A Typology-based Study Of Southeast Asian Learners’ Acquisition Of Chinese Attributive Word Order

With the development of China and the promotion of the "Belt and Road" initiative,more and more Southeast Asian students are learning Chinese.However,due to the significant differences between their language backgrounds and Chinese backgrounds,these students often encounter difficulties in learning Chinese,especially with regards to the complex and difficult to master Chinese adjective order.In Chinese,all adjectives must precede the core noun,which is a linguistic universality principle in typology.Furthermore,various requirements apply to the combination and arrangement of multiple adjectives,making it challenging for Chinese learners.This paper takes a typological approach and examines four common types of attributives(possession,reference,quantity,and adjective)and compares the word order of these attributives in Chinese and Southeast Asian languages.The study aims to identify the features and rules that govern the distribution of attributive word order in various languages in Southeast Asia.The investigation found that,with regards to the arrangement and distribution of individual attributives,placing adjectives after core nouns is a common feature of all languages in Southeast Asia.Referring to adjectives and possessives after placing them is a typological feature of VO languages,while OV languages exhibit the opposite.The position of quantifiers is more flexible.Regarding the word order arrangement of multiple attributives,most Southeast Asian languages do not place all attributives on the same side.No language investigated in this study placed all attributives before the core noun,but Thai and Laotian can place all attributives after the core noun.However,the order of attributives in each language roughly follows the orbital structure diagram of multi-layer attributives.The arrangement order,from closest to farthest from the central word,is: central word-adjective attributive-quantitative attributive-specific attributive/possessive attributives.The arrangement rules of multi-level attributives are affected by the principle of semantic proximity and the principle of distinguishability.Based on these findings,this paper proposes five hypotheses to understand whether the acquisition of Chinese attributives by Southeast Asian learners is influenced by typology.The study uses a combination of questionnaire survey and corpus analysis to investigate the acquisition of Chinese attributives by Southeast Asian learners.The research found that learners have more difficulty acquiring the word order of adjective attributives,followed by quantitative attributives,possessive attributives,and definitive attributives.Learners are more likely to place possessive attributives in the wrong order.Regarding the acquisition of multiple attributives,learners tend to place the adjective attributive in the inner layer closest to the central word but are more prone to making mistakes with the order of adjective attributives and quantitative attributives.The study further analyzes the reasons for these acquisition characteristics and concludes that Southeast Asian learners are influenced by the principle of semantic proximity and the typological universality of language.Learners in Cambodia and Indonesia are more affected by negative transfer from their mother tongue,which shows more distinct national characteristics in their acquisition.Finally,based on the commonality and national characteristics of the region,this paper proposes teaching suggestions for Chinese attributive teaching in Southeast Asia,such as emphasizing the placement of Chinese attributives before the core noun,reinforcing the practice of the relative word order of two types of attributives,and using orbital structure diagrams for teaching.