中国学习者英语冠词语义特征习得研究

L2 acquisition of the semantic features of English articles by Chinese speakers

本研究运用强制选择提取任务,考察中国英语学习者习得英语冠词语义特征的情况,并对"冠词语义波动假说"进行了验证。结果表明,学习者并没有在"冠词选择参数"的两个值之间波动,而是成功地设置了冠词的限定性语义特征,而特指性对冠词的选择则没有影响。研究结果不支持"冠词语义波动假说"。

This paper reports a study on the L2 acquisition of the semantic features of English articles by Chinese speak- ers in order to test the Fluctuation Hypothesis (FH) proposed by Ionin el al.(2004).The FH assumes that L2 learners whose native language is article-less will fluctuate between the two semantic features of articles:definite- ness and specificity when acquiring English articles until they accomplish the appropriate parameter setting.The English learners involved in the study were 40 college students majoring in English in China.They were classified as intermediate and advanced learners according to their Oxford Quick Placement Test scores.The results showed that the Chinese speakers did not fluctuate between the two features of the Article Choice Parameter (ACP);in- stead, they could acquire the definiteness setting successfully while specificity had no effect on article choice.The results did not confirm those of Ionin et al.(2004).