Morphosyntactic and semantic difficulties in Spanish infinitive verbal periphrasis learning by Taiwanese university students

Abstract

Spanish verbal conjugations typically impede the learning process of Taiwanese students because Chinese verbs do not have a similar system. This study is based on double-verb usages. Because the main research topic content is vast, including verbal periphrasis with infinitives, gerunds, as well as participles, the complexity is unavoidable for the aforementioned students. This paper focuses on structures compounded by auxiliary verbs that have partially or completely lost their meaning linking to a nuclear meaningful infinitive with or without a preposition or conjunction inserted between the two basic relevant elements. The main concern of this study is to emphasize not only grammatical constructions but also consequent learning problems. Specifically, students, when learning verbal periphrasis, must become familiar with the proper syntactic order and distinguish the meaning of each compound unit. The nuances among verbal periphrasis, verbal semiperiphrasis, and non periphrasis easily cause ambiguities that result in learning difficulties. Therefore, accounting for the diversity of language teaching and the adequately interpreting meaning from the target language to the mother language are both crucial aspects of this subject. Undoubtedly, comprehensive difficulties exist for learning verbal periphrasis with infinitives. Thus, expending tremendous effort in teaching and learning this topic is encouraged. Mastering the corresponding concepts between the structures of Spanish verbal periphrasis and Chinese will enable students to accomplish their learning goals.