第二语言习得的普遍失败应归咎于功能语类吗?

Are functional categories to blame for the general failure in second language acquisition?

成人第二语言习得者在学习过程中通常要花费大量时间和努力 ,而其中很少有人能真正习得一种第二语言。这是一种普遍现象。对这一现象的一种解释是 ,普遍语法在第二语言习得中已不复存在。在最简方案理论框架下 ,人们提出新的理论来解释第二语言习得中学习者普遍失败的现象。本文讨论这些理论假设 ,并用实验语料论证 ,在第二语言中 ,功能语类的特征是可以充分、妥当地标示的 ,功能语类并不一定是第二语言普遍失败的根源。这些实验包括母语为汉语的英语学习者语料数据 ,也包括母语为英、法。

It has been observed that adult L2 learners generally fail to acquire a second language in spite of the effort and the time they put into this task during the acquisition process. One account for this phenomenon is that UG is no longer available in adult L2 acquisition. More recently, proposals have been put forward within the framework of Minimalist Program to account for the acquisition failure of L2 learners. These include Eubank's (1993/94, 1994, 1996) Valueless Features Hypothesis, Beck's (1997, 1998a,b) Local Impairment Hypothesis & Hawkins' (1998, Hawkins & Chan 1997) Failed Features Hypothesis. In this paper, I will review these L2 acquisition hypotheses and present empirical data from both Chinese speaking learners of English and English , French , and German speaking learners of Chinese to show that features attached to functional categories in adult L2 acquisition can be fully and properly specified and that functional categories may not necessarily be the cause of failure in second language acquisition.