Modern Chinese Negative Adverbs “bu” and “mei”: Comparative Analysis and Curriculum Activity Design

• Main Authors: Jia-Li Jhou, 周嘉莅
• Other Authors: Shou-Hsin Teng
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2011
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/23753761993759037533

碩士 === 國立臺灣師範大學 === 華語文教學研究所 === 99 === In modern Chinese, “bu” and “mei” are two most frequently used negative adverbs. Despite the abundance of linguistic research on “bu” and “mei”, application of the available research findings to Chinese language instruction is scarce. In Thai, “mai” is a common negative adverb. Hence, learners who are native Thai speakers usually make mistakes when using negative adverbs “bu” and “mei” in Chinese. Based on a collected corpus of negative verbs, this study investigated the differences between “bu” and “mei” in terms of syntax and semantic functions and further compared Chinese to Thai. In addition, a questionnaire survey was conducted to explore the common types of errors and causes among native Thai speakers. The results could be a reference for curriculum activity design. This study argued that native Thai speakers have trouble learning “bu” and “mei” mainly because these two adverbs are semantically confusing. In order to help them learn these adverbs correctly and efficiently, this study applied the word association and situational language teaching approaches to curriculum activity design to help learners correctly associate negative adverbs with verbs and tell the differences between negative adverbs. Both “bu” and “mei” mean negativity and have some semantic functions. As the extant taxonomies of verbs do not reflect semantic features of verbs, this study divided verbs into action verbs, state verbs, and process verbs. When applied to action verbs, “bu” means rejection of an intention or a habit, while “mei” means rejection of completion or occurrence of an event. Only “bu” can be used to create a negative meaning of state verbs, stating absence of the state. When applied to process verbs, “mei” means that the process has not taken place. Based on this structure, this study analyzed differences between the negative adverbs, errors of using them, and then applied the results to curriculum activity design.