英语Tough结构可习得性问题初探

A Tentative Study of the Learnability Problem on the Learning of English Tough Constructions by Chinese EFL Learners

本文通过调查中国英语学习者的中介语(Inter-language)中Tough结构的知识情况,探讨了中国英语学习者出现过度概括(overgeneralization)的原因。我们对英语Tough结构和汉语中相关结构进行了对比分析,认为中国学习者的过度概括错误可能来自母语和英语的双重影响,Tough 结构本身的语义透明度也是影响中国学习者学习该结构的重要因素。为此,我们对三个不同层次英语水平的中国学习者进行了语法正确性性判断(grammaticality judgment test)的实验研究。试验结果从一定程度上证明了我们的假设,揭示了外语学习者在学习复杂句法结构时,多种因素交互作用,其中母语有着多层面持久的影响,目的结构的句法和语义结构也共同作用于学习过程。就如何克服过度概括而言,我们认为学习者对目的结构(target structure)句法和语义的深入了解可能是习得复杂句法结构的一种途径。

The present study tackles a learnability problem concerning the learning of English tough constructions, such as John is hard to fool, by Chinese EFL learners. Syntactically, tough construction crucially involves a tough predicate, and indicates an underlying subject-patient/theme relationship between the matrix subject and the infinitival verb. Empirical studies of L1 acquisition reveal that L1 learners even at the age of eight still tend to misinterpret tough constructions as the subject-raising structure. Previous L2 research discovers that EFL learners' interpretation of tough construction develops from subject-agent mapping interpretation to the correct subject-patient/theme mapping interpretation, and that the knowledge of EFL learners' L1 deeply affects their acquisition of tough construction. Concerning Chinese EFL learners, Yip (1995) notified a learnability problem of overpassivization and overgeneralization of subject raising to tough construction by Chinese Hong Kong EFL learners. Linguistic analysis of English tough constructions and relevant Chinese structures show that Chinese allows both subject raising and object raising with easy type of tough adjectives, which is argued to be a more general phenomena of Chinese topicalization and topic raising. For other types of tough adjectives, Chinese generally lacks exact counterparts but only has analogous sentential infinitival subject structures. To investigate the knowledge of Chinese EFL learners about tough constructions, an empirical study was conducted. The results reveal that the learnability problem of overpassivization and overgeneralization of subject raising structure remains even for the subjects of the upper level. Among tough constructions, the subjects have significantly better acceptance towards the tough constructions with similar Chinese counterparts. These findings suggest that the special difficulty can be traced to the cross-linguistic influence and the universal preference to subject raising than object raising. Animacy of the matrix subject of tough constructions significantly affects subject's judgment of the grammaticality of tough construction. This shows that an interaction of syntax and semantics may shed light on the resolution of the learnability problem.