英文摘要 |
The study examines the lexical ambiguity and the cues related to resolving the ambiguity of the Mandarin verb zuò-related phrases, including “zuò rén”, “zuò mèng”, “zuò wénzhāng” and “zuò gōngkè”. Experiments on semantic recognition (differentiation) on the basis of lexical semantics and cues from sentential/ contextual cues were carried out to analyze how Mandarin second language (L2) learners interpret sentences with ambiguous words. We aim to provide insights gained from the current results into the teaching of Mandarin. There were 40 participants in the study, including 20 native Mandarin speakers in the control group, and 20 Mandarin L2 learners in the experimental group. The results of the study are: i) the number of average correct answers increased by 18%, demonstrating significant teaching effect; ii) the provision of contextual cues in lexical teaching could help Mandarin L2 learners in interpreting the meaning of sentences. The r value between the rate of correct answers and the cues they selected was 0.58, signifying a moderately positive relationship between the two. It is thus recommended to include teaching of lexical judging strategies in order to help Mandarin L2 learners to infer the meanings of polysemous words via related contextual cues. |