中国英语学习者情境惯用语的语用知识及加工研究

Chinese EFL Learners' Pragmatic Knowledge and Processing of English Conventional Expressions

情境惯用语是程式化序列的一个子类,使用频率高且与特定交际情境和言语行为紧密关联。对外语学习者惯用语的考察有助于管窥其语用习得状况。本研究运用在线情境化自然度判断任务,探究中国大学生的英语惯用语知识和加工情况。数据显示,受试对惯用语的整体阅读及判断速度显著高于非惯用语,这说明受试整体储存了惯用语的形态句法构造;但就反应时而言,受试对区分惯用语和非惯用语中关键词汇的阅读时长未见显著差异,这表明受试并不完全熟悉惯用语与特定情境之间的语用关联。英语水平对惯用语的接受率和反应时都没有造成显著影响。可见高中低水平组的惯用语语用知识和加工能力均有不足。

Conventional expressions （CEs） refer to a subset of formulaic sequences that are frequently used in given communicative situations to perform speech acts. This study of CEs offers a window to looking into L2 learners＇ pragmatic development. The present study adopted an online contextualized naturalness judgment task to probe into the representation and processing of English CEs of Chinese college students. Data analysis reveals that all participants reacted to CEs significantly faster than did unconventional ones, and no significant reaction time difference was found for target words. These results suggest that the participants processed CEs more efficiently than unconventional ones, they were, nevertheless, not familiar with the bond between CEs and their corresponding contexts. No significant difference across proficiency levels was found in either the judgment or the reaction time data, which might reveal Chinese EFL learners＇ inadequacy of pragmatic knowledge and processing ability.