in the form of cross-linguistic influence (CLI). A total of 90 participants (40 Spanish-dominant, 40 Basque-dominant, 10 L1 Spanish-L2 English) and 10 native speakers of English completed a production and a comprehension task. Findings show that the L3 learners’ production of RCs seems to be driven by language internal factors, whereas their comprehension appears to be influenced by their previously acquired languages, mainly by Spanish. It is concluded that neither language dominance nor other traditionally considered factors play a determinant role in the acquisition of RCs in L3 English by these participants.

scholarly journals Relative Contribution of Auditory and Visual Information to Mandarin Chinese Tone Identification by Native and Tone-naïve Listeners

2019 ◽  
Vol 63 (4) ◽  
pp. 856-876
Author(s):  
Yueqiao Han ◽  
Martijn Goudbeek ◽  
Maria Mos ◽  
Marc Swerts
Keyword(s):  
Mandarin Chinese ◽  
Visual Information ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Mcgurk Effect ◽  
Auditory Speech ◽  
Relative Contribution ◽  
Lip Reading ◽  
Show Evidence ◽  
Visual Materials ◽  
Chinese Subjects

Speech perception is a multisensory process: what we hear can be affected by what we see. For instance, the McGurk effect occurs when auditory speech is presented in synchrony with discrepant visual information. A large number of studies have targeted the McGurk effect at the segmental level of speech (mainly consonant perception), which tends to be visually salient (lip-reading based), while the present study aims to extend the existing body of literature to the suprasegmental level, that is, investigating a McGurk effect for the identification of tones in Mandarin Chinese. Previous studies have shown that visual information does play a role in Chinese tone perception, and that the different tones correlate with variable movements of the head and neck. We constructed various tone combinations of congruent and incongruent auditory-visual materials (10 syllables with 16 tone combinations each) and presented them to native speakers of Mandarin Chinese and speakers of tone-naïve languages. In line with our previous work, we found that tone identification varies with individual tones, with tone 3 (the low-dipping tone) being the easiest one to identify, whereas tone 4 (the high-falling tone) was the most difficult one. We found that both groups of participants mainly relied on auditory input (instead of visual input), and that the auditory reliance for Chinese subjects was even stronger. The results did not show evidence for auditory-visual integration among native participants, while visual information is helpful for tone-naïve participants. However, even for this group, visual information only marginally increases the accuracy in the tone identification task, and this increase depends on the tone in question.

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