关系代词取舍的共现词分析——中国英语学习者和英语本族语者的对比研究

A Collexeme Analysis of Relativizer Omission:Comparing Chinese EFL Learners to Native Speakers of English

本研究聚焦中国英语学习者和英语本族语者所用关系代词取舍的使用特征。通过基于语料库的共现词分析发现:1)在具体词语层面,关系代词取舍受到先行词和从句主语的制约,并非随机选择;2)关系代词取舍是一种近义句法构式;3)中国英语学习者与英语本族语者的关系代词取舍存在相似的认知加工机制,但是中国英语学习者面临更大的认知加工负载。不同于儿童语言习得所采取的自下而上、基于语言范例的概率性归纳路径,中国英语学习者分别采取概率性归纳和直接使用语法规则两种方式加工低/高认知加106工负载关系从句。二者的相似性与差异性在本质上源自其对关系代词取舍构式的认知加工负载具有不同程度的敏感性。中国英语学习者在关系代词取舍中采取的保守策略源自其获得的自然语言输入过少。

This study addresses the choice of relativizer omission by both Chinese EFL learners and native speakers of English. It reveals that, through a corpus-based collexeme analysis,1) relativizer omission is not a random choice but lexically constrained by its head and RC subject; 2) relativizer omission should be classified as a pair of synonymous syntactic constructions; 3) a similar cognitive processing mechanism could be identified between the two groups,with Chinese EFL learners displaying a more significant correlation between the cognitive load and relativizer omission.Different from the bottom-up exemplar-based probabilistic generalization approach in L1 acquisition,probabilistic generalization approach and abstract grammatical rules have been respectively applied,by Chinese EFL learners, to relative clauses with low/high cognitive load.The similarity and discrepancy between the two groups correlate with their different sensitivity to the cognitive load of relativizer omission. Chinese EFL learners' conservative strategy in regard to relativizer omission originates from the lack of natural language input.