Chinese Students' Psychological Conflicts Of Reference Syntax In English Learning

This thesis presents an empirical study on the psychological reality of Binding, a part of Government and Binding Theory devised by Chomsky. Based on the three principles of the binding theory, we designed the tests of English syntactic structure cataphoric reference and minimal attachment and had tested them with Chinese sophomores of Science and Engineering majors. The results showed that the syntactic differences between two language systems could cause the psychological conflicts of syntax, and consequently the obstacles to the subjects' English comprehensions. For example, during the test, some subjects interpreted English sentences according to Chinese syntactic rules and some subjects couldn't give an answer to a question within a normal time.The results of the test show that since different languages have different parameters, the syntactic habits of the first language system exert their influences on the formation of the second language system. When there were few of differences between English and Chinese syntax in the test, the psychological conflicts of the subjects in syntax were not obvious. The experiment results were consistent with Chomsky's assertion that Binding does seem to be presented by the logical inference, or the coreferential depends on syntax, because from the experiment we could see that the syntaxes of different languages supplied different semantic meanings to the subjects' comprehensions. Furthermore, when the subjects met the context-free sentences in English, many of them chose their Chinese syntactic rules, or their syntax habits to interpret the sentence meanings. Hence the test indicated that Chomskia's binding does have its psychologicalreality.The results of the test implicate that a teacher should emphasize the habit formation of L2 syntax to help students overcome the obstacles in their L2 learning. Former sentence pattern drills, a traditional approach to L2 teaching, seems to be supported by the results of the test. On the other hand, if a student is conscious of the reason of the syntax conflicts in his L2 learning, he can improve his learning by emphasizing on adapting to the syntactic rules of L2 which differ from that of L1. Therefore, interestingly the results of the test are consistent with the cognitive approach (ideology) in L2 learning. The results also show that because different language syntaxes can bring out different interpretations of sentence meanings, the different languages seem to shape different ways of thinking. Or in other words Sapir - Worfian ideas seem not to be ungrounded.The thesis is organized in 5 parts. In Introduction, through the analysis of Chinglish phenomena in the process of English learning of Chinese students, the thesis suggests that the syntactic difference between L1 and L2 affect the L2 learning and emphasizes the importance of the research of the syntactic difference between L1 and L2. Because Chomskian's theory has exerted a tremendous influence on linguistics, many scholars adopt the theory to work on their linguistic studies. But there are still some scholars who hold their suspicious eyes on the psychological reality of Chomskian's theory. In Introduction, the aim of the thesis is stated: by means of empirical tests we will probe into the psychological process f L2 learning of Chinese students and the psychological reality of Chomsky's theory, especially the binding theory, a representative theory in Government and Binding Theory.In Chapter 1, we trace back to some representative schools of the research of L2 learning in the history, such as the definition of interlanguage, the S-R theory of behaviorism and Chomsky's criticism on it. It is introduced that Chomsky's theory is very important and useful to the research of L2 learning.In chapter 2, the thesis briefly reviews Chomsky's theory, including his linguistic philosophy, methodology and Generative and Transformational Grammar. And the thesis mainly analyzesGovernment and Binding Theory, especially the three principles in the binding theory.In chapter 3, the t...