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  • 學位論文

中文疑問句型對以英語為外語的學習者英文表現之研究—以孤島限制為例

The Investigation of Chinese Interrogatives on EFL Learners’ English Performances – A Case Study of Syntactic Island Constraints

指導教授 : 王乾安
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摘要


本研究旨在探討以英語為外語的學習者(English as a foreign language learners, EFL learners)對於句法理論中孤島限制(island constraints)的語言認知是否會受到母語的影響。英文疑問詞的移位現象是形成疑問句的必要條件,而中文則否,這是中文和英文的疑問句句法最大差異之一。但是Ross (1967)發現英文裡的移位現象並非毫無限制,至少有六種句法結構會限制移位現象,並將此六種結構命名為「孤島限制」。而中文在形成疑問句的過程中並不會產生疑問詞移位現象,所以疑問詞的移位現象在被認為是「疑問詞原位」(wh-in-situ)的中文裡,則預期不會被任何孤島限制所影響。不過,由於兩個疑問附加語 (wh-adjuncts)「為什麼」why和「怎麼樣」how在中文和英文的相似表現,因此在孤島限制的環境下,此兩個疑問附加語並不會受到孤島限制的影響。 鑒於上述的相似與相異處,本研究探討兩個假設。第一個假設是當以中文為母語的英語學習者在處理包含孤島限制的英語句子時,中文會影響甚至妨礙英語學習者的語言認知;第二個假設則是以中文和英文在疑問附加語的相似表現為基礎,當以中文為母語的英語學習者在處理疑問附加語包孕在孤島限制的英語句子時,中文可以幫助英語學習者的語言認知。 在北台灣的某所大學中,計有六十六名主修英語的大學生被隨機挑選來參與此項研究。兩項測驗由研究者自行設計,讓受試者根據所提供的中文翻譯來判斷英文句子是否合乎語法。另外,為了探討受試者所具備的特定文法知識,研究者在兩項測驗結束後進行半開放式訪談(semi-structured interview)。 研究結果顯示在判斷包含孤島限制的英文句子是否合乎語法時,以中文為母語的英語學習者並未受到母語的顯著影響,因為以中文為母語的英語學習者能判斷出語法正確與否。此外,在判斷包含孤島限制的英文句子是否合乎語法上,擁有較長的英語學習時間以及較廣泛的學術閱讀經驗的英語學習者表現得比英語學習時間較短以及學術閱讀經驗較少的英語學習者好。但是,只要英文句子包含超過一個以上的句法特徵,以中文為母語的英語學習者在判斷語法正確與否就很有可能被中文所影響。 至於兩個疑問附加語「為什麼」why和「怎麼樣」how,在閱讀完所提供的情境之後,以中文為母語的英語學習者有能力判斷出相對應於包含疑問附加語的孤島限制之英文句子較為合適的中文解釋。並且,研究結果也顯示,以中文為母語的英語學習者傾向用疑問詞來修飾最靠近疑問詞的子句,此種傾向和Chomsky的經濟原則(economy conditions)相符合(1991, 1993)。

並列摘要


This thesis aims to investigate whether or not Chinese EFL (English as a foreign language) learners’ perception on English sentences would be influenced by their L1 with respect to syntactic island constraints. Ross (1967) discovers that not all movements in English are free and terms this phenomenon as ‘syntactic island constraint’. Specifically, six kinds of configurations – complex noun phrase islands, wh-islands, sentential subject islands, coordinate structure islands, adjunct islands, left-branch islands – will block wh-movements even though the movements are otherwise required in English. On the other hand, Chinese, being genetically distant from English, is perceived as a wh-in-situ language. One would thus expect that Chinese is not constrained by islands since no movement has to take place. As a matter of fact, this is really the case, except for two wh-adjuncts weishenme ‘why’ and zenmeyang ‘how’. In particular, the two adjuncts are not felicitous in island contexts, suggesting that Chinese and English are similar as far as the two adjuncts are concerned. Granted the similarity and difference, two assumptions are tested in this paper. The first is that Chinese learners of English might be influenced, or even obstructed by their native language when dealing with English sentences containing syntactic islands. The second one is that Chinese learners of English would be helped by their L1 when learning English sentences because the two languages behave alike with respect to the aforementioned wh-adjuncts under the island contexts. Sixty-six students who are majoring in English in a college in northern Taiwan are randomly selected to participate in the study. Based on the Chinese translation provided, two self-designed tests are administrated to the participants in order to judge the grammaticality. A semi-structured interview, aiming to explore certain grammatical knowledge possessed by the participants, is later conducted after the tests are carried out. The research findings suggest that Chinese EFL learners are not influenced by their L1 in judging the sentences with syntactic island constraints when the two languages exhibit differences in this regard because they are able to judge the grammaticality in the sentences with an island embedded. Besides, Chinese EFL learners who have longer years of English learning and more extensive academic reading have a better performance than those who have shorter years of English learning and less extensive academic reading. However, the research findings imply that their grammaticality judgment is likely to be influenced by their L1 as long as the sentences contain more than one syntactic features. As for the two adjuncts, Chinese EFL learners are capable of judging the appropriate Chinese interpretations based on the English sentences with wh-adjuncts embedded in an island constraint after reading the context provided. In addition, the results in acceptability judgment test show the fact that Chinese EFL learners have the tendency to view the wh-word as the modifier of the nearest clause, which can be accounted by Chomsky’s economy conditions (1991, 1993).

參考文獻


Baciu, I., & Crăiniceanu, I. (2007). Blocking effects in the double object construction. Bucharest Working Papers in Linguistics, (1), 181-188.
Brown, H. D. (2007). Principles of language learning and teaching (5th ed.). NY: Pearson education.
Carnie, A. (2007). Syntax: A Generative Introduction. Malden, MA : Blackwell Pub.
Chan, A. Y-W. (2004). Syntactic Transfer: Evidence from the Interlanguage of Hong Kong Chinese ESL Learners. Modern Language Journal, 88(1), 56-74.
Chomsky, N. (1957). Syntactic Structures. The Hague: Janua Linguarum 4.

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