Acquisition des langues : perspectives comparatives Colloque en hommage à Clive Perdue Laboratoire Structures Formelles du Langage CNRS & Université de Paris 8 5 6 Décembre 2008 Correlation between Development of Lexical Adverbs and Verbal Morphology for Chinese FLE Learners Jili Sun (Northwestern University) jilisun@hotmail.com j-sun@northwestern.edu 1. Introduction In the project of ESF (Klein, Perdue, 1997), we observed different language learners going through similar stages of acquisition of temporal expression: from lexical-pragmatic expression to morphological expression. Starren (2001) claimed that when the functional verbal morphology is not acquired, learners studied in the ESF project first used abundant temporal adverbs to specify the time, and then when the temporal adverb usage could no longer express some complex temporal relations, learners gradually developed verbal morphology. In the following paper, we propose to verify this acquisition process in the development of temporal adverbs and verbal morphology for Chinese FLE learners. The typological differences between these two languages in
temporal marking provide a productive field of study in which to verify the degree to which a commonly shared feature in second language acquisition could apply to a specific group of learners. 2. Research Question The finding of project ESF implies that, first of all, in a whole narration, the temporal information must be provided either by temporal adverbs or verbal morphology; secondly, after the pre-basic stage, learners consider that there is a balance of dichotomy between lexical temporal expression and verbal morphology. So the limited potential of temporal adverbs to express temporality incites the development of verbal morphology. In this theme of research, Chinese language provides an interesting study sample because Chinese language does not require systematic verbal morphological marking for temporality in narration. Temporal information is often provided implicitly in the context (Li & Thompson 1981, Chao 1968, Hendriks 1999), while French requires systematic morphological marking in the verbal part, and has very clear tense marking in the verbal morphology for the past, present and future. How do Chinese learners perceive the necessity to explicitly mark temporality in their second language of French? How do they balance the adverb marking and verbal morphological marking of temporality in French? The current study will try to answer these questions by observing the
correlation between temporal adverbs and the development of verbal morphology for Chinese learners of French. 3. Methodology and Results We use the same stimulus in the ESF project (Silent film: modern times), and collect data from two groups: one group of Chinese FLE learners in P.R. China, and the other group in France. Their living environment and learning methods are different. This helps us to reduce the influence of exterior factors in the process of acquisition. In Sun (2008), we observed the development of verbal morphology of these two groups and how it follows the same pattern: présent - passé composé - futur simple and plus-que-parfait, even in different learning conditions. We will present in this communication the finding for the distribution of temporal adverbs for these two groups. We will also present the distribution of the verbal morphology in the beginner's group in Xi an as a sample of analysis. For additional information in the development of verbal morphology, we can refer to Sun (2008)
Table 1 : groupe de Xi an (P.R. China) Name Age Level Learning Time Liying 18 Beginner 4,5 months Jingli 18 Beginner 4,5 months Guoming 18 Beginner 4,5 months Fangfei 19 Intermediate I 16,5 months Jun 20 Intermediate I 16,5 months Lingxi 19 Intermediate I 16,5 months Boyi 20 Intermediate II 28,5 months Mei 20 Intermediate II 28,5 months Mi 20 Intermediate II 28,5 months Tongyi 21 Advanced 40,5 months Hui 21 Advanced 40,5 months Bo 21 Advanced 40,5 months Table 2: group of Paris (France) Name Age Level Learning Time Yangshenfu 35 Intermediate 16,5 months Xiaoyin 25 Intermediate 15 months Xiaodan 24 Intermediate 17 months Fengyong 25 Intermediate 17 months Awei 23 Intermediate 16,5 months Chenshenxin 27 Intermediate 17 months Leijie 25 Advanced 4 months Lina 25 Advanced 4 months Xiaoma 28 Advanced 4,5 months
Table 3 : distribution of verbal morphology for the beginners group (Xi an) Name Présent PC IM FP FS PP IN AF Without Verb Total Utterance Liying 29 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 31 Jingli 11 0 0 0 0 0 2 6 0 19 Guoming 17 0 0 1 0 0 2 1 0 21 Total 57 1 0 2 0 0 4 7 0 71 %(V/U) 78,87% 1,41% 0,00% 2,82% 0,00% 0.00% 5,63% 9,86% 0,00% 83.10% PC : passé composé ; IM : imparfait ; FP : futur proche ; PP : plus-que-parfait ; IN : infinitif ; AF :ambigous form ; V/U : verbal morphology /total utterances Table 4. distribution of temporal adverbs for the beginners group (Xi an) Name Temporal adverbs Utterance (total) %(T/U) Liying 9 32 28,1% Jingli 3 19 15,8% Guoming 1 22 4,5% From table 3, we can see that the verbal morphology begins to develop in the beginners group. We also observed an important individual variance in the use of temporal adverbs in table 4. We will illustrate it by the data of Jinli and Liying: Example 1 Liying (4.5 months) a. en ce moment-là, la fille /fε/ un travail dans une usine b. et son père /nε/ c. ses soeurs et elle /sõ/ très tristes d. ensuite, elle /git/ la famille e. dans la rue, elle /rœgard/ beaucoup de pain f. elle en /prã/ g. parce qu elle /a/ très faim h. mais elle /na/ pas de chance i. elle /lavy/ j. à ce moment-là, le garçon et la fille /sœ rakõt/ k. le garçon /di/ aux gens que /sε/ lui qui /prã/ le pain pour aider le la /f fa/ famille l. quelques minutes après, ils /võ ãtre/ dans la prison m. mais ils ne /pøv/ pas y aller
n. ils /desãd/ de la voiture o. ensuite, /il snterεs/ p. dix jours après, le garçon /va s/ chez elle Example 2 Jingli (4.5 months) a. le fille /prã m prãd m ffro/ fromage b. et /ãtre/ dans hum dans le prison c. /sεt nom/ aussi /ãtre/ dans dans le prison d. /nunu rãkõtrõ/ hum dans dans la /oto/ dans le dans la /oto/ e. mais ils ne /puve/ pas hum entrer dans dans le prison f. /ilzõ/ une petite maison j. hum elle /nεpa/ elle /nεpa/ meublée h. dans la maison hum /ilija/une table hum des fleurs, deux chaises, et un lit i. la maison hum la maison /εsœtruve/ la maison /εsœtruve/ après de la rivière j. matin /sεm/ cette cette fille/m pre pre m prepare/ le petit déjeuner pour cette /jœ/ cette /nom/ k. ils /mãz/ ensemble l. enfin, /il ilεm/ bien elle m. /sε/ tout From the qualitative analysis above, we observed the learner who is the most advanced in the development of morphology. Liying used the largest quantity of temporal adverbs. It seemed that the development of morphology is parallel with the development of temporal adverbs. On the other hand, the learner who developed less verbal morphology, Jinli, used a lesser percentage of temporal adverbs (table 4) in the whole narration. We did not observe the relation of balance of dichotomy between verbal morphology and temporal adverbs in the findings of ESF project. In the following tables, we will present the distribution of temporal adverbs for the other groups.
Table 5. Distribution of temporal adverbs for the intermediate I group (Xi an) Name Temporal Adverbs Utterance (total) Percentage(T/U) Fanfei 3 20 15,0% Jun 4 23 13,0% Lingxi 2 18 11,1% Tableau 6 : distribution of temporal adverbs for the intermediate II group (Xi an) Name Temporal Adverbs Utterance (total) Percentage(T/U) Boyi 14 61 22,9% Mei 6 28 21,4% Mi 5 27 18,5% Table 7. distribution of temporal adverbs for the advanced group (Xi an) Name Temporal Adverbs Utterance (total) Percentage(T/U) Tongyi 9 67 13,4% Hui 10 70 14,2% Bo 1 43 2,3% Table 8. Distribution of temporal adverbs for the intermediate group (Paris) Name Temporal Adverbs Utterance(total) Percentage(T/U) Yang Shenfu 11 74 14,9% Xiaoying 6 80 7,5% Xiaodan 3 49 6,1% Fengyong 15 163 9,2% Awei 3 31 9,7% Chen Shenxing 7 49 14,3% Table 9. distribution of temporal adverbs for the advanced group (Paris) Name Temporal adverbs Utterance(total) Percentage(T/U) Lina 30 169 17,8% Leijie 22 73 30,1% Xiaoma 38 179 21,2%
From the comparison of table 9 and table 8, in the same learning environment in Paris, the advanced group used more temporal adverbs than the intermediate group. From the tables 5 through 7, we did not observe regularity in the quantity of temporal adverbs for the learners in P. R. China. But at the same time, in all these groups, we observed regular development of verbal morphology (Sun 2008). 4. Discussion From table 3, we can observe the verbal morphology development from the beginning of learning. We did expect the absence of systematic grammatical marking of temporality in Chinese would create difficulties in the acquisition of the verbal morphology, but the data did not confirm our presumption. In the project INTERFRA (Bartning 1997) and Granget (2004) also observed the early acquisition of verbal morphology in the analysis of guided Swedish and German learners of French. Guided learners early exposure to verbal morphology can explain part of the reason. Especially for the group in Xi an, the educative system in China puts a lot of emphasis on the acquisition of grammar; as a result, after 4.5 months of learning, learners begin to use the verbal morphology of the present tense. Nevertheless, we did not observe a correlation between the temporal
adverbs and the development of verbal morphology. The development of verbal morphology does not lead to a decrease of temporal adverbs. The qualitative analysis of the beginning group of Xi an proves also that the learner who develops a richer verbal morphology uses a larger quantity of temporal adverbs than those who are less advanced in the use of morphology. Individual factors are sometimes important in the use of temporal adverbs. We propose the following explanation: since Chinese language does not require systematic verbal morphological marking and the temporal information is very dependant on context, the learners will have a relative attitude towards the obligation to mark systematically and explicitly the temporal information in their narration of their second language. This perception will change the motivation of development of verbal morphology. It develops independently from the necessity of temporal marking, and it is disconnected from the development of temporal adverbs. This observation changes the balance of dichotomy between lexical marking and morphological marking in languages studied in the ESF project. We propose that a commonly shared feature in unguided language acquisition of temporality has certain limits and does not apply
to some special languages with a completely different linguistic system in the expression of temporality. Selective References: Bartning, I. (1997). L apprenant dit avancé et son acquisition d une langue étrangère : Tour d horizon et esquisse d une caractérisation de la variété avancée. Aile, 9, pp. 9-50. Granget, C. (2004). L acquisition par des apprenants germanophones de la reference au pasé en français : Un cas d école. [Thèse de doctorat de Université de Paris III Sorbonne Nouvelle.] Hendriks, H. (1999). The acquisition of temporal reference in first and second language acquisition: What children already know and adults still have to learn and vice versa. Psychology of Language and communication, vol.3 (1) pp.146-145. Klein, W., Perdue, C. (1997). The basic variety. Studies Second Language Research, 13, pp. 31-47. Starren, M. (2001). The second time, the acquisition of temporality in Dutch and French as a second language. Utrecht : LOT. Sun, J (2008) Conceptualisation étendue du temps topique dans les narrations des apprenants sinophones en français langue étrangère AILE (Acquisition et Interaction Langue Etrangère N 26