Grammar and the Chinese ESL Learner: A Longitudinal Study on the ...

Definite article: A NP-initial determiner realized as the and used to mark a noun phrase as definite in meaning:

1. Who? The man in the brown coat?

2. How do you like the tea?

Indefinite article: A NP-initial determiner realized as a or an and used generally to mark a singular countable noun phrase as indefinite in meaning:

1. Chris approached me carrying a dog.

2. I guess I should buy a new car.

Variable: An abstract linguistic unit realized by two or more variants. For this study, four variables of the informant’s article system were recognized and identified as THE, A, AN, and Ø, which are actualized by different variants in the forms of the, a, an, or Ø.

Variant: An actualized linguistic form of the variable.

Zero: Zero is an abstraction, symbolized by 0, representing a gap where there could theoretically be, or in comparable grammatical contexts there is, some sound, syllable, or word. The concept of zero is used as a way of making rules more comprehensive and more ”regular“ than they would otherwise be.

Zero article: A NP-initial determiner realized as Øand used to mark an uncountable noun or a plural count noun phrase as indefinite in meaning:

1. Fruit flourishes in the valley.

2. They were covered with dust.

Basic Assumptions

Several assumptions guided this study. They were:

1. The informant is a typical Chinese learner of English as a second language.