中国英语学习者致使运动事件习得研究

The Acquisition of English Caused Motion Events by Chinese EFL Learners

本文探讨了中国学生能在多大程度上习得英语致使运动事件表达的特点以及母语思维方式对习得的影响。结果显示,中国学生使用的致使运动动词数量有限,多属表达基本层级范畴的动词。在致使运动结构的使用方面,学习者表现出与英语本族语者类似的特点,但倾向选择分析型致使句式。中国学生所使用的背景信息比例略低于英语本族语者,且各组之间差异不显著。中国学生开始习得英语中的事件合并方式,使用情况随语言水平的提高呈上升趋势,但仍倾向使用序列式事件表达方式。研究结果表明,学习者初步习得了英语致使运动事件的表达特点,但即使是高级阶段的学习者,母语思维方式仍产生明显的影响。

This study explores whether and to what extent Chinese EFL learners can acquire English caused motion event ex- pressions, and the effects of L1 thinking for speaking on the acquisition. The results reveal that learners used a limited number of caused motion verb types, mostly belonging to basic level vocabulary. In terms of verb constructions, learners exhibited sim- ilar traits to those of English native speakers but kept using the analytical type of patterns. They produced inadequate less plus- ground information than that of English native speakers, with no significant differences between learner groups. They began to use more instances of event conflation, with proficiency, but preferred to choose event serialization instead. The results indi- cate that Chinese college learners have, to some extent, acquired the characteristics of caused motion event expressions in Eng- lish but remained to be apparently influenced by L1 thinking-for-speaking patterns, irrespective of learner proficiency.