{"id":{"repo_id":"uiuc","oai_identifier":"oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/23290"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/uiuc/oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/23290","repository":{"repo_id":"uiuc","name":"University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign","base_url":"https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh"},"display":{"title":"Topic-comment constructions in the acquisition of Chinese as a second/foreign language","abstract":"The main purpose of this study is to investigate factors involved in the learning of five Mandarin Chinese 'topic' constructions by adult English speakers in a formal classroom setting. The focal point of investigation is the effect the subject-prominence of English grammar has on the learning of Chinese topic constructions. All five types of topic are in the surface structural form of topic-subject-verb-(object).","abstract_html":"The main purpose of this study is to investigate factors involved in the learning of five Mandarin Chinese 'topic' constructions by adult English speakers in a formal classroom setting. The focal point of investigation is the effect the subject-prominence of English grammar has on the learning of Chinese topic constructions. All five types of topic are in the surface structural form of topic-subject-verb-(object).","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Mu, Zhijun"],"institution":"University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign","degree_name":"Ph.D.","degree_level":"Dissertation","degree_discipline":"Education","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Packard, Jerome"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2011,"date_issued":"2011-05-07T14:08:55Z","date_published":"2011-05-07T14:08:55Z","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:25:21Z","subjects":["Education, Language and Literature","Language, Linguistics"],"languages":["eng"],"rights":["Copyright 1994 Mu, Zhijun"],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["AAI9543678","(UMI)AAI9543678"],"render_values":[{"text":"AAI9543678","href":null,"code":true},{"text":"(UMI)AAI9543678","href":null,"code":true}]}]},"links":{"outbound_url":"http://hdl.handle.net/2142/23290","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Packard, Jerome"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Mu, Zhijun"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2011-05-07T14:08:55Z","10000-01-01","1994"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["text"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Education"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Dissertation"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Ph.D."]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Education, Language and Literature","Language, Linguistics"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["eng"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["Copyright 1994 Mu, Zhijun"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["AAI9543678","(UMI)AAI9543678","http://hdl.handle.net/2142/23290"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["The main purpose of this study is to investigate factors involved in the learning of five Mandarin Chinese 'topic' constructions by adult English speakers in a formal classroom setting. The focal point of investigation is the effect the subject-prominence of English grammar has on the learning of Chinese topic constructions. All five types of topic are in the surface structural form of topic-subject-verb-(object).","It is found that first, in the acquisition process, language transfer in conjunction with language markedness values is a major influential factor. Secondly, among these five types of topic constructions, the dou structure is the earliest to be acquired despite its uniqueness to English speakers. The optionally derived construction is the hardest to learn even though it is marginally acceptable in English. Thirdly, length of native-speaking residence is found to be an important variable to account for learner's proficiency in Chinese topic sentences.","A secondary purpose of this study is to systematically classify Chinese topic constructions that are in the particular form of topic-subject-verb-(object), i.e., double nominatives before the verb. It is hoped that classifying topic sentences purely according to their surface structural characteristics will better our understanding of L2 learners' errors in learning Chinese topic sentences and thus will enhance the effectiveness of teaching.","This study also provides follow-up suggestions to language teachers in response to learner's errors found in the study.","Made available in DSpace on 2011-05-07T14:08:55Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license.txt: 4922 bytes, checksum: 910b249b4beec47e7ab768910c8f966f (MD5) 9543678.pdf: 5796831 bytes, checksum: e4a785ac876f7300b271d7f9e9067992 (MD5) Previous issue date: 1994","Item marked as restricted to the 'UIUC Users [automated]' Group (id=2) by Howard Ding (hding2@illinois.edu) on 2011-05-07T15:03:28Z Item is restricted indefinitely.","Restriction data tranferred 2014-07-01T11:30:15-05:00 Original Data Group with Access UIUC Users [automated] Release Date: none Reason: ETDs are only available to UIUC Users without author permission","ETDs are only available to UIUC Users without author permission","U of I Only"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Topic-comment constructions in the acquisition of Chinese as a second/foreign language"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Packard, Jerome"],"dc:creator":["Mu, Zhijun"],"dc:date":["2011-05-07T14:08:55Z","10000-01-01","1994"],"dc:description":["The main purpose of this study is to investigate factors involved in the learning of five Mandarin Chinese 'topic' constructions by adult English speakers in a formal classroom setting. The focal point of investigation is the effect the subject-prominence of English grammar has on the learning of Chinese topic constructions. All five types of topic are in the surface structural form of topic-subject-verb-(object).","It is found that first, in the acquisition process, language transfer in conjunction with language markedness values is a major influential factor. Secondly, among these five types of topic constructions, the dou structure is the earliest to be acquired despite its uniqueness to English speakers. The optionally derived construction is the hardest to learn even though it is marginally acceptable in English. Thirdly, length of native-speaking residence is found to be an important variable to account for learner's proficiency in Chinese topic sentences.","A secondary purpose of this study is to systematically classify Chinese topic constructions that are in the particular form of topic-subject-verb-(object), i.e., double nominatives before the verb. It is hoped that classifying topic sentences purely according to their surface structural characteristics will better our understanding of L2 learners' errors in learning Chinese topic sentences and thus will enhance the effectiveness of teaching.","This study also provides follow-up suggestions to language teachers in response to learner's errors found in the study.","Made available in DSpace on 2011-05-07T14:08:55Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license.txt: 4922 bytes, checksum: 910b249b4beec47e7ab768910c8f966f (MD5) 9543678.pdf: 5796831 bytes, checksum: e4a785ac876f7300b271d7f9e9067992 (MD5) Previous issue date: 1994","Item marked as restricted to the 'UIUC Users [automated]' Group (id=2) by Howard Ding (hding2@illinois.edu) on 2011-05-07T15:03:28Z Item is restricted indefinitely.","Restriction data tranferred 2014-07-01T11:30:15-05:00 Original Data Group with Access UIUC Users [automated] Release Date: none Reason: ETDs are only available to UIUC Users without author permission","ETDs are only available to UIUC Users without author permission","U of I Only"],"dc:identifier":["AAI9543678","(UMI)AAI9543678","http://hdl.handle.net/2142/23290"],"dc:language":["eng"],"dc:rights":["Copyright 1994 Mu, Zhijun"],"dc:subject":["Education, Language and Literature","Language, Linguistics"],"dc:title":["Topic-comment constructions in the acquisition of Chinese as a second/foreign language"],"dc:type":["text"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Education"],"thesis:degree_level":["Dissertation"],"thesis:degree_name":["Ph.D."],"thesis:institution_name":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:25:21Z"}