Developmental Trajectory of Relative Clauses among Mandarin Learners of English

中文母語者在英文關係子句之習得發展

Yow-Yu Lin

《Concentric： Studies in Linguistics》 41卷1期 (2015/05) Pp. 63-94

https://doi.org/10.6241/concentric.ling.41.1.03

摘要

在闡釋關係子句的處理和習得之困難處時，先前的研究幾乎都著重於兩個重要的理論：『名詞片語可存取階層』及『感知困難假說』。近幾年來，『依附區域理論』提出針對句子的每一個字詞做出能量單位的運算法則。此理論在心裡語言學領域也已獲得廣大的注意和研究支持。本研究旨在看中文母語者在英文作文裡關係子句的使用多寡，用以檢視三個理論。中文母語者寫的英文作文並不像傳統其他研究一般要求受試者判斷文法正確性或是結合句子使用。後兩種方法都直接的將受試者的注意力引導至關係子句上。但卻不知在自然不受引導的狀態下，外語學習者關係子句的產生是否與先前研究結果一致。此外，在外語研究上，因語言程度佔了一個重要的位置，故本研究收集了五種程度的學生英文作文：高二學生，高三學生，大學裡非英外文系學生，英外文系大一學生，與英外文系大二學生。每一個族群的學生作文皆包含四萬字左右。本研究細查學生各種關係子句使用狀況，並計算各種關係子句的總數。研究結果發現不同英文程度的確會產生數目多寡不一的關係子句。隨著英文程度提升，學生在作文中也有顯著較多的關係子句產生。最後，本研究也發現每個理論皆有其獨到貢獻處，可用來解釋不同程度學生的關係子句產出狀況。

關鍵字

關係子句 ； 心理語言學 ； 語句產生

並列摘要

In elucidating the difficulty of relative clause processing and acquisition, previous studies have mostly focused on two theories, i.e., Noun Phrase Accessibility Hierarchy and Perceptual Difficulty Hypothesis. In recent years, Gibson's Dependency Locality Theory proposed a detailed calculation regarding energy units spent at each position in a sentence and has drawn much attention and support in research. The present study tested the predictions of these three theories by looking at relative clause production in English compositions written by Mandarin-speaking EFL learners, including senior high school sophomores, senior high school seniors, college non-English majors, college first-year English majors, and college second-year English majors. Results show different levels of support for different theories, with each theory having its own strengths and weaknesses. Furthermore, the results also clearly indicate that when the L2 proficiency of Mandarin-speaking EFL learners increases, the learners exhibit better control over the production of relative clauses in their compositions.

並列關鍵字

relative clause ； psycholinguistics ； sentence production

參考文獻

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