This study aims to investigate how second language (L2) learners’ first language (L1) affects the acquisition of locative phrases in Chinese by examining the performance of L2 Chinese learners with different L1s (L1 English and L1 Korean learners). Locative phrases in Chinese introduced by preposition zài ‘at’ can occur in two positions in a sentence: between a subject and a verb (preverbal position); after a verb (postverbal position). A preverbal locative phrase indicates the general location where an event happens. However, a postverbal locative phrase occurs with restrictions (Li and Thompson, 1981; Liu, 2009) and carries a distinctive semantic function indicating the location where an action ends up (Fan, 1986). These characteristics of locative phrases in Chinese cause difficulties for L2 learners. In the field of Chinese as Second Language or Foreign Language, the preposition zài ‘at’ is the most frequent preposition, but it also incurs the most errors among learners’ usage (Ding and Shen, 2001; Zhao, 2000). It has been assumed L1 Influence is the main contributing factor (Cui, 2005; Ding and Shen, 2001), but to date relatively little empirical research has been done. The present study compares the performance between two L1 groups. The participants were studying Chinese as a foreign language in the US and in South Korea respectively. Three experiments were conducted: a grammaticality judgment, a picture-meaning match, and an open-ended short essay. The grammaticality judgment experiment was designed to investigate how learners’ L1 affects their judgment of grammaticality; the picture-meaning match experiment explored learners’ knowledge on meaning differences between preverbal and postverbal locative phrases; the open-ended short essay experiment examined L1 influence on the use of locative phrases in learners’ writings. Performance of the participants was compared in three ways, following the methodology suggested by Jarvis (2000): within each L1 group (intra L1 group), between L1 English and L1 Korean (inter L1 group), and between each learner group and the NS group (inter L1 group congruity). Results show that L1 influence is significant only when there is a mismatch between L1 and L2. The results confirm that preverbal locative phrases are acquired earlier than postverbal locative phrases, regardless of learners’ L1. Possible factors that may affect the acquisition sequence of Chinese locative phrases were also discussed. This study also finds evidence of avoidance (Laufer and Eliasson, 1993) in the usage of postverbal locative phrases among L1 Korean learners.

El presente trabajo abarca el estudio de la variación en las construcciones adverbiales locativas. Esta variación se manifiesta en dos niveles: (1) la alternancia entre la construcción estándar ADVERBIO + preposición de + PRONOMBRE PERSONAL (por ejemplo, delante de mí), y su variante normativamente no recomendada ADVERBIO + PRONOMBRE POSESIVO (por ejemplo, delante mío); y (2) la alternancia entre la construcción posesiva con el sufijo -o (por ejemplo, delante mío), y la construcción posesiva con el sufijo -a (por ejemplo, delante mía), variante normativamente aún más disuadida. El objetivo fue estudiar estas dos variables lingüísticas y sus posibles predictores sociolingüísticos. Con esta finalidad, se han analizado datos provenientes de Twitter. La recolección de datos se llevó a cabo en febrero del 2017. Se recogieron 2357 observaciones de construcciones adverbiales locativas de 21 países de habla hispana (incluyendo los Estados Unidos), de las cuales 1006 eran de la variante posesiva. En cuanto a la variación entre construcciones preposicionales y posesivas, se clasificaron los datos según cuatro variables independientes: el género (o sexo) del tuitero, la procedencia geográfica del tuit, el tipo de adverbio precedente y el número gramatical del referente. Con relación al uso del sufijo -a del posesivo, las observaciones fueron clasificadas según dos variables adicionales: la vocal final del adverbio y el género del referente gramatical. Se ha construido un modelo estadístico de regresión logística que mide el efecto de las variables independientes investigadas sobre el uso de (1) la construcción con el posesivo y (2) la construcción con el posesivo del sufijo -a respectivamente. Referente a (1), la alternancia en los complementos, el análisis revela que la zona dialectal del tuitero, el tipo del adverbio precedente y el número gramatical son los factores estadísticamente significativos para predecir el uso de la construcción posesiva. En lo que concierne a (2), la alternancia en los sufijos del posesivo, los datos apuntan a que tanto la zona dialectal del tuitero como el género del referente gramatical condicionan el uso del posesivo con la desinencia -a. / The present thesis studies the morphosyntactic variation in adverbial locative phrases in Spanish. This variation occurs at two levels: (1) the alternation between the standard construction ADVERB + the preposition de + PERSONAL PRONOUN (as in delante de mí) and the normatively nonstandard construction ADVERB + POSSESSIVE PRONOUN (as in delante mío); (2) the alternation between the possessive construction with the suffix -o (as in delante mío), and the possessive construction with the suffix -a (as in delante mía), the last variant being normatively highly discouraged. The goal of this study was to investigate these two linguistic variables and their possible sociolinguistic predictors. The data was obtained by API searches of Twitter data in February of 2017 and yielded material from 21 Spanish-speaking countries (including the US). 2357 tweets containing the constructions of interest were gathered, of which 1006 were possessive constructions. Concerning the alternation between constructions with prepositions and possessives, the data was coded according to four independent variables: the gender (or sex) of the Twitter user, the location of the user, the type of adverb used in the phrase, and the grammatical number of the referent. As to the use of the suffix -a with possessives, two additional variables were coded for, the final vowel of the preceding adverb and grammatical gender of the referent. A statistical model was constructed in order to measure the effect of the independent variables on the use of (1) the possessive construction, and (2) the possessive construction with the suffix -a, respectively. The results of the first analysis indicate that the geographical region of the Twitter user, as well as the preceding adverb and the grammatical number of the referent, were statistically significant in predicting the use of the possessive construction. Furthermore, with regards to the variation in the suffix of the possessive pronoun, the analysis supports the view that the geographical region of the user and the grammatical gender of the referent are predictors that condition the use of the possessive pronoun with the suffix -a.