中国英/德语学习者的名词可数性使用:界性解读及跨语言比较

A cross-language study of the use of noun countability by Chinese English learners and Chinese German learners:An interpretation from the boundedness perspective

本研究基于100名中国英语学习者和73名中国德语学习者在汉英/汉德翻译任务中的译文,分析了译文中的目标名词可数性的使用情况,借以考察名词界性、学习者外语水平以及语际间界性异同对名词可数性使用的影响。研究发现:1)名词界性识解对名词可数性使用有显著影响,有界名词的使用显著好于无界名词,且这种影响不受外语语种的限制;2)外语习得水平对有界/无界名词的可数性使用没有显著影响;3)语际间界性异同有显著影响,且语言心理类型距离的影响大于语言类型距离的影响。研究还发现,与单一外语习得相比,双语种外语习得对名词可数性使用的促进作用更为明显。

This study,by analyzing the use of the noun countability 100 Chinese English learners and 73 Chinese German learners made in their translations of target nouns into English/German,investigates how the use is influenced by boundedness,foreign language proficiency and the similarity/difference between languages in term of boundedness.The study yields the following results:1)boundedness has a statistically significant effect on the use of noun countability,and the effect is visible across foreign languages,with the use of bounded nouns being significantly better than that of unbounded nouns;2)the learners’foreign language proficiency exerts no significant effect;and 3)the use of noun countability is influenced by the similarity/difference between languages in terms of boundedness,and language pairing’s psychotypological proximity plays a more significant role than their typological proximity.It is also found that the acquisition of two foreign languages facilitates the use more than that of one does.