中文母語者及外籍學習者對構式成語之認知歷程──以「無X無Y」為例

Abstract

近年來，華語教學的研究蓬勃發展，但由於程度中高級以上的外籍學習者較初級者少，針對成語教學的研究亦相對不足。本研究以「構式成語」的概念為基礎，欲探討構式成語是否能促進外籍學習者對成語的理解，而構式成語之中，頻率和語義透明度又是如何影響成語的理解。 由於構式「無X無Y」的成語數量龐大，能產性高，筆者設計行為實驗，將刺激材料分成非構式成語和構式「無X無Y」成語，所有實驗成語又依照頻率和語義透明度，分成高、低頻成語，和高、低語義透明度成語。實驗時請受試者閱讀成語及解釋，判斷語意對錯。筆者接著比較不同語言背景之間、構式與非構式、頻率高低、語義透明度高低此四項因素下，反應時間以及正確率之差異。 實驗結果發現，頻率和語義透明度均是影響母語人士理解成語的重要因素，在構式成語中兩者對正確率或反應時間的影響，較非構式成語更加重要。而對外籍人士，頻率高低並不重要，語義透明度才是他們解讀構式成語的關鍵因素。

The past two decades have witnessed a substantial increase of learning Chinese as a second language worldwide, and numerous studies have been conducted to understand the mechanism of Mandarin acquisition by foreign language learners. Nevertheless, few studies have been conducted to investigate the acquisition of Chinese idiomatic expressions by advanced learners. Adopting a constructional perspective, the present research focuses on ‘quadrisyllabic idiomatic expressions’ （henceforth QIEs）, and aims to probe whether construction can help learners enhance their understanding of Chinese idioms. This study also attempts to explore how frequency and semantic transparency affect the understanding of Chinese idiomatic constructions. In this study, the construction ’wu-X-wu-Y’ （no –X – no –Y） was selected because of its productivity. Twenty Mandarin native speakers and twenty advanced L2 learners were recruited to participate in the experiment, where two types of idioms were designed: 22 [‘wu-X-wu-Y] “no-X-no-Y” idiomatic constructions divided on the basis of high /low frequency and high/low semantic transparency. （2） 22 non constructional idiomatic expressions. Participants were instructed to make a semantic congruency judgment during the presentation of a QIE. Our results showed that frequency and semantic transparency are both important for Chinese native speakers, to comprehend Chinese idiomatic expressions. However, for foreign learners, frequency is not an important factor, while semantic transparency is key to their interpretation of Chinese idiomatic constructions.