A Empirical Study On The Acquisition Of Null Arguments In English As A Second Language

Based on the Principle and Parameter theory, this study is concentrated on the native language and UG's effect and influence in the second language acquisition. One of the differences between Chinese and English is that the former allows both null subjects in finite sentences and null objects, but the latter allows neither. Two experiments are designed to investigate the null arguments in the SLA according to the acceptability and usage. It has been found that Chinese speakers performed better in null subjects than null objects, which indicated that there is an asymmetry in Chinese Learners'L2 English. The expletive subject can be used as a trigger in changing their native language's parameter into their second language parameter. It is proposed that the expletive subject made Chinese learners quickly realize the necessity of appearing subjects in English, but because of the influence of input and regulation's overgeneralization, even advanced English learners could not detect the ungrammatical null objects.