Combining Clauses by Native and Non-native Speakers of Japanese

• Author / Creator

  Yuji, Abe

• This study explores how native and non-native speakers (L1 English intermediate) of Japanese combine clauses in spoken language, examines how clause-combining is presented in Japanese textbooks, and makes suggestions to teaching.
  It was found that native speakers tend to combine clauses but non-native speakers tend not to. Of the three ways to combine clauses, the native speakers used conjunctive suffixes the most, followed by conjunctive particles. Conjunctions were used least. The non-native speakers showed a preference for conjunctions. Most of the forms used by the non-native speakers were used by the native
  speakers and covered in the textbooks. The forms frequently used by the nonnative speakers were used by the native speakers frequently, and were taught early. However, some of the forms which the native speakers used were not presented in the textbooks at all. Introducing clause-combining forms from the beginning and teaching important forms in the textbooks is suggested.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Japanese language

• Graduation date

  Fall 2009

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Arts

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R39C73

• License

  This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.