日本語学習者の無助詞文

Japanese Learners’ Use of Zero-case Marking

This paper examines the Japanese learners’ use of zero-case marking in naturally-occurring conversation. Japanese employs a very complicated case-marking system. For those who learn Japanese, learning the functions of case-marking particles is one of the most serious grammatical challenges. However, what makes things more complicated is that case-marking particles may be absent, commonly in conversation. Many learners of Japanese have found it difficult to determine when to use and not to use case-marking particles. Therefore, in addition to learning the functions of the particles, the choice between using and not using them is often a source of confusion. In this paper, we examine the use of case-marking particles found in the learners of Japanese to see how the notion of zero-case marking is acquired focusing on the three core arguments of transitive and intransitive verbs. A close examination of the conversational data reveals that the learners of Japanese use case-marking particles much more frequently than the native speakers for all three core arguments. In other words, Japanese learners tend not to use zero-case marking particles in conversation. With the findings of this study we suggest that more explicit classroom instructions on zerocase marking may help the learner’s understanding and acquisition of functional differences between the presence and the absence of case-marking particles.