earticle

영어

Giving and receiving (donatory) expressions are difficult for learners of Japanese to acquire. This paper reports research identifying difficulties in acquisition of donatory expressions based on spoken data from Korean and Chinese speaking Japanese language learners. The results show that, in the case of Korean speakers, errors of non‐use or omission of donatory expressions were more common than errors in choosing among expressions (ageru, morau, and kureru) identified in previous research (error rates: choice 7.2%, omission 15.7%). In particular, omission of ‐te kureru, as in Sensei ga sakubun no kakikata wo osiemasita (osiete kuremasita) was striking. The same tendency to omit ‐te kureru was also found in the case of Chinese speakers (error rates: choice 5.3%, omission 12.0%), showing that errors of omission are more common than errors in discrimination regardless of the speaker’s native language. Although errors of choice of expression were comparatively uncommon, a characteristic tendency observed for Korean speakers was relatively frequent use of ‐te kureru in place of ‐te morau, as in Senpai kara osiete kureru (te morau) koto wa dekinai. A characteristic tendency observed for Chinese speakers, on the other hand, was the overuse of ‐te ageru as in (Anata wa) nihongo wo osiete agemasu ka? However, as there was not sufficient data to fully discuss these tendencies, their analysis is left as a topic for future research. Because previous research on differentiating among donatory expressions was premised on the choice of one of the expressions, it was difficult to deal with omissions. However, in actual Japanese language use, failure to use a donatory expression where one would be expected results in an inappropriate, rude expression, underlining the importance of this type of error.