The present study examined differences in the usages of Chinese repetitive adverbs ‘you(又)’ and zai(再) in terms of syntax, semantics, and pragmatics. As a result, it was possible to confirm that, in explaining the usages of you and ‘zai’, simplistic explanations such as “These words are used mainly in the past tenses and the future tenses, respectively” led to many errors among learners.
Korean-speaking learners of Chinese are taught that, in expressing repetition, ‘zai’ is used in the future tenses and you are used in the past tenses. However, ‘zai’ can be used in the past tenses in the case of hypothetical sentences, and you can be used in the future tenses when accompanied by circular situations or optative verbs. In addition, you and zai differ in the locations of both optative verbs and negative adverbs and in usage when adjectives combine with reduplicated verbs. In addition, there are differences according to combination with zai(在), which indicates resultative complements and progression, and in the aspect markers that are frequently combined.
Meanwhile, the present study was able to confirm through both an analysis of learners’ errors and semantic map model analysis that learners’ errors were based on influence from the usage of the word ‘ddo’ in Korean, their mother tongue. Because the Korean word ‘ddo’ has diverged semantically in a manner nearly identical to that of the usage of ‘zai’ in Chinese, Korean-speaking learners of Chinese strongly tended to use ‘zai’ even in situations where you were required. Consequently, in future education, it will be necessary especially to explain in greater depth the usages of ‘you’, which differ from those of repetitive adverbs in Korean.