中国学习者英语冠词的二语产出——关于音韵迁移假说的实证检验

The effect of prosodic transfer on the L2 production of English articles

本文介绍了音韵迁移假说,在此基础上分析了汉语量名短语音韵结构,比较了汉语量名短语与英语冠名短语的音韵表征异同。文章通过改错测试任务调查了音韵迁移对40位中国学习者产出英语冠词的影响。结果显示,中国学习者英语冠词省略误用率较高,且省略英语定冠词多于不定冠词,符合音韵迁移假说的预测;形容词的插入对学习者正确产出英语定冠词有积极影响,对不定冠词产出却影响不大,这与预测不符。研究表明,音韵迁移假说探讨了音韵结构迁移对二语句法产出的影响,可以部分解释中国学习者冠词省略误用的特征。考察各语言层面间可能存在的迁移现象有助于加深对二语习得现象的理解和认识。

Following a brief introduction to Prosodic Transfer Hypothesis,this paper analyzed the prosodic structure of Chinese 'classifier + noun' phrases and compared it with the prosodic structure of English 'article + noun' phrases.To investigate whether the similarities and differences concerning the prosodic structure of Chinese and English determiner phrases have any effect on Chinese-speaking EFL learners' production of English articles,an experimental study was conducted,involving 40 Chinese learners,who were asked to find and correct grammar mistakes in 16 English passages.The results showed that omission of English articles in obligatory contexts was a common error of Chinese learners of English,who,however,tended to omit definite articles more frequently than indefinite articles.Moreover,their production of definite article was influenced by the use of adjectives before nouns.Prosodic Transfer Hypothesis helps to explain some but not all of the results.It is suggested that an investigation into the interaction of elements at different linguistic levels can improve our understanding of second language acquisition of English articles.