This study is an investigation of the transfer of subject functions (SF) from Chinese to English. The purpose of the study was (a) to determine to what extent errors reflect subject transfer from Chinese to English in the performance of Chinese students, (b) to determine whether Chinese students with low English proficiency would show greater adherence to native language transfer strategies more than those with high English proficiency, and (c) to find out whether there are significant differences among the four Chinese subject structures tested, and if so (d) to find out whether there is a hierarchy in the transfer of the subject functions. / The data was collected from the performance of 40 Chinese students on Michigan Test of English Language Proficiency, and a translation test on the four subject structures from Chinese to English. First, the frequency and percentage analysis showed that there was a high incidence of native language transfer in the four Chinese subject functions in the translation performance from Chinese to English. / Secondly, the analysis indicated that there was a significant relationship between grammatical and transfer errors in the Chinese students' performance. Those who knew less English grammar showed greater adherence to language transfer strategies than those who knew more English grammar. However, the study showed that there was no significant relationship between English proficiency and transfer errors, which indicated that those with low English proficiency did not show greater adherence to native language transfer strategies than those with high English proficiency. / Finally, the statistical analysis of this study showed that there are significant differences across the transfer score means in the four Chinese subject functions, and that there was a hierarchy among the SF functions in language transfer with adjective function being the highest and "de" function being the second in native language transfer from Chinese to English. / In sum, the study showed that there was (a) a high percentage and frequency in the transfer of subject functions from Chinese to English, (b) no indication of showing greater adherence to language transfer strategy in the performance of these with low English proficiency than those with high English proficiency, and (c) evidence of statistical difference across the subject function means in language transfer. / The study is restricted to the syntactic structures of the four Chinese subject functions in Chinese students' written translation. This is one of the syntactic areas that cause greater native language interference than in some other areas. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 51-03, Section: A, page: 0773. / Major Professor: Frederick Jenks. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1990.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_78209 |
| Contributors | Wang, Zhigang., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 97 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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