中国学生对英语提升动词的习得初探  

A preliminary study on the acquisition of English raising verbs

作　　者：谢元花[1] 

机构地区：[1]广东外语外贸大学,510420

出　　处：《现代外语》2008年第3期301-309,共9页Modern Foreign Languages

摘　　要：英语提升动词是一种造成普遍习得困难的语言现象,它不仅对二语习得者难,而且对英语为母语的习得者也难。但迄今为止,尚无关于英语提升动词二语习得实证研究的报道。本文首先对提升动词的语义句法特征进行分析,然后根据Becker(2002,2005)对英语为母语者所进行的一系列探索性测试,选择代表四个英语水平的学生做受试,分别调查他们对英语提升动词语义句法特征的敏感性。结果显示:(1)中国学生对英语提升动词的句法特征虚主语it不敏感,而对虚主语there和语义特征静态补语动词有一定的敏感性,但这种敏感度很弱;(2)受试总体英语水平的提高与他们对英语提升动词语义句法特征的敏感度无关,即使到了英语学习的高级阶段,他们对提升动词的语义句法特征仍然不敏感,还不能完全正确地运用提升动词。本文认为,造成中国学习者习得英语提升动词难的原因可能有两个:(1)学习者将NP主语当作提升动词的主目语而导致过度推广;(2)英汉语提升动词句法结构上的差异引起习得中石化现象的发生。This paper addresses the problem of learning English raising verbs by Chinese EFL learners.Unlike typical main verbs,English raising verbs do not select any NP argument,and thus do not bear a semantic relationship with the subject of the sentence.Given these semantic and syntactic features of English raising verbs,an empirical study was conducted in which Chinese EFL learners of four English proficiency levels ranging from low to advanced performed a fill-in-the-blank test.The results show that Chinese EFL learners were not sensitive to the expletive it,but only weakly sensitive to the expletive there and the stative embedded verb.Furthermore,even the weak sensitivity does not bear on their proficiency level.Based on these findings and previous research on verb acquisition,the author provides two possible interpretations on the problems in the acquisition of English raising verbs by Chinese EFL learners.One is overgeneralization caused by mistaking the NP subject for an argument of raising verbs,and the other is fossilization possibly resulting from different syntactic representations of raising verbs between English and Chinese.

关 键 词：提升动词 语义句法特征 敏感性 过度推广 石化现象 

分 类 号：H313[语言文字—英语]