An Analysis Of SLA Of The English Wh-Subordinate Interrogatives: The OT Perspective

Optimality Theory (OT) is initially a theory of generative phonology in the 1990s put forward by Prince and Smolensky (1993). OT-based syntax adopted in this paper belongs to the application of OT phonology to syntax. It has a dramatic and significant impact on the areas of linguistics outside of phonology, such as semantics, syntax, second language acquisition, children's language acquisition and language change. It has become an important theory of linguistics.OT-based syntax keeps the basic working mechanism of OT phonology: Generator(Gen) adds, deletes and rearranges components from a given input to produce an infinite set of candidate representations in accordance with the principles of containment and freedom of analysis; then, these candidates are put into Evaluation (Eval), a ranking of constraints that consist of markedness constraints and faithfulness constraints; Eval which conforms to the principle of strict domination opts for the most satisfactory candidate from the candidate set created by Gen. In addition, some basic notions in the research of syntax have been assimilated into OT-based syntax, containing X'-theory, trace, empty category and the representing form like [CP What_i will [IP Jim [VP say ti]]].The analysis in this thesis is based on the OT research conducted by Grimshaw. The generative process of English subordinate interrogatives has derived through a ranking of constraint hierarchy containing markedness constraints of PROJ-PRIN, OP-SPEC and OB-HD and faithfulness constraints FULL-INT and STAY. The constraint hierarchical ranking is PROJ-PRIN >> OP-SPEC >> OB-HD >> FULL-INT>> STAY.This study is also an empirical research. The writer chooses the students in Heshan District Experimantal Senior High School in Hebi City of Henan Province as the participants. Through a grammar test, this thesis investigates students'acquisition of the English WH-subordinate interrogatives (EWSI). The writer in this thesis divides EWSI into six sentence types and categorizes the error types students made in the experiment. Then she calculates the error rate of each sentence types of EWSI and explores the interlanguage constraint hierarchical ranking of each grade. Such hierarchies are presented by the candidate competing tables, in which the experimental sentences are chosen as the examples. The reasons for the formation of the constraint hierarchy of the interlanguage of EWSI are also talked about. Then the writer discusses the characteristics of the students'interlanguage constraint hierarchy in EWSI.The conclusions can be made in the following. The interlanguage constraint hierarchies of the three grades are quite different. It shows clearly the students acquisition process in learning EWSI."Partial Gradual Learning Algorithm"has been tested in acquisition of EWSI. It is concluded that second language learners have a"Partial Gradual Learning Algorithm"in learning English interrogatives, including both English simple WH-questions and subordinate interrogatives. The difference lies in the ranking points. In the learning process of the former, learners first set the highest and higher ranked constraints, while in the latter, they first set the lowest and lower ranked constraints. For Chinese native speakers, the SLA sequence of learning EWSI sentence types should be: Sentence Type One and Sentence Type Two >>Sentence Type Three and Sentence Type Five >>Sentence Type Four and Sentence Type Six, which is different from that of English simple WH-questions.OT analysis of the acquisition of English interrogatives has a great significance to the research of the acquisition of syntax, especially for English teaching of Chinese native students. In addition, this thesis aims at making a complement to the previous research, which has been done to apply OT into Chinese native speakers'acquisition of English simple WH-questions. It applies OT into Chinese native speakers'acquisition of English WH-subordinate interrogatives.