ISSN 0439-755X
CN 11-1911/B
主办:中国心理学会
   中国科学院心理研究所
出版:科学出版社

心理学报 ›› 2012, Vol. 44 ›› Issue (1): 76-86.

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语境和构词法线索对外国学生汉语词义猜测的作用

江新;房艳霞   

  1. (1北京语言大学对外汉语研究中心, 北京 100083) (2北京外国语大学中国语言文学学院, 北京 100089)
  • 收稿日期:2010-11-05 修回日期:1900-01-01 发布日期:2012-01-28 出版日期:2012-01-28
  • 通讯作者: 江新;房艳霞

The Effects of Context and Word Morphology on Interpreting Unknown Words by Learners of Chinese as A Second Language

JIANG Xin;FANG Yan-Xia   

  1. (1 Center for Studies of Chinese as a Second Language, Beijing Language and Culture University, Beijing 100083, China)
    (2 School of Chinese Language and Literature, Beijing Foreign Studies University, Beijing 100089, China)
  • Received:2010-11-05 Revised:1900-01-01 Online:2012-01-28 Published:2012-01-28
  • Contact: JIANG Xin;FANG Yan-Xia

摘要: 要求学习汉语的欧美和日本留学生对三种条件下(只有词没有语境、只有语境没有词、既有词也有语境)的语义半透明的双音复合词进行猜测, 考察语境和构词法线索在欧美和日本留学生汉语生词猜测中的作用。结果显示:在猜测词义中语境和构词法线索分别都能提供一定的信息, 但同时提供两种信息能得到更好的猜测; 语境和构词法线索在生词猜测过程中所起的作用不同, 语境能提供更多句法上的信息, 构词法能提供更多语义上的信息; 目标词的结构方式对生词猜测产生影响, 与动宾式生词相比, 偏正式生词的猜测较为容易且构词法线索在其中的作用较大; 母语文字背景可能影响词义猜测的效果, 日本留学生对于构词法、语境线索以及两者的整合都比欧美留学生好。

关键词: 语境, 构词法, 结构方式, 生词猜测, 第二语言学习, 欧美留学生, 日本留学生

Abstract: When learning Chinese, vocabulary is one of the main factors affecting foreign learners’ reading ability. Most learners are able to interpret unknown words through useful clues, which shed light on vocabulary learning and acquisition. To interpret unknown words, learners mainly rely on contextual clues and word morphology clues. However, very little research has been conducted on the roles of contextual and word morphology clues in the process of interpreting unknown compound words of different combinations by learners of Chinese as a second language, especially those with different native languages. Therefore, the present research intends to address the impacts of the following factors on interpreting unknown words by learners of Chinese as a second language, i.e. contextual and word morphology clues, the influence of morpheme combinations and learners’ language backgrounds.
Thirty-six intermediate-level learners of Chinese (18 Euro-American students and 18 Japanese students) were invited to participate in the test. Thirty-six semitransparent compound words were chosen as target words, which were unacquainted to the participants although the individual words comprising the compound words were familiar to them. The participants were asked to interpret the meaning of compound words under three different conditions: (1) the words-only condition, (2) the context-only condition with target words omitted, (3) words plus context clues condition, in which target words were presented within specified sentences. The factorial design of 2 native languages (western languages and Japanese) × 2 structural rules of the target compound words (modifier-head constructions and verb-object constructions) × 3 aforementioned conditions was adopted. The results of the test were encoded as the data for statistical and analytical purposes.
The results show that both the contextual clues and the word morphology clues provide a certain amount of information in the process of word meaning interpreting and the integration of context and word morphology clues results in better interpreting. Furthermore, the roles of context and word morphology in interpreting unknown words have quantitative and qualitative differences. Contexts provide more syntactic information than word morphology clues, whereas word morphology clues provide more semantic information. The morpheme combinations can affect the interpreting. Thirdly, it is found that much better interpreting was achieved for the meaning of modifier-head constructions rather than verb-object constructions; Word morphology clues provide more information for modifier-head constructions than verb-object constructions. Two possible reasons may lie in the larger number of modifier-head constructions than verb-object constructions and the difference in the morpheme activated styles between the two types of compound words in Chinese. Finally, the results show that Japanese learners were better in interpreting unknown compound words than western learners. This may suggest an effect of L1 and L2 distance on interpreting L2 unknown compound words.

Key words: context, word morphology, interpreting unknown words, Chinese as a second language, Euro- American learners, Japanese learners