Who did what?

1.

*= erroneous expressions

In both Chinese and English narratives, the speaker’s decision to treat the information delivered by the noun phrase as either new or old is context-dependent and subject to the speaker’s pragmatic choice (Yule, 2004). It should be noted that the two native speakers use referential expressions that are correct but different from one another; there isn’t just one correct way to treat new and old information. 

Chinese does not mark new or old information with definite (“the” in English) or indefinite (“a/an” in English) articles. To introduce new information, Chinese usually uses  the numeral “一(one)” plus a measure word, like “个(GE)”, “位(WEI)”, as shown in both native speakers’ first mention of each woman and the child.  To refer to “old information,” such as previously mentioned people (e.g., where English might use the definite article “the”), Chinese might not mark the noun at all or might put demonstratives such as ““这个(this)” or “那个(that)” before the noun. For example, in the table above, both native speakers use “这个(this)” for second mention of the child. This usage sounded redundant to our consultant; she thought that their use of this form might be influenced by English L2, or even be a task effect of some kind.

2.
In referring to each woman and the child for the first time, both Jiulin and AnnaLi use the numeral “一(one)” plus the measure word “个(GE)”, like the two native speakers. They differentiate the three females either by age (e.g., old/young) or by relationship (e.g., mother/kid, neighbor) as the native speakers do.

In the second mention of the women and the child, both Jiulin and AnnaLi use nouns (“孩子 kid”, “小孩子 little kid”), pronouns (“她 she”, “她们 they”) and demonstratives (“那个 that”). The use of pronouns can be ambiguous because “她 (she)” could in theory refer to any of the three females. Similar to the two native speakers, both learners use the same nouns to refer to the child in the first and second mention. AnnaLi uses the plural pronoun “她们(they)” in the second mention of the two women while Jiulin uses a grammatically incorrect noun phrase (“那个两个长大人* these two grow-up people”), in addition to the plural pronoun.

3.
In referring to the young woman for the 1st time, both native speakers tend to include more details in their referential expressions than Jiulin. For example,  both NSs refer to the young woman based on their predictions on her relationship with the old woman, as a neighbor (邻居), a friend (朋友),  or an acquaintance (熟人), and on her individual identity, such as mother (一位母亲) or a woman (妇女).

Similarly, Jiulin refers to the young woman for the first time as the old woman’s neighbor (“她的邻居，她的隔壁，隔壁人*” ), based on inferred relations between the two women. Interestingly, he uses several alternative words (“邻居” , “隔壁” , and “隔壁人*”) for “neighbor” while the Chinese native speakers use only one (“邻居”). Jiulin’s alternative synonyms for the word “neighbor” seems redundant and may be a signal that he is not confident in using the Chinese word. He may be thinking aloud: is it “邻居” , “隔壁” , or “隔壁人”? Alternatively, he may be using what Tarone and Yule (1989: 107) call the strategy of “over-elaboration”, to build in redundancy to ensure the message gets across. As we can see, the first two words (“邻居”  and “隔壁”) in Jiulin’s expression are correct and interchangeable here. The third one (“隔壁人”), however, does not exist in Chinese and may be a word coined by him. It’s possible that the word “隔壁” (probably “邻居”  too) does not sound right to him and he then corrects himself with the coined word “隔壁人”. In doing so, he pays a lot of attention to accuracy and focuses on form, rather than meaning. Another possibility is that Jiulin uses a variation of words for “neighbor” with a purpose to demonstrate his range of vocabulary, which may happen to some L2 learners.

4.
AnnaLi uses the phrase “老女人 (old woman)” to refer to the old woman for the 1st time. In English, “an old woman” is acceptable and does not contain any derogatory or impolite meanings. However, “老女人 (old woman)” in Chinese usually has a derogatory connotation as used to refer to an aged woman one does not like.  A neutral phrase may be “年纪大的女人(an aged woman)”or “年长的女人(a senior woman)”. Likely, AnnaLi is not aware of the pragmatic connotations of the phrase “老女人 (old woman)” because she is never taught so in class. To help her understand the importance of politeness in Chinese culture, you may want to provide explicit instructions, illustrating associated meanings of polite and impolite phrases and pointing out how people would react to each in real-world contexts. 

Reference:
Tarone, E., & Yule, G. (1989). Focus on the language learner. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Yule, G. (2004). Explaining English grammar. Oxford: Oxford University Press.