Study of the Sequencing of Verb Modifiers and Verbs in both Chinese and Thai Languages Using the Principle of Temporal Sequence (PTS)
Keywords:
Chinese word sequencing, verb modifiers, verbs, The Principle of Temporal Sequence (PTS)Abstract
This study addresses the challenge of understanding the word order of verb modifiers and verbs in Chinese, an area complicated by numerous intricate rules that often hinder learners. By applying the Principle of Temporal Sequence (PTS), this research aims to reduce the burden of memorization and comprehension for learners. The specific objectives are: 1) to analyze the word order in Chinese sentences containing a single verb modifier and verb through the application of PTS, and 2) to investigate the word order in sentences with multiple verb modifiers and verbs using the same principle. This qualitative study builds on prior research that explored PTS and collects 875 sample sentences from Developing Chinese Elementary Comprehensive Course I (2nd Edition) 发展汉语初级综合I第二版 and Developing Chinese Elementary Comprehensive Course II (2nd Edition) 发展汉语初级综合II第二版 to delineate the scope of PTS application.
The findings reveal that: 1) the majority of Chinese sentences with a single verb modifier and verb (15 out of 17 categories) follow the word order predicted by PTS, and 2) most Chinese sentences with multiple verb modifiers and verbs (24 out of 26 categories) also conform to the PTS framework. The implications of these findings can assist beginner-level Chinese learners in reducing the cognitive burden of memorizing complex word order rules for verb modifiers and verbs.
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