语篇结构和情状体在一般过去时习得中的作用

The Role of Narrative Structure and Lexical Aspect in the Acquisition of Simple Past

通过对比中国英语学习者的口语和书面语记叙文,考察了记叙文语篇结构和情状体对一般过去时标记的交互影响。结果发现,前景部分的一般过去时标记比例明显高于背景部分,终结动词的一般过去时标记比例明显高于非终结动词。以上结果分别支持语篇假设和情状体假设,说明一般过去时标记同时受语篇结构和情状体的制约。进一步分析发现,这两个因素的制约作用有所不同:当学习者英语水平较低时,情状体的制约作用较强,语篇结构的制约作用较弱;当学习者英语水平较高时,情状体的制约作用较弱,语篇结构的制约作用较强。

The study examines the interactive effects of narrative structure and lexical aspect on simple past marking based on spoken narratives and their corresponding written ones by Chinese learners of Eng- lish. It is found that the rate of simple past marking is significantly higher in the foreground than that in the background, which supports the discourse hypothesis; and the rate of simple past marking is signifi- cantly higher on relics than that on atelies, which supports the aspect hypothesis. The above findings indi- cate that simple past marking is affected by narrative structure and lexical aspect. Further analysis reveals that the effect of one factor is mediated by the other. When learners＂ English proficiency is lower, the effect of Iexical aspect is stronger than that of narrative structure; when the learners＇ proficiency is higher, the effect of lexical aspect is weaker than that of narrative structure.