A Study Of The Asymmetry Of Null Subjects And Null Objects In Second Language Acquisition

The present study investigates the unlearning of English null arguments byL1-Chinese learners of English based on the CLEC (Chinese Learners English Corpus)and the acquisition of null arguments by L1-English learners of Chinese based on theHSK Dynamic Composition Corpus within the theoretical framework of thePrinciples and Parameters Theory.As to the unlearning of English null arguments, the results show that theL1-Chinese learners almost do not use null subjects or null objects in their L2English,although they have a stronger awareness of the use of subjects. The argument position,the argument nature and L1-Chinese learners’ English writing proficiency combinedaffect their use of English subjects. Their English writing proficiency has some role intheir use of English subjects, whereas the argument position and the argument naturedo not play any role. None of the argument position, the argument nature andL1-Chinese learners’ English writing proficiency significantly affects their use ofEnglish objects.As to the acquisition of Chinese null arguments, the results show that theL1-English learners’ suppliance rate of null subjects is significantly higher than that ofnull objects in their Chinese compositions, leading to an asymmetry. Only theargument position significantly affects their use of Chinese null subjects, while theargument nature and L1-English learners’ writing proficiency do not. The argumentposition and the argument nature combined decide the L1-English learners’ use of nullobjects, although their writing proficiency does not significantly affect their use ofnull objects, either.The successful unlearning of English null arguments by the L1-Chinese learnerscan be attributed to the target inputs which do not contain null subjects or null objects,especially the expletive subjects in English. The asymmetry between null subjects andnull objects in the L1-English learners’ Chinese can also be attributed to theasymmetric distribution of null subjects and null objects in Chinese.