This study aimed to elucidate the actual usage of basic ABAB-type onomatopoeias (e.g., "dondon," "sorosoro") frequently occurring in Japanese daily conversation (Lian, 2022) by learners. The methodological approach involved analyzing learner dialogue and composition data from the "International Corpus of Japanese as a Second Language " (I-JAS), examining the variation in onomatopoeic usage across proficiency levels (beginner, intermediate, and advanced). The findings revealed that as learners' proficiency levels increased, the user ratio, the token, and the diversity of ABAB-type onomatopoeic expressions in spoken dialogues also increased, although these metrics remained lower than those of native speakers. In compositions, while the user ratio and the token rose with proficiency, learners tended to overuse these expressions compared to native speakers. These results diverge from those presented in previous studies, offering new insights into the actual onomatopoeic usage among learners of Japanese.
Zeqi Lian (Wed,) studied this question.