回复: 二语习得研究领域的新著:张铭涧博士《英语学习者的中介语句法特征》出版。
Abstract
This study investigates syntactic features of the English interlanguage of adult ESL learners. The theoretical framework underlying the present study is mainly based on theories of linguistic typology and universals, particularly those of Hawkins (1999). Implicational universals such as the word order of interrogative question formation (Greenberg 1963), the Accessibility Hierarchy regarding relative clause formation (Keenan and Comrie 1977) and a number of processing-motivated implicational hierarchies/hypotheses in terms of filler-gap domains (Hawkins 1999) were examined in the study in order to test the extent to which the syntactic features of the English interlanguage of ESL learners can support the predictions made by these typological universals.
Data for the study was collected from about sixty international students studying at Monash University English Language Centre via a collection of written essays from the subjects as well as a number of tasks including a conversation (comprising an interview and a role-play), elicited repetition, sentence combination and grammaticality judgment. Data collection was carried out both cross-sectionally (from learners of different language-speaking backgrounds at different proficiency levels) and longitudinally (at two intervals over a year). Results of the study show that the syntactic features studied in the subjects’ English interlanguage predominantly support the implicational universals under examination regardless of the English proficiency levels and first languages of the subjects, lending support to the implicational universals as valid predictors for the phenomena of second language acquisition. More significantly, the processing-motivated explanation for the implicational universals in terms of filler-gap domains (Hawkins 1999) provides a unifying account, which can address adequately both the regularities and irregularities of the interlanguage syntactic features under study.