ADULT ENGLISH SPEAKERS' ACQUISITION OF CHINESE COUNT-MASS CLASSIFIERS

This empirical study investigates English speakers' comprehension of count mass classifiers in L2 Chinese. The participants for the study were 62 English-speaking adults learning Chinese in Taiwan. The results of the study indicate the following: (1) In early stages of L2 acquisition, English speakers do not seem to honour the count mass distinction in Chinese, contrary to suggestions made by studies investigating English-speaking and Chinese-speaking children (Soja 1992, Soja et al. 1991, Chien et al. 2003). (2) The predominant use of the general classifiers ge suggests that it does not require the noun which it denotes to be of a particular type. (3) There are between-groups developmental differences probably due to lexical learning. (4) An asymmetrical development between the interpretation of count-mass classifiers and the CLP structures with de modifying count classifiers raises a question concerning the source of variability in L2 acquisition. Two theories, namely the Full Transfer/ Full Access hypothesis and the Partial Availability of UG hypothesis, in relation to parameter-resetting in SLA within the framework of Principles and Parameters are set out to explain the divergence. It coheres with what Hawkins and Hattori (2006) suggest that the apparent native-like L2 performance may not be equal to the underlying properties in the grammar of native speakers.

關鍵字

Classifiers ； Full access ； Partial access ； Interpretability Hypothesis

並列摘要

本實驗研究探究英文使用者對中文可數和不可數的單位詞的理解。參與研究得對像是62位在台灣學習中文的英語使用者。研究結果顯示:（1）在早期第二語言習得階段，英文使用者不認為中文可數和不可數的單位詞僅限於中文中，這論點不支持關於英文和中文使用者的學童的研究。（2）廣義的單位用詞“個”的使用被認為名詞不需要被單位用詞限定。（3）實驗組別間的發展差異有可能系關係於辭彙的學習程度不同（4）一個不對等的發展介於可數和不可數的單位詞和使用“的”的單位詞結構衍生出關於第二語研習得的差異性。兩條關於參數重設理論之第二語研習得的普遍性語法的假說: 全轉換/全運行假說和部分運行框架於原則語參數理論，被用以解釋習得差異。它不同於Hawkins和Hattori在2006年提出關於相似於母語的第二語言表現很可能不對等於該語言語法的性質。

並列關鍵字

單位詞；全運行；部分運行；解釋性假說

國際替代計量

ADULT ENGLISH SPEAKERS' ACQUISITION OF CHINESE COUNT-MASS CLASSIFIERS

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