The Acquisition Of English Double Objects Construction By Chinese L2Learners

This paper studies the acquisition of double object construction (DOC) in second language study---language transfer. Research shows that first language acquisition plays a different role in language study, which should attract our much attention. When studying a foreign language, L2learner's native language acquisition usually affects his acquirement of second language. As a result, L1transfer is closely in touch with its L2acquisition usually (Odlin,1989). In fact, the previous second language study has revealed that the influence of language transfer is clear during the second language study.Presently, some new researches about L2acquisition conducted in syntactic and semantics fields have probed into the acquisition of form-to-meaning mappings. It means when acquiring a second language, learners study the language forms as well as the meaning related to them (Radford,1997). Therefore, L2studies in such fields will help learners comprehend L2acquisition process and allow language learners to measure the linguistic knowledge related to L2acquisition.Such studies are valuable and useful because they clearly show how second language learners handle the negative language transfer effect when they acquire target language. Meanwhile, they may offer some evidences on how second learners get their way to universal grammar. However, previous researches have mainly emphasized the fields from the functional aspect and determiners. This dissertation has been studied from the scopes of argument structure.Three research questions are proposed in this dissertation.1. Supposing the properties of DOC equally occurred in Chinese and English, for example, L2learners seldom make errors, and in what way can properties of DOC be predicted through theory of language transfer?2. By the influence of their native language, what kinds of errors or mistakes do L2learners usually make?3. What should we do to help L2learners to recover from negative transfer effect?Based on three questions, three hypotheses are concluded.1. The structural similarities of the verbs in DO structure between English and Chinese will lead Chinese second language learners to accept DO structure easily. Because the structure of giving type in English and Chinese is similar, Chinese students will easily accept giving type.2. The structural differences of the verbs in benefactive PD between English and Chinese will lead Chinese second language learners to reject benefactive PD. Because the structure of obtaining type and creating type in two languages are different, Chinese students will have difficult in accepting obtaining type and creating type.3. Based on the hypothesis1and2, we concluded that the acquisition of creating type and obtaining type of the DOC will slowly develop compared with the acquisition of giving type in the DOC.There are two test papers adopted in the experimental part in order to collect data and detailed information. There are90participants selected to take part in the test. The participants will be classified into three groups by the test one---cloze test. Test paper two (translation test) reveals that all the participants in three groups have a preference for DO structure and the verbs of giving type because there exists a similar structure between English DO structure and Chinese DO structure. For benefactive PD structure and creating type and obtaining type, participants of the three groups react totally different based on their language proficient level.At last, implications and suggestions of the research are offered and some limitations of the research are discussed as well.