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This study aims to investigate the acquisition of three Chinese modal auxiliary verbs: NENG, HUI, and KEYI by English-speaking learners who study Chinese as a foreign language and attempts to examine the following issues. 1) Are English-speaking learners able to distinguish the semantic difference between NENG, HUI and KEYI and realize their corresponding syntactic constraints? Does leaner’s acquisition of these three auxiliary verbs increase with the improvement of their Chinese proficiency level? Can these three auxiliary verbs be mastered completely by English-speaking leaners? 2) What is the acquisition order when they are learning NENG, HUI and KEYI? Furthermore, what is the acquisition order of the multiple semantic meanings within one single Chinese modal auxiliary verb? 3)What is the relationship between English-speaking learners’ comprehension and production, in regard to their performance on learning these three auxiliary verbs? 4) whatpedagogical implication does this study reveal? This research is composed of a comprehension test and production analysis. A questionnaire is designed to test English-speaking learners’ comprehension of NENG, HUI and KEYI, including fourteenmultiple choices questions. In addition, 275 essays from the participants are collected anonymously as production database to be analyzed. In total, 90 English-speaking learners who enrolled in Chinese courses at University of Massachusetts Amherst in Spring 2019 were participated, and they were divided into three experimental groups: beginning level, intermediate level, and advanced level. 60 native Chinese speakers were also invited into this research, served as a control group. The result in this research shows that 1) English-speaking leaners’ acquisition of NENG, HUI and KEYI do not always increase with the improvement of their Chinese proficiency level. Both HUI and KEYI present the same trend, which rises rapidly and significantly after experiencing a relatively flat stage, while the development of NENG is shown by U-shape learning curve. 2) For English-speaking learners, the acquisition order is(from the easiest to hardest): HUI > KEYI > NENG. 3) English-speaking learners’ production of NENG, HUI, and KEYI is not always parallel to their comprehension. Also, some implications for teaching NENG, HUI and KEYI are discussed in this thesis.

Syftet med studien är att undersöka retorik i synnerhet språkets kommunikativa egenskaper och textförfattarnas intentioner genom att fokusera på tilltal och modalhjälpverb i sverigefinska jobbannonser. Materialet består av finsk- och svenskspråkiga jobbannonser, där arbetsgivaren vill anställa en finsktalande person. Materialet har publicerats på den svenska arbetsförmedlingens hemsida och på två svenska rekryteringsbyråers hemsidor. På både svenska och finska har det offentliga språket blivit informellt. Resultatet visar att det är vanligt även i de sverigefinska jobbannonserna och att de finska jobbannonserna delvis är översättningar. Olika sätt att tilltala en annan person användes frekvent på båda språk, men eftersom konstruktionerna i den ursprungliga texten alltid delvis översätts till måltexten och svenska texter innehåller sådana former, kan översättningen leda till en generös användning av tilltalets olika former i översatta finska texter. Jobbannonser har också blivit mer krävande, vilket kan bevisas genom att användningen av modala hjälpverb ökat, men även andra sätt användes. / The purpose of the study is to explore the rhetorics of Sweden-Finnish job advertisements, the communicative features of the language and the intentions of the text producer, by concentrating on addressing and modal auxiliaries. The data consists of job advertisements written in Finnish and Swedish, where the employer was looking for a Finnish-speaking employee. These were published on the Swedish employment agency’s homepage and on two Swedish recruitment agencies’ homepages. Both Swedish and Finnish public language has become informal. It is common to address another person using the 2nd person singular pronouns. The study shows that this is usual also in Sweden Finnish job advertisements and that the Finnish job advertisements partly are translations. Different addressing forms were used frequently in both languages but because the constructions of the original text often are translated and Swedish texts include more informal addressing forms, the translation may cause a generous use of different addressing forms in the Finnish language. Job announcements have become more demanding, which can be seen in the increasing use of modal auxiliaries, even though other ways were also used.

This thesis concerns Swedish translations of the Dutch independently used modal auxiliary verbs moeten, kunnen and willen in six Dutch novels from the period 1973-2000. Previous research has shown that independent use occurs frequently in Dutch but less frequently in Swedish. But there is still a need for large-scale comparative research.  For this analysis, I have conducted a corpus study based on systematically repeated searches for the three verbs. The goal of the study was to examine how these independently used modal auxiliary verbs were translated into Swedish and what patterns could be seen through this comparative study. Through this comparative study, I wanted to better highlight the differences and similarities between the languages regarding independently used modal auxiliary verbs.  The results showed that independently used modal auxiliary verbs occur more frequently in the corpus in Dutch than in Swedish and that the Dutch independently used modal auxiliary verbs were translated with a corresponding independently used modal in Swedish in about a fourth of the cases. But the results also show similarities in this area. / Deze scriptie betreft Zweedse vertalingen van de Nederlandse zelfstandig gebruikte modale hulpwerkwoorden moeten, kunnen en willen in zes Nederlandstalige romans uit de periode 1973-2000. Eerder onderzoek heeft vastgesteld dat zelfstandig gebruik vlot toegelaten is in het Nederlands maar minder frequent voorkomt in het Zweeds. Toch ontbreekt er grootschalig contrastief onderzoek.  Voor deze analyse werd een corpusonderzoek verricht op basis van systematisch herhaalde zoekopdrachten voor de drie modalen. Het doel van het onderzoek was om na te gaan hoe deze zelfstandig gebruikte modale hulpwerkwoorden in het Zweeds vertaald werden en wat voor patronen men kon zien door dit contrastief onderzoek. Met dit contrastief onderzoek wilde ik de verschillen en gelijkenissen tussen de talen wat betreft zelfstandig gebruikte modale hulpwerkwoorden beter belichten.  De resultaten lieten zien dat zelfstandig gebruikte modale werkwoorden in het corpus vaker voorkomen in het Nederlands dan in het Zweeds en dat de Nederlandse zelfstandig gebruikte modale hulpwerkwoorden in ongeveer een vierde van de gevallen met een corresponderende zelfstandig gebruikte modaal in het Zweeds vertaald werden. Maar de resultaten vertonen ook dat er toch gelijkenissen zijn op dit gebied.