L2 Acquisition Of Chinese Unaccusative Verbs By English-Speaking Learners:Testing On Unaccusative Trap Hypothesis

The present study investigates, within the framework of semantics and syntax correspondence, the L2 acquisition of Chinese unaccusative verbs by adult English-speaking learners, which pose a linking problem for theoretical linguists and a learnability problem for L2 learners. The Unaccusative Hypothesis (UH) divides traditional intransitive verbs into two classes: unaccusatives and unergatives. The former takes a D-structure object and no subject, whereas the latter takes a D-structure subject and no object. The distinction between these two classes is a universal phenomenon existing across languages, despite the fact that unaccusativity in different languages may be realized in different ways.A preliminary reading of the relevant literature reveals that unaccusative verbs have been a source of learning problems for L2 learners from various L1 backgrounds. But the L2 that has been mostly investigated is English and the research designs of most studies are not experimental in nature. As a result, researchers can only base their interpretations for the observed learning outcomes on widely different clues in their particular studies. Oshita (2001) attempted at rectifying the current situation by proposing Unaccusative Trap Hypothesis (UTH), which tries to account for a variety of nontarget phenomena observed with L2 acquisition of unaccusatives in a number of different languages. However, UTH is not without problems, especially with respect of the validity of the linguistic evidence from Chinese unaccusatives that has been used to support the claims about the route of development.To overcome the weaknesses of UTH, a more fine-grained cross-linguistic analysis of unaccusativity was first made, with an emphasis on the similarities and differences of unaccusativity in English and Chinese. In the analysis, "surface" unaccusativity of Chinese was discussed and the diagnostics accepted as reliable ones for Chinese unaccusativity were explored. More importantly, ChineseUnaccusativity Hierarchy was proposed on the basis of the previous studies, which covers seven major subclasses of Chinese unaccusatives, arranged in order of closeness to the core notion of the hierarchy.Based on the UTH and the acquisitional implications of the cross-linguistic differences for English learners of Chinese, 8 specific predictions were made regarding the development route followed by English-L1 learners in their acquisition of Chinese unaccusatives, which was investigated by a cross-sectional approach using a writing production task and a grammaticality judgement task. Sixty L2 learners of three different levels (i.e., low, intermediate and advanced), together with 20 native speakers of Chinese, participated in the investigation.The results of the present investigation confirm the basic idea of UTH, which states that the distinction of unaccusatives and unergatives may not exist at early stages of L2 acquisition and that the targetlike grammar becomes attainable only after L2 learners can differentiate correctly unaccusatives from unergatives in their IL lexicon. However, with respect to particular syntactic structures of the typical Chinese unaccusatives, as well as issues concerning Chinese aspect markers and hierarchical order of Chinese unaccusative, plough-shaped instead of U-shaped developmental patterns are observed. Such factors as elements in target language input (including language learning environment, L1 learners' knowledge of target language, e.g., Chinese aspect markers), lexical semantic-to-syntactic linking rules, as well as the influence of learner's L1 play important parts in shaping the developmental route of the present investigation.