L2 Acquisition of splitable compounds of Mandarin Chinese : the “split” vs “unsplit” use

Abstract

Splitable Compounds (SC) of Chinese are VO construction that can be used as both a compound word (in its Unsplit form) and a phrase (in its Split form). It is known that learning complex structures poses a challenge for L2 learners. Due to this duality, SCs could be especially difficult to acquire. This study aimed to answer: “Does the language proficiency of the learner affect the acquisition of the Split vs Unsplit uses of SCs?”. For this, three groups of participants at different proficiency levels of Mandarin Chinese answered an online survey which consisted of multiple-choice elicitation tasks. Significant improvement was seen from Group 1 to Group 3 in their accuracy using the Unsplit form of SCs, but not when using the Split (phrase/collocation) form. Thus, SCs Split and Unsplit forms are not acquired evenly. One (the Unsplit) is much easier to acquire than the other (the Split).