中国学习者英语关系从句使用行为研究

A study of Chinese learners’ production of English relative clauses:Accessibility and embeddedness

本研究通过实验数据分析和语料库数据调查,探讨了可及性和嵌入性对中国学习者英语关系从句使用行为的制约作用以及二者的相互关系。结果表明,可及性和嵌入性均在一定程度上影响学习者对不同类型关系从句的使用。就可及性而言,可及性高的关系从句使用频繁,正确率高;而可及性低的关系从句使用相对较少,容易出错。就嵌入性而言,中国学习者更多地将关系从句右置而非内嵌于主句中,且内嵌从句相较右置从句出错几率更高。本研究还发现,可及性和嵌入性两个因素呈互补态势,综而考之能够更好地解释不同类型关系从句的使用情况。

This paper reports on an experimental study and a corpus-based investigation, which aim to explore the effects of accessibility and embeddedness on Chinese EFL learners’ production of English relative clauses and the interrelationship between the two factors. Results show that both factors under investigation play an important role in Chinese EFL learners’ use of English relative clauses. With regard to accessibility, the learners at three different levels of English proficiency all exhibited a strong tendency to produce the more accessible type of relative clauses. Additionally, more errors occurred with the less accessible relative clauses as compared with those for the more accessible ones. In terms of embeddedness, the learners typically placed a relative clause in the matrix object position rather than the matrix subject position. They found it easier to produce the right-branching relative clause than the center-embedded equivalent. In general, accessibility and embeddedness interrelate in a complementary way and combine to afford a better account of Chinese learners’ tackling of different types of English relative clauses.