The use of original case forms of nouns in the speech of Chinese students learning Russian as a foreign language (against the background of the natural way of language learning)

Tsao Shopen ORCID: 0009-0004-6526-6405 Postgraduate student; Faculty of Philology; St. Petersburg State University 199034, Russia, St. Petersburg, Vasileostrovsky district, Universitetskaya nab., 7-9-11B st120897@student.spbu.ru

Problem statement

In modern research on the processes of language acquisition as a foreign language, the issues of building an individual prepositional and case system are discussed. In order to study the process of mastering the grammar of Russian as a non-native language, it is necessary to clarify the difference between language acquisition in natural communication and learning a second language in classrooms.

In the course of language acquisition, a specific process of building an individual grammatical system takes place. At each stage of this process, a person develops and uses special rules that "determine the choice of a language unit based on knowledge of its semantic and structural functions, and, if necessary, its construction" ^{[1, p. 136]}. Mistakes accompanying the mastery of complex inflectional grammar of the Russian language may be due to its structure and may be common to children and non-native speakers.

An important factor in the formation of the language system is speech interaction ^{[2, pp. 149-159]}. Since the conditions of language acquisition are different, some of the errors in the speech of native speakers and foreign speakers may be specific ^{[1, p. 136]}. Russians Russians Russians Russians Russians Russians differences in the mechanisms of choosing forms in the speech of Russian monolingual children and native speakers of other languages were indicated by the speech of bilinguals learning Russian and Hebrew ^{[3, pp. 172-179]}, Russian and Finnish ^{[4, pp. 778-784]}, Russian and English ^{[5, pp. 281-284]}, Russian and Swedish, Russian and Greek ^{[6, pp. 146-147]}, Russian and Kyrgyz languages ^{[7, pp. 97-98]}, etc.

Active observations of the formation of the grammatical system in the situation of bilingualism indicate the relevance of this topic. Methodologists note the presence of a significant number of grammatical errors in the field of case selection in the speech of adult Chinese speakers who are learning Russian as a foreign language ^{[8, 9, 10, 11, 12]}, However, there have been insufficient special studies aimed at clarifying the peculiarities of grammatical choice in the speech of adults learning Russian as a foreign language. Such studies are relevant, as they are intended to become the foundation for the development of scientifically sound methods of teaching languages.

Studies of "frozen" forms in an individual's intermediate language

The object of this study is the "intermediate language" of the individual. Following S. N. Tseitlin, by an intermediate language we mean a temporary individual language system that develops at a certain stage of the process of mastering a language as a native and as a foreign language. The process of changing intermediate systems is especially obvious before the formation of the language system of society, at the initial stage of its development ^{[13, pp. 515-516]}. The grammatical system is built up as the experience gained in the course of using the language is accumulated ^{[14, pp. 21-31]}. According to A. A. Zalevskaya, intermediate systems are gradually improving and approaching the standard grammar ^{[15, pp. 156-157]}.

In the intermediate language of people who are beginning to learn languages with complex case morphology, there may be a stage of using "frozen forms". A "frozen form" is a form or syntactic construction that coincides with the mutable word forms of the language of society, but does not have opposing forms in the speaker's intermediate language. According to S. N. Zeitlin's definition, "frozen" can be called a word form "entirely extracted from a speech input", but used "regardless of its exact morphological characteristics, as a result of which a conflict of form and context may arise in some cases" ^{[16, pp. 177-179]}.

In the studies of Chinese linguists based on the material of English language acquisition by native Chinese speakers, the use of vocabulary forms and the absence of appropriate service words is commonly referred to as fossilization: She wants to see a doctor (cf. She wants to see a his doctor) ^{[17, pp. 19-20]}. According to Zhang Xuemei, the main causes of "petrification" are both cognitive features of perception of the facts of grammar of a second language and the choice of learning strategies. Periods of "petrification" are also observed in the process of mastering French and German as foreign languages ^{[18, pp. 19-21]}. Such observations have not yet been made on the material of mastering the Russian language.

The use of the "frozen" nominative case is the first stage in the process of mastering case grammar by monolingual native speakers of Russian ^{[19, pp. 41-52],[16, pp. 177-179],[20, pp. 170-171]}. According to the observations of A. N. Gvozdeva, nouns often appear in the speech of a child under the age of two in the form of the nominative case and are used in different meanings, there is a missing preposition ^{[21, pp. 378-379]}. N. I. Lepskaya gives examples from the speech of children under 3-4 years old: I want to drink water ^{[19, pp. 41-52]}. Researcher of the stages of mastering the grammatical category of case by a Russian-speaking child N. V. Ionova also noted the presence of similar forms: A book to read ^{[22, p. 55]}.

M. D. Voeikova considers "frozen" forms in children's speech as a "grammatical sign without morphology" at the initial stage of the language acquisition process. According to the researcher, the appearance of the frozen form characterizes the initial, premorphological stage of grammar construction, at which word order, rather than case endings, plays a significant role in marking the syntactic role ^{[23, pp. 137-138],[23, pp. 142-145]}. M. D. Voeikova does not fully agree with the ideas of N. Chomsky and believes that that knowledge of language structures is not innate, and the use of frozen forms characterizes the transition period from premorphology to morphology ^{[24, p. 293]}.

The appearance of frozen forms in children's speech is associated with the gradual maturation of the cognitive sphere: when children notice ways to label a syntactic role, case forms gradually appear in their speech ^{[25, p. 118]}. The reasons for using "frozen forms" may also be phonetic: the weakening of the pronunciation of the endings of words leads to their mixed perception, and bilinguals rely more on lexical than grammatical markers ^{[1, p.141]}.

The number of frozen forms in the speech of native speakers over the age of two is sharply decreasing.

There is also a period of use of "frozen forms" of the nominative case in the speech of foreign students ^{[8, p. 120],[10, p.197],[16, p. 177],[26, p. 122],[27, p. 77]}. A. A. Shchelokova is one of the most common mistakes in the speech of native speakers the Chinese language calls "the rejection of the formative procedure and the use of the noun in the most familiar initial form of the nominative case ^{[12, p. 75]}. Unlike children's speech, the period of using "frozen forms" can be long.

Methodologists often note that the preference for unchangeable forms may be due to the influence of their native language, while students often use the word order adopted in their native language to mark grammatical relationships ^{[8, p.120],[12, p. 75]}.

Thus, the use of frozen forms is typical both when learning a native language in early childhood and when learning a foreign language. The need to compare the processes of mastering Russian case grammar becomes obvious.

Hypothesis. The reasons for the use of frozen forms in the speech of a monolingual young child and a foreign student can be both common and different. Incorrect choice of word forms in the speech of foreign speakers manifests itself in a large number of types and is observed for a longer period than in monolinguals of early age, however, the choice of the initial form is motivated by ideas about the methods of formation and the meanings of case forms.

Purpose and method. The purpose of the work is to analyze the psycholinguistic factors of the use of the "frozen nominative case" and to identify the pattern of the use of such forms in the speech of Chinese students.

Descriptive, comparative and error analysis methods were used in the analysis of the material.

Material. The language material was obtained from written assignments completed by third-year students of the Chinese Petroleum University in Qingdao and the Graduate School of Journalism of St. Petersburg University. Also, by the method of continuous sampling, errors were extracted from the "Russian Academic Building of the Higher School of Economics RLC", developed under the leadership of E. V. Rachilina (http://web-corpora.net/RLC ) (a total of 144 forms were examined).

Results and discussion

We have distributed the cases of using the "frozen forms" of the nominative case, depending on which forms of the cases were ignored by the students.

Frozen form instead of genitive forms (63 word forms). Perhaps the total number of errors of this type is much less, since in some cases the possible cause of the error is not the wrong choice of the nominative case form, but the non-normative formation of the plural genitive form using the zero ending (no chance; five liters). Since a twofold explanation of violations in constructions with masculine nouns is possible, for the breadth of the analysis we assumed that the nominative forms were used in all cases of formal coincidence with the potential forms of the genitive plural.

a) errors in counting combinations (25 word forms): but there are few notes, the boy returned even more books, a lot of soy sauce. The noun is put in the plural form, in the case that corresponds to the syntactic position (summaries of the little – nominative case, returned more books – accusative case). The influence of the native or first foreign language (English) is not excluded, however, such errors are not uncommon in the Russian speech of monolingual children. S. N. Zeitlin notes that the use of genitive forms in counting combinations "cannot receive a logical explanation and is solely related to the construction itself," and therefore is difficult for the child to understand ^{[16, p. 84]}.

b) mistakes in negative constructions: they don't have a chance, he didn't have a synopsis (11 word forms). Most of the mistakes are made in negative existential constructions, the rules of construction of which are specific to the Russian language. The occurrence of such violations is explained by the desire to simplify complex grammatical structures. Such errors occur not only in the process of learning a second language, but also in the course of mastering a native language, as S. N. Zeitlin pointed out, drawing attention to the fact that the structural functions of grammemes are mastered later than semantic ones ^{[16, 110]}.

c) errors in specifying the subject of possession and other attributive characteristics: a synopsis of a friend, a grandfather and grandmother's house, a lady in a rich house (9 word forms). In some cases, there is a missing preposition: Shurik's boy will have an exam. In this type of error, there is a desire for simplification: a uniform indication of the subject using the nominative case form. In the speech of Russian-speaking children, references to the subject of possession appear no earlier than 23-24 months [22. p.74], up to this point, the "frozen nominative" is also used in this function. Here is an example from the speech of the boy Tima (26 months old), whose speech is recorded in detail in the maternal diary, made by A. I. Ryko.: Tim has no aci (Tim has no glasses in the phrase ‘no glasses') ^{[28, p.101]}. .

More complex semantic relations in the speech of foreign speakers can also be conveyed using the initial forms, but even here the "strategy of choosing any grammar" described by E. V. Galkina and S. V. Krasnoshchekova ^{[7, p.97]} is not observed.

d) errors in identifying the cause: because of the girl took his water, because of the lack of (16 word forms). The error is caused by an incorrect deployment of the utterance: there is a folding of the subordinate clause, in which the noun in the nominative case could play the role of the subject (cf. Due to the fact that the girl took his water). In this case, we see the influence of the native language: in Chinese, such constructions with the meaning of the reason should be translated into a complex sentence.

e) errors in the design of structures with the value of selectivity: some student looked through the exam questions (that is, one of the students). In this case, the use of the nominative case seems logically justified, since the noun is part of the subject. The error can be explained by mixing different constructions with the semantics of uncertainty: some student, one student. Perhaps the influence of Chinese grammar, which does not use special service words to indicate selectivity in the design of the subject.

f) errors in transitive verbs with the meaning of achieving a result governing the genitive case: avoids previous duties (1 word form). This choice is justified by the fact that most transitive verbs require the use of the accusative case.

Some of the types we have identified are small in number and therefore may be random. However, the choice of the initial form in countable and negative constructions and when indicating the cause and subject of possession is frequent and requires reflection.

Frozen form instead of dative forms (13 word forms)

a) errors in constructions indicating the state of the subject: with the verb like (Masha and her friends really liked the exhibition at the House of Artists); in impersonal constructions: I would like to share; Suddenly it seemed (6 word forms). Those who make this mistake are guided by the syntactic structures "subject – verb", "subject – verb – object", which in Chinese are the main indication of the semantic roles of actors. In the Russian speech of Chinese students, the place of forms indicating the object and the subject is strictly fixed. Constructions with the dative of the subject are difficult for both Russian-speaking monolinguals and, according to N. V. It is not used in the speech of children under 3 years of age ^{[22, pp.82-83]}.

b) mistakes when pointing to the addressee: the lady ordered Gerasim to kill Muma; The girl in the white dress gave Sasha lipstick (4 word forms). The object function in these statements is combined with the subject function (the lady ordered / Gerasim killed; the girl gave lipstick / Sasha took). According to N. I. Lepskaya's observations, in children's speech there is also a frozen case in the expression of the addressee: lead to Andrew ^{[19, pp.41-52]}. But if the non-discrimination of object functions in a child's speech is a sign of the gradual maturation of the cognitive sphere, then the situation is different in the case of mastering a foreign language. Students understand the meaning of the addressee, but convey it using word order, since at the initial stage of language acquisition, the subject–verb–object system of the Chinese language is still influential.

c) mistakes in directive constructions with the preposition k: then we go to the Crimean bridge: all students prepare for questions; but the desire for freedom (2 word forms). These errors can be considered as intra–linguistic interference - contamination of constructions with the directive meaning "b + accusative case", "k + dative case". The use of the original form of the noun, both masculine and feminine, may be associated with intermediate strategies for the formation of the accusative case (see below). On the other hand, there may be interlanguage interference: in the structure that implements the locative meaning, in Chinese, only prepositions perform a grammatical function.

Frozen form instead of accusative forms (34 word forms)

In modern Russian, the accusative forms of inanimate masculine nouns in the singular and plural, and feminine and neuter nouns in the plural have the same endings as the original forms. However, in the written works of Chinese students, the initial forms in the accusative case are used much more widely.

a) Errors in animate masculine nouns, singular and plural: marry a drunkard Kapiton; I'm not like I won't leave pets; at first he saw a boy (10 word forms). These errors should be considered not so much as the use of the original forms, but rather as violations in the development of grammatical ways of marking animatedness in the Russian language.

b) Errors in the formation of feminine singular nouns: because I love his preludes and fugues; For breakfast I often eat an egg, bread or a steamed bun (18 word forms). These violations may be related to grammatical overgeneralization: the accusative forms of feminine nouns in the interlanguage of a foreign language coincide with the nominative forms by analogy with inanimate masculine nouns. It is interesting to note that Chinese students prefer the direct "subject–verb–object" word order typical of the Chinese language. To mark the function of a direct object, a foreign speaker can use the preposition: Gerasim could disobey the lady (1 word form).

c) Omission of the preposition in constructions with inanimate nouns in the form of the accusative case in directive and instrumental meanings: I'm going to the bolshoi theater; I'm playing a computer (5 word forms). In this case, it is more likely to talk about skipping the preposition when using accusative forms that coincide with the nominative.

Frozen form instead of forms of the creative case (10 word forms)

a) Errors in constructions with the preposition c in the commitative meaning in the function of the subject: Shurik collided with his friend; Tofu meatball soup with greens (4 word forms). The meaning of the subject, as we have already shown above, is marked using the nominative case, which looks logically justified. The error can also be explained by the influence of the native language: in Chinese, a construction with homogeneous terms is used to express the commitative, including the combined union of (hé – ‘and’).

b) Errors in choosing the case form of a noun in the function of the nominal part of a compound nominal predicate: He works as a janitor (1 word form). In the classical work of R. Mrazek, the use of the creative case in the verb to work is proposed to be considered as a predicative determinant, the use of the creative in this case is mandatory ^{[29, p. 49]}. However, with other copula verbs, including the copula to be, the nominative case is often used instead of the creative case with verbs in the present tense ^{[30, pp. 6-7]}. Therefore, the presented error can be recognized as natural and considered as a manifestation of intra-linguistic interference.

c) Mistakes in constructions with a mediative meaning: the last dessert was also smeared with mustard plasters (i.e. mustard); They fed each other breakfast (3 word forms). We believe that the forms of the creative case are replaced in this case by the accusative, used in similar contexts: spread mustard on dessert – spread mustard on dessert; fed breakfast – gave breakfast. The accusative in the meaning of instrumentative and mediation is also used by a young Russian child; in the article, T. A. Kruglyakova provides numerous examples: Tinting paints; Tapping a stick ^{[31, pp. 273-274]}.

d) Errors in the expression of object-deliberative and object-possessive meanings: why people ignore the law; the master and the lady owned the lives of peasants (2 word forms). Just as in the previous type of error, the forms of the presumably accusative appear in a common object meaning, which is justified by their use in semantically similar constructions: they do not respect the law / neglect the law, own peasants/ have peasants.

Frozen form instead of prepositional case (24 word forms)

a) Mistakes in expressing locative and temporal meanings: Cook a small fire; If I have the opportunity in the future; You can study at university; Cook it in a saucepan (21 word forms). Some of the errors are related to the insufficient ability of Chinese students to distinguish between directive and locative constructions with accusative and prepositional forms, respectively. Perhaps the errors are related to the fact that in Chinese, the meaning of the directive and the locative can be conveyed using the same preposition "zài"the word is placed before the noun and serves to indicate orientation in some place).

b) Errors in the expression of explanatory meaning: most people often talk about soup; you don't have to worry about being late (3 word forms). Forms that match the original ones can be interpreted as accusative forms with an objective meaning. However, there are no such violations in the speech of a Russian-speaking child, since the child clearly learns the prepositional-case framework and uses prepositions only with the appropriate case endings. S. N. Zeitlin claims: "In the speech of young children, there are virtually no "forbidden" combinations of the case form and the preposition. In any case, by the time prepositions appear, they are already one of the elements of certain prepositional-case constructions, the connection of the preposition with the case is clearly fixed in the linguistic consciousness of the child" ^{[16, p. 178]}.

In some sentences using "frozen forms" there are errors in coordination and management (8 word forms): there are no legal guarantees of the law in marriage, these types of marriages. It is not difficult to notice the repetition of the same type of endings in these examples. According to S. N. Zeitlin's observations, a similar phenomenon occurs in the speech of children aged 1-2 years, which the researcher associates with assimilation ^{[32, pp.67-80]}. M. D. Voeikova notes that tautological and reduplicated forms (i.e., the coincidence of the endings of the main and dependent words or the doubling of the vowels of the endings of the main word in the dependent) They are the simplest and therefore appear earlier in children's speech than other types of matching ^{[24, 22-24]}. Similar strategies of simplification can be observed in the speech of Chinese students. Simplification of complex grammatical constructions can be seen in the rejection of the formation of forms of one of the dependent words: saw a girl and her friend; tofu meatball soup with greens.

Conclusions

In the written speech of Chinese students, forms that match the original ones can act instead of any other form of indirect cases: most often instead of the genitive (43%), which is explained by the frequency of these forms, instead of the accusative (23%), prepositional (17%), dative (9%) and creative (7%).

Despite the fact that erroneously used forms coincide with the original ones, in some cases the coincidence is accidental: the original forms may coincide with the usual and occasional forms of the genitive plural used in the correct meanings, or with the forms of the accusative case. There is reason to assume that in the speech of Chinese students, as well as in the speech of Russian children, simplification can be expressed in the formation of accusative forms of feminine nouns and animate masculine nouns modeled after inanimate masculine nouns. Difficulties in mastering the category of animatedness may be related to language interference, since the grammatical category of animateness is absent in the Chinese grammatical system.

Some of the errors coincide with childhood mistakes: quantitative-nominal combinations and negative constructions are formed with the help of the "frozen" form, which confirms the assumption that the structural functions of grammems are more difficult to comprehend than semantic ones.

A significant part of the errors is explained by the gradual "defrosting" of the mold: just as in the speech of a young child, the nominative case can be used to denote various subjective meanings (indicating the subject of a state, joint action or possession), the design of a compound nominal predicate. Such substitutions can be explained as a consequence of grammatical overgeneralization, the process that accompanies the comprehension of grammatical rules when learning both native and foreign languages. Accusative forms, both usual and occasional, can be used to express various object meanings (object-debilitating, mediative, etc.). Similar forms are noted in the child's speech. Such substitutions demonstrate the strategy of mastering the grammatical system of the language: the gradual comprehension of grammatical meanings and the independent search for appropriate forms in the communication process. Simplification, common to young children and foreign speakers, can be expressed in the desire to use tautological and reduplicating endings in phrases.

On the other hand, unlike a small child, a foreign student more often experiences difficulties related to the need to express complex logical relationships in his speech, for example, cause-and-effect, or to formalize constructions with verbs for achieving goals that require the genitive case. A larger vocabulary than a child's leads to the fact that a foreign speaker knows a large number of verbs with similar meanings, which, however, require different prepositional and case management, and mixes them in his speech.

Those parts of the grammatical system that have a complex structure lead not only to their simplification in the intermediate language system of students, but also to the interference of the native and first foreign languages. Native Chinese speakers tend to maintain the "subject–action–object" word order typical of their native language. The phenomenon of interference can be explained by the mixing of prepositional and accusative cases in constructions with a locative meaning.

Despite the claim of linguists that skipping a preposition is a typical childish mistake and is not typical for the speech of foreigners, there have been cases of omission and confusion of prepositions in our material. On the other hand, our material confirms the hypothesis that, unlike monolingual children, international students use "forbidden" combinations of case and preposition, including prepositional constructions with the nominative case.

The general conclusion is that Chinese students do not resort to the strategy of choosing a random grammar or simply rejecting the formation of case forms, which could be seen as the influence of the Chinese language, which is synthetic in nature. Most of the errors are not accidental, but they are explained in a strategy of gradually clarifying ideas about case values and ways of expressing them in an individual's intermediate language system.

It is necessary to conduct an in-depth study of such errors in order to build a model for mastering case grammar and develop a pedagogical methodology.