Research On Chinese Learners’Overpassivization Of English Unaccusative Verbs

Passive voice plays a vital role in English grammar. However, English learners are inclined to passivize a certain part of verbs which should not be used in passive voice. There are two classes of intransitive verbs in English, the unaccusative verbs and accusative verbs, and they are greatly different in usage. An accusative verb is with volitionality, the subject of which is the agent of action. While an unaccusative verb is without volitionality and its subject is the actual D-Structure object, which is usually the patient of action. Furthermore, there are alternating unaccusative verb and non-alternating unaccusative verb. The former could be used as transitive verb, but the latter could only be used as intransitive verb.Since Perlmutter put forward Unaccusative Hypothesis in1978, researchers from abroad and home have been more and more interested in overpassivization of English unaccusative verbs and have brought forward various theories and hypotheses from different perspectives. The most representatives are Language Transfer, Transitivization Hypothesis, Syntactic Post-verbal NP Movement, and Lexical Causativization Account and so on. As for overpassivization of English unaccusative verbs of Chinese learners, domestic scholars have made some important research, but a series of problems such as its cause need more in-depth argument.This study investigates whether suggestions of external and internal causations in contexts plays a role in Chinese English learners’ overpassivization error on unaccusative verbs. Based on explanations from cognitive and pragmatic perspective, and considering lexical semantic theories, it is hypothesized that1. Chinese English learners tend to passivize unaccusative verbs;2. Because learners consider the happening of action needs external force, they tend to use unaccusative verbs in passive voice;3. Learners are more inclined to passivize unaccusative verbs in context with suggestion of external causation than in that of internal causation;4. The degree of overpassivization errors on alternating unaccusative verbs differs significantly from that on non-alternating unaccusative verbs;5. As learners become more proficient in English, the less they are affected by cognitive factors, and the fewer overpassivization errors they would make on unaccusative verbs.The study recruited a total of120Chinese EFL learners as subjects, who represent learners from three proficiency levels:beginning (S2), intermediate low (U2), intermediate high (EU), and advanced (EM). They are required to finish a translation task, an unaccusative verb test, and a survey of cognitive attitude on overpassivization within the fixed time. The validity of the hypothesis is proved by the analysis of the collected data. The findings in this study have significant pedagogical implications. When teaching the passive voice, teachers could try to introduce the further classification of intransitive verbs. In that way, students could have a more profound understanding in unaccusative verb construction and intransitive verb construction cognitively. Moreover, the unaccusative verbs should be taken into consideration of the compilation of English grammar books.