The Influence Of Lexical Aspect In The Acquisition Of Verb Morphology By Chinese Learners Of English

This thesis aims to examine how Chinese learners of English develop interlanguage knowledge of tense and aspect. Previous research showed that the developmental sequence of L2 acquisition of this linguistic feature could be predicted by the aspect hypothesis. This hypothesis claims that lexical aspect figures prominently in the initial distribution of verb morphology, that is to say, in the beginning stage of verb morphology acquisition, verb inflections mainly function as markers of lexical aspect instead of tense. The study reported in this thesis focuses on the influence of lexical aspect on the acquisition of verb morphology by Chinese learners, especially to find out how such influence varies with rising proficiency level. Based on the findings of previous research in this domain, three hypotheses with specific predictions for the present study were advanced and tested empirically.A total of 150 students participated in the study. They were divided into three groups according to their proficiency levels of English, with 50 students in each group. Data were collected using a cloze test of verb morphology. The test consisted of 40 items, evenly distributed into four aspectual categories of verbs including states, activities, accomplishments, and achievements. The lexical aspect of each predicate was determined by a diagnostic test. The results were also coded for verb morphology. The coded results were analyzed with chi-square tests to determine if the distribution of verb morphology would show bias towards any of the aspectual categories.The results indicate significant interdependence of verb morphology and lexical aspect at each proficiency level. The participants in general tend to link -s with states, -ing with activities, and PAST with achievements, -ing begins to spread to accomplishments in the intermediate-level learners and it is more so in the high-level group. The highest-level learners show the most significant affiliation of -ing with activity predicates and past with achievement instead of the lowest-level group predicted by the aspect hypothesis.These findings are interpreted as partially supporting the aspect hypothesis. They support the hypothesis especially regarding the first prediction for the present study. However the second prediction is only partially corroborated. As for the third prediction, the data obtained in the present study can be explained by Distribution Bias Hypothesis or the prototype theory. It is concluded that, with the new data collected, the original aspect hypothesis may need some modification, to better predict and explain what is really going on when L2 learners acquire English tense and aspect.