A Study on Cognitive Vocabulary and Usable Vocabulary of Chinese Native Speaker

2001 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary

• Project/Area Number: 11610474
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: 中国語・中国文学
• Research Institution: Takaoka National College
• Principal Investigator: YAMADA Shin'ichi Takaoka National College, Dept. of Regional Business Management, associate Professor, 地域ビジネス学科, 助教授 (20210453)
• Project Period (FY): 1999 – 2001
• Keywords: Basic Vocabulary / Cognitive Vocabulary / Usable Vocabulary / Vocabulary Table of Elementary School Children

Research Abstract

1. For the purpose of studying cognitive vocabulary and usable vocabulary for Chinese native speaker, we researched many essays written by Chinese elementary school children. Through the analysis of these essays, we get the first result as follows.
2. The adverb "jiu4", that is used in the second clause of a complex sentence, is used frequently among children after the 3rd grade.
3. The dialect words are used even with functional words (preposition)which represent grammatical relations between verbs and nouns. This fact suggest that it is hard to recognize the distinction between standard Chinese and Beijing dialect for Elementary School Children.
4. As for synonym words the monosyllabic words are more basically than dissyllabic words.
5. Through the error analysis of word formation, we deduce that the Chinese native speaker's sense of word formation is base on morpheme.
6. We compiled a Vocabulary Table of Elementary School Children.