A Study On Chinese Learners’ Acquisition Of English Middle Construction From The Perspective Of Syntax-semantics Interface

English Middle Construction(abbreviated as EMC),has been widely-discussed among linguists both abroad and at home during the past several decades,owing to its complicated asymmetry between the syntax and semantics.The previous studies mainly focus on the theoretical formation of EMC,whereas very few empirical studies on EMC acquisition have been conducted.Thus,second language(L2)learners’ knowledge of EMC and their learning difficulties have yet to be presented.Within the theoretical framework of the Interface Hypothesis(IH)theory,the present study explores Chinese learners’ acquisition of EMC from the perspective of the syntax-semantic interface to examine Chinese learners’ knowledge representations of EMC and investigate whether the learning difficulties experienced can be explained by IH.The research questions are:(1)Can Chinese learners acquire EMC?(2)How do Chinese learners represent different types of EMC in their mental grammars?(3)Do the learning difficulties in EMC acquisition lie in the syntax-semantics interface? Do Chinese learners have different difficulties in acquiring semantic constraints on NP,VP and on AP? The present study adopts an acceptability judgement task(AJT)and enrolls 120 Chinese learners tested by Oxford Quick Placement Test(OQPT).Finally,90 learners are selected as the research participants divided into three proficiency groups.In addition,5English native speakers are selected as the control group.The final data obtained are analyzed by SPSS.Results demonstrate that,(1)Chinese learners have not fully acquired EMC,but with the development of their English proficiency,their EMC acquisition improves accordingly.(2)Chinese learners’ knowledge representations vary with different types of EMC.They acquire typical EMC better than non-typical EMC.(3)Syntax-semantics interface can explain the learning difficulties of EMC since Chinese learners have not acquired its mapping rules between the syntax and semantics.Besides,semantic constraints on the three components of EMC cause different learning difficulties for Chinese learners with a sequence of “NP >VP > AP”.This study further verifies that IH still holds water.The syntax-semantics interface can explain Chinese learners’ learning difficulties in the process of EMC acquisition.In addition,this study alsoprovides some implications for EMC teaching to some extent.