L2 Acquisition Of English Tough Constructions By Chinese Learners

Based on the previous studies on English Tough construction (TC)and Second Language Acquisition(SLA) theory, this research has investigated how English TCs are learned by Chinese students at three different levels of proficiency.English TC is a complex syntactic structure which involves a Tough-predicate and indicates an underlying subject-patient/theme relationship between the matrix subject and the infinitival verb. The TC has invited many different analyses during the course of development of grammatical theory; indeed, their analysis continues to present a challenge. Likewise for acquisition, the TC proves to be a special challenge to learners, for both child L1 and adult L2 speakers of different native languages. Earlier empirical studies of L1 acquisition on TC show that L1 learners even at the age of eight still tend to misinterpret TC as the Subject Raising structure. Previous L2 research discovers that learners' interpretation of TC develops from subject-agent mapping interpretation to the correct subject-patient/theme mapping interpretation, and that the learner's L1 deeply affects their acquisition of TC.Inspired by previous studies, the author carried out an experiment. The results reveal that the general difficulties posed by English TC are compounded in the Chinese learners by the existence of superficially similar constructions in Chinese which involve Subject Raising. The L1 Raising structure together with the universal preference for Subject Raising over Object Raising/TC leads to misanalysis of English TC. These factors cause the problem of overgeneralization and overpassivization of Subject Raising structure which remains even for the subjects of the upper level in the process of acquisition of TC. Animacy of the matrix subject of TCs also plays a role in the acquisition process. We suggest that the interaction of syntactic and semantic factors be an effective way to solve the problem of overgeneralization and overpassivization of Subject Raising.