A Study Of Hierarchical Degrees Of Markedness In The Acquisition Of Wh-questions By English Beginners Of Chinese

Based on the acquisition of wh-questions by the English beginners of Chinese, this paper studies the transfer phenomenon in the acquisition of wh-questions and explores the effectivness of the Markedness Theory in the explanation of native language transfer. Through the analysis of the acquisition of the wh-questions by the English beginners of Chinese, this thesis points out that the negative transfer of L1 did happen during the process and it is this transfer leads to the different acquisition order of various types of wh-questions. Based on the previous researches on the Accessibility Hierarchy Hypothesis by different linguists, the author hold the view that the phenomenon of this different acquisition order reflects the hierarchical degrees of wh-questions in the acquisition of wh-questions by the English beginners of Chinese.The comparison between the traditional markedness theory and the theory in Typology is introduced in the theoretical foundation part of this thesis. The result shows that:the Traditional Markedness Theory takes up the absolute model, that is, for any language, the structure of it is either marked or unmarked. While in Typology, markedness is regarded as relative. All structures in a language have a hierarchy system and the continuum markedness model is multiple. The opposition of marked and unmarked is only a question of degrees. Therefore, using Markedness Theory in Typology to illustrate the markedness in language typology can be regarded as one of the most important factors which has great influence on the second language acquisition. Generally, language learners firstly acquire the unmarked items then the marked one. This kind of theory is also used to explain the language transfer phenomenon.Through the study and the analysis of wh-questions by the English beginners of Chinese as well as based on the analysis of the Markedness Theory in Typology and the Accessibility Hierarchy Hypothesis, this thesis aims to explore the following three questions:1) In what situation will L1 transfer happen during the process of the acquisition by the English beginners of Chinese?2) Will the transfer of native language have some influence on the acquisition of wh-questions during the process of the acquisition by the English beginners of Chinese?3) Will the difficulty caused by language transfer lead to the hierarchical degrees of markedness in the acquisition of wh-questions by the English beginners of Chinese?The analysis of the above three questions will provide some suggestions on SLA teaching.