文藻外語學院
專題研究成果報告(個人型)
計劃名稱：TOP&HSK 詞彙對比研究
執行時間：2011.1.1 ~ 2011.12.10
計畫執行單位：應用華語文系
計畫主持人姓名：趙靜雅
職級：助理教授
99 學年度
第 1 學期
INDEX
Index……………………………………………………………………………………i
Table Index…………………………………………………………………………….ii
Abstract………………………………………………………………………………..1
I.
Preface…………………………………………………………………………1
II.
Introduction to TOCFL in Vietnam……………………………………………2
III.
Problems with taking TOCFL exam for Vietnamese students………………...3
IV.
Implementing Process and Method……………………………………………3
V.
High-frequency verb “Da” as an example……………………………………..4
VI.
Structure and Instruction for Comparative Manual……………………………4
VII. Conclusion……………………………………………………………………..7
References……………………………………………………………………………..8
Certificate of Publication………………………………………………………………9
i
TABLE INDEX
Table 1: Comparison of high-frequency verb “Da” ......................................................5
ii
A Contrastive Study of TOP-Huayu and HSK Verbs*
Ching-Ya Anne Chao
Wenzao Ursuline College of Languages
Abstract
Following the increasingly closer contact between the Taiwan-Strait, the
vocabulary difference between Taiwan and mainland China is also receiving
great attention. The Vietnamese learners studying Chinese are finding
significant learning gap on the performance between the HSK and TOCFL.
This phenomenon implies the necessity of comparative study on the
Taiwan-Strait vocabulary to the practice of teaching Chinese to foreigners.
However, there is not yes a reference manual specifically written for testing
the fundamental and beginning levels of Taiwanese Mandarin language. This
paper applies the vocabulary arranged from “Eight Thousand Chinese
Vocabulary” as the framework and uses the Chinese Word Sketch developed
by the Institute of Linguistics, Academia Sinica, Chinese WordNet and Word
Usage, in attempt to link the vocabulary difference of Taiwan-Strait. The
Vietnamese learners studying Chinese and teachers could use this paper as
teaching reference.
I. Preface
Taiwanese mandarin proficiency test has been held in Vietnam since 2007 and
this year is the 4th year. In this November, the University of Da Nang, Ho Chi Minh
City University of Social Sciences and Humanities and Hanoi University of Foreign
Studies are holding Taiwanese Mandarin proficiency tests, where some schools even
start to set up crams schools to cope with this trend. However, most of the Chinese
language teaching in Vietnam uses teaching materials from mainland China and many
Vietnamese learners of Chinese language are faced with language structure and
corresponding expressions between Taiwan-Strait when taking the TOCFL from
Taiwan. The students of Hanoi University of Foreign Studies d also showed
significant gap between the HSK and TOCFL. This shows the necessity for
comparative study of Taiwan-Strait vocabulary in the practice of teaching Chinese to
foreigners, specifically the study on verb vocabulary difference becomes more
important. Last August, the authors attended a 3-week seminar in Hanoi of Vietnam
and conduct a collaborative study with Director Dr. Hua Yushan at The Center of
International Education in Hanoi University of Foreign Studies. The author mainly
discussed the comparative issue on TOCFL and HSK verbs in this academic exchange
in attempt to publish a comparative manual for TOCFL and HSK verb vocabulary as
*
本文撰寫期間承蒙教育部 98-99 學年度卓越計劃「選送教師赴公民營機關研習或出國選修(
實務)之計畫」與文藻外語學院 99 學年度「教師專題研究計劃」經費補助，特此一併致謝。
1
teaching reference for Chinese teachers in Vietnam.
II. Introduction to TOCFL in Vietnam
The Taiwanese TOCFL has been offered in Vietnam since 2007 for 5 years now.
The test is divided into four categories, including fundamental, beginning (level 1-2),
intermediate (3-4) and advanced (5-7) and seven levels. The students may device to
take the test in simplified Chinese or traditional characters at registration.
The following will introduce the development of TOCFL in Vietnam in two parts.
The first part objectively presents the development of TOCFL in Vietnam through the
schedule dates for TOCFL, the test sites, time fees and other information related to the
tests held in Vietnam. The second part consists of interview survey conducted by the
graduate student Li Kunhan from Graduate Institute of Teaching Chinese as a Foreign
Language in Wenzao Ursuline College for Languages, to interview Assistant Nguyen
Qizhuang, Nguyen Qiuxian and Huang Lanzi from the Center of International
Education with regards to the the testing conditions and motivation to take the
TOCFL. The interview is then recorded.
Second Part：Interview Summary
Qiuxian and Huan Lanzi have not taken TOCFL however if they had the
change to study in Taiwan, both of them are willing to take the test. Nguyen
Qiuzhuang has already passed the advanced level for TOCFL and is quite
fluent in Chinese, who can communicate without any problems. The
motivation for Nguyen to take the TOCFL lies on the possibility of applying
Taiwan scholarships and to study in Taiwan. This is the biggest motivation and
objective for her. Students believe the TOCFL questions are relatively easier
to understand as compared with HSK, and the hearing is also quite close to
everyday life TOCFL. Once the foreigner get close to Taiwanese, it is easy to
understand the Taiwanese approach of expressions. Nguyen Qiuzhuang often
get in touch with Taiwanese of Mandarin native speakers while working at the
Center of International Education, hence TOCFL test is not too difficult for
Nyugen Qiuzhuang.
Few people know about TOCFL and it is less popular. Most students
learning Chinese take the HSK probably because of the influence of
geography and material resources. Vietnam’s territory is connected with that
of China, and the trading between the two countries does not require ocean
cargo and hence the exchange becomes more frequent, leading to fast
information transmission. Secondly, the teaching materials in Vietnam
consists of mostly simplified-characters and in comparison, the number of
people learning traditional characters is also less. This is the reason why
TOCFL is less popular in Vietnam.
2
III. Problems with taking TOCFL exam for Vietnamese students
Zhu, Jianin (2009:185) pointed the complete isolation between Taiwan Strait for
nearly half century has far reaching difference in vocabulary than the difference in
tones and syntax. Almost when one speaks our one word, it is easy to defect the
difference in the usage of terms. In the master thesis of Jin, Huilan (2007) under the
advice of Professor Zhu, Jianin, a list of “Comparison table of Taiwan-Strait terms”
was provided and clearly divided into terms used in daily life, education and society,
history, culture and arts, mass media, economy and commerce, transportation and
travel, and computer network. However, there is still not a reference book designed
for the verb vocabulary in fundamental and beginning levels.
Currently, the Chinese teaching in Vietnam is mostly taught in simplified
characters and uses a large number of teaching materials published from mainland.
However the use of vocabulary between Taiwan and mainland are not completely
consistent and the native speakers of Chinese in Taiwan-Strait do not necessarily
known all corresponding vocabulary, not to mention the Vietnamese students taking
the fundamental and beginning level at TOCFL. Their knowledge and background are
considerably limited to the terms used in mainland. There is a variety of
corresponding issues derived from language structure for Vietnamese students taking
the TOCFL. Among which, the verb use shows the most difference. Howe to connect
the usage of Taiwan-Strait vocabulary is the core issue concerned for Vietnamese
students taking the TOCFL and also the main purpose of our research.
IV. Implementing Process and Method
The study adopts the fundamental and beginning level of mock examination
papers provided by the Steering Committee for the Test of Proficiency – Hanyu, as the
main source of language teaching materials. We use the vocabulary list compiled from
the “Eight Thousand Chinese Vocabulary” as the framework, limiting the scope in the
fundamental and beginning verb vocabulary. First, we choose “V” (Verb) from the
vocabulary cell and screen out 166 verb vocabulary for fundamental level and then
review with fundamental and beginning level of mock examination papers. We
discovered that, there 33 fundamental verbs that appear in “Eight Thousand Chinese
Vocabulary” and the fundamental verbs for mock examination. We hen list out the
sentences with this verbs from the examinations, using these sentences as cope and
incorporated with Chinese Dictionary-Revision and Modern Hnayu Dictionary (5th
Edition) to sort out the meaning of each verb.
We apply the Chinese Word Sketch organized by Director Huang Juren the
Institute of Linguistics, Academia Sinica, Chinese WordNet, Word Usage, and other
free online resources, to observe and describe TOCFL and HSK verb vocabulary
using objective and scientific research methods based corpus.
3
V. High-frequency verb “Da” as an example
1. Syntax analysis
(1) Types of Verb Parts
In Modern Hanyu Word Usage, search for high-frequency verb “Da” and the
following figure 1 and 2 are obtained.
(2) Colligation
Select “Word Sketch” from the Chinese Word Sketch system to enter the search page.
The result of search execution shows the following in Figure 3. The verb “Da”
collocating subjects with “Wusong, Bad and Ball” for a total of 1173 times “token.”
The objects collocated with Verb “Da” includes “telephone and basketball” in 1834
tokens.
(3) Collocation
Using the frequency of collocation words for verb “da” to sort out typical collocation
methods and assist foreign learners and test participants to quickly grasp the usage of
verb and even further discusses the difference and similarities between the
Taiwan-Strait verb usages.
2. Semantic Analysis
(1) Word Collocation
Observe the distribution of subjects, objects and adverbial collocated to the verb and
induce the various semantic characteristics or limitation.
(2) Synonyms and Antonyms
In Word Usage, search synonyms of “da” and the results are shown in Table 2.
Precisely control the synonyms and upper-class of verb vocabulary, which can help
with the comprehension and use of vocabulary. This convenient online resource
allows teachers and researchers to refer the list of synonyms from Word Usage and
writes the materials, tools and in-class activities for language learners.
VI. Structure and Instruction for Comparative Manual
1. Semantic Plane
Using the examples from the fundamental and beginning level of TOCFL, and
teachers may refer to the Chinese Dictionary-Revision and Modern Hnayu Dictionary
(5th Edition) from the Ministry of Education in order to find the corresponding
vocabulary explanation and provide students with typical semantic usage of the verb.
2. Pragmatic Plane
The examples from the mock examination papers for fundamental and beginning
4
level of TOCFL can be used as semantic demonstration of verb. In addition, the
teachers can also supplement the domain of usage and communication function for the
examples. The domain of usage includes the following four: “personal domain (such
as family), public domain (such as stores), occupation domain (such as office), and
education domain (such as schools). The “Short-term Intensive Communication
Function Table” prepared by Tsai (2009: 196-205) contain high reference value for
communication functions.
3. Taiwan-Strait Comparison
The Examples from Fundamental and Beginning Level Mock Examination” and
the examples from “Modern Hanyu Dictionary” are compared and specifically present
the difference and similarity between Taiwan –Strait verb usages. Due to limitation in
the paper, the following shows example of high-frequency verb, “da” with initial
results prepared in Table 1 in the Appendix.
Table 1
Comparison of high-frequency verb “Da”
Ask Mr. Li to
(1) Beat objects with
(1) Beat, hit
Play drum
call.
hand or device.
(2) Breaking
(2)Attack,
Call Mr. Li
container and egg
Breaking the bowl
combat
due to collision
Please call after
(3)Eliminate,
4pm and before
(3) Beat, attack
fight
get rid of
10pm.
Make a call
before taking
your clothes.
(4) behavior of
(4) Give out,
negotiating with
release
others
Why doesn’t
anyone answer
(5)inject,
this call?
pierce
Because I got
the wrong
number.
My little
brother was
playing ball
outside and
suddenly he
creamed
because he
broke the
window.
Some of us
(5)build, construct
Legal proceeding, negotiate
Build
(6)do, make
(6) Make (container,
Make Chinese biscuits
food)
(7)raise,
hold
(7) stir
Stir filling
5
want to see a
movie and the
rest want to go
play basketball.
We want to go (8)receive,
to a movie and
take
play basketball.
(8)bundle
Package 。
(9) weave
Knitting a sweater
(10)spread, print,
paint
Wax, have question
(11)drill,
open
(11)open, drill
Open the cover
(12)break,
throw
(12)Raise, life
Carry the lantern, open
umbrella,
(13)print,
paint
(13)radiate, eject
Make call, make signal
(14)spread
(14)〈方〉pay or
retrieve
(Identification)
Write letter of
recommendation
(15) Remove
Going sideway
(16)scoop up
Get water
(17) buy
Buy wine, buy ticket
You can call
(9)buy
Chen at 9am in
the morning.
Shouldn’t
Huimei make a (10) rotate,
call to the
slide
bookstore
before picking
up the books?
Don’t open
the door.
There is a
discount for
laundry wash
over NT500.
These people
are playing
basketball.
Only few
people are
playing
basketball.
Not many
(15)set up,
people are
define,
watching them
calculate
playing
basketball.
If you would
like to know
about travelling
in Korea, call
02-25111687.
6
(18) catch (poultry)
(19) Collect with
cutting and chopping
(20) Define,
calculate
(21)do, engage
fish
Cut wood and mown grass
Make a draft, have an idea
Guerilla
Play basketball, soccer…
(22) play some game
play swing
(23) Indicating
Make gesture, chat, hiccup,
certain body motions roll
(24) take a certain
Bureaucratic jargon,
approach
metaphor, being dumb
VII. Conclusion
Compared with HSK, the questions in TOCFL are relatively close to life and
students need to gain more access to the expressions of Taiwanese Mandarin language
in grasp the questions. However, the Chinese teaching materials in Vietnam are
currently based on simplified characters and there is only a small number of Chinese
language materials published from Taiwan, the students generally lack the opportunity
to get in touch with the usage of Taiwanese Mandarin in life or at work. Therefore it is
necessary and practical to conduct comparative study between the TOCFL and HSK
verb vocabulary in the teaching of Chinese language to foreigners. Due to time and
funding constraints, the study has preliminarily analyzed the semantic function of the
33 verb vocabulary for the fundamental level of TOCFL. The author has also
collaborated with Google to establish a special website. The study on semantic plane
can rely on the Chinese Word Sketch and dictionaries developed by Academia Sinica
to discuss the difference of word collocation between Taiwan-Strait verbs.
It is a cumbersome work to edit dictionary and a large number of research time
and HR are required for investment. If the research results in this area can be
accumulated to a certain level, more resources from the industries and experts are
expected to be combined for edition of Eight Hundred Modern Hanyu Words in
Taiwanese Mandarin version. In response to government policies and implement
industry-academic cooperative research, we expect to enrich the practical experiences
of teaching Chinese language to foreigners for teachers and to cultivate more talents
needed for the industry.
7
References
Dictionary Compilation, Istitute of Linguistics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
(2005). Xiandai Hanyu Cidian [Contemporary Chinese Dictionary] (5th edition).
Beijing: The Commercial Press.
Lu, Shu-Xiang. (2003). Xiandai Hanyu Babai Ci [Eight Hundred Words in Modern
Chinese]. Beijing: The Commercial Press.
Zhu, Jia-Ning. (2009). Cihui Zhi Lu. Taipei: Cheng Chung Book.
Kim, Hey-Ran. (2007). Xiandai Hanyu Xin Ci Yanjiu. [Unpublished Master’s Thesis]
National Chengchi University, Taipei.
Tsai, Ya-Xun. (2009) Huayuwen Jiaocai Fenji Yanzhi Yuanli Zhi Jiangou. Taipei:
Cheng Chung Book.
8
Certificate of Publication
9