APJCR_2020_1_2_15

Article

Asia Pacific Journal of Corpus Research Vol. 1, No. 2, pp. 15-26
Abbreviation: APJCR
e-ISSN: 2733-8096
Publication date: 31 December 2020
Received: 30 October 2020 / Received in Revised Form: 4 December 2020 / Accepted: 16 December 2020
DOI: https://doi.org/10.22925/apjcr.2020.1.2.15

The Acquisition of Spanish Clitic Pronouns as a Third Language: A Corpus-based Study

Hui-Chuan Lu (National Cheng Kung University)
An Chung Cheng (The University of Toledo)
Yu-Hsin Chu (National Cheng Kung University)
Copyright 2020 APJCR

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0, which permits unrestricted, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

This corpus-based study investigated third language acquisition by Taiwanese college students in learning Spanish clitic pronouns at beginning and intermediate levels. It examined the acquisition sequences of Spanish clitic pronouns of the Chinese-speaking learners whose second language was English and third language was Spanish. The results indicated that indirect object pronouns (OP) preceded direct OP (case), first person preceded third person OP (person), masculine preceded feminine OP (gender), and animate preceded inanimate OP (animacy). The findings presented similar patterns as those of previous studies on English-speaking learners of Spanish. In further comparisons of the target forms in Chinese, English, and Spanish, the results suggested that L1 Chinese had strong influence on L3 Spanish, which accounts for the challenges that Taiwanese learners of Spanish face as they learn the Spanish clitic pronouns in the beginning stage.

Keywords

Spanish Clitic Pronouns, Corpus-based, Third Language Acquisition

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The Authors’ Addresses

First and Corresponding Author
Hui-Chuan Lu
Professor
Department of Foreign Languages and Literature
National Cheng Kung University
1 University Rd, East District, Tainan City 70101, TAIWAN
E-mail: huichuanlu1@gmail.com

Co-author
An Chung Cheng
Professor
Department of World Languages and Cultures
The University of Toledo
2801 Bancroft St, Toledo, OH 43606, UNITED STATES
E-mail: Anchung.Cheng@utoledo.edu

Co-author
Yu-Hsin Chu
MA Student
Department of Foreign Languages and Literature
National Cheng Kung University
1 University Rd, East District, Tainan City 70101, TAIWAN
E-mail: katy0806@gmail.com

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