汉语作为第二语言习得中的界面（英文）

Interfaces in Second Language Acquisition of Chinese

与儿童习得母语不同,成人学习者的二语很难达到母语水平,这是普遍现象。人们为此进行各种试验,试图对母语语法和二语语法产生分歧的原因做出解释。近年来,二语研究者关注二语习得中的界面问题,提出与某些界面的语言现象相连的问题是导致成人二语学习者习得困难的原因。在本文中,笔者将报告几例汉语作为第二语言的界面习得实证研究,检验文献中提出的有关二语界面的假说。考察的二语界面既包括内界面(指的是语法的不同模块间形成的界面,如句法—语义界面),也包括外界面(句法与语法以外范畴构成的界面,如句法—语篇和语法—语用界面),特别关注英语母语者习得汉语句法—语义界面(涉及非宾格动词和非作格动词的区别、事实类和非事实类动词作为不定代词的特殊疑问词的允准项)、句法—语篇界面(特殊疑问词话题化受制于语篇)和句法—语用界面(汉语"到底+特殊疑问词"句受语用因素的管辖,如态度的数量)的情况。数据表明,并非所有界面都给二语学习者带来同样的内在的习得障碍,意味着造成习得困难的不一定是界面,而是加工句子所需的运算量,这或许可以用来解释二语界面习得的成功与失败。

It is a common phenomenon that unlike children acquiring their first language, adult learners of a second language(L2) rarely reach native competence. Various studies of L2 acquisition have been conducted to investigate possible causes of the divergence between L2 grammars and the native grammar. In recent years, L2 researchers have paid considerable attention to interfaces in L2 acquisition, which has led to proposals that difficulties experienced by adult L2 learners can be accounted for in terms of problems with integrating linguistic phenomena relevant to certain interfaces. In this talk, I will report on empirical studies of L2 Chinese interfaces, taking into consideration of hypotheses of L2 interfaces proposed in the literature. The L2 interfaces I will examine include both internal ones(where modules of the grammar interface with each other, such as the syntax-semantic interface) and external ones(where syntax interfaces with domains outside the grammar, such as the syntax-discourse interface and syntax-pragmatics interface). In particular, I will present data from English speakers' L2 Chinese syntax-semantics interface(involving the distinction between unaccusative vs. unergative verbs, and factive vs. non-factive verbs as potential licensors for wh-words used as existential polarity items), the L2 Chinese syntax-discourse interface(at which wh-topicalization is regulated by discourse constraints) and the L2 Chinese syntax-pragmatics interface(where the syntax of the Chinese daodi…wh-question is governed by pragmatic factors, such as the number of attitudes involved). The data indicate that not all interfaces are equally and inherently problematic for adult L2 learners, which suggests that it may not necessarily be the interface per se which causes the problem but the amount of computation load required in processing a sentence. This is likely to be a useful account for degrees of success and failure at L2 interfaces.