Argument-structure alternation in dative verbs is not consistently realized in the same way and subject to exceptions, which causes learnability problem(Pinker, 1989). In second language acquisition the process of acquiring dative constructions becomes more complicated because of the learner's native language.
The aim of the present study is to investigate L1 transfer and developmental stages in the acquisition of argument structures of English dative verbs. More specifically with regard to L1 transfer, 1) the effects of scrambling in Korean and 2)the effects of Korean dative structures were examined. Regarding developmental stages, 1)the acquisition of broad range rule(possession constraint) and 2)the acquisition of alternating or nonalternating dative verbs' argument structures(narrow range rule, morphophonological constraint) were investigated. For the study, 123 Korean middle school students, 114 Korean high school students, and 17 English native speakers participated in the grammaticality judgement task Ⅰ, Ⅱ and sentence completion task Ⅰ, Ⅱ.
The main results of the study are as follows:
First, both middle and high school students accepted [V PP NP] as a natural structure, and middle school students' acceptance of [V DO IO] structure were high. This shows that Korean learners, who are especially at the initial stage of interlanguage, are easily influenced by the argument order of their native language, namely scrambling.
Second, compared to English native speakers Korean learners preferentially used the prepositional dative in both alternating dative verbs and double object verbs, which can be interpreted as an effect of Korean dative structures on the acquisition of English dative constructions. Also, it was found that learners' preference for the prepositional dative is related to the Korean translation given in the task.
Third, Korean learners showed sensitivity to broad range rule, and appeared to acquire the animacy constraint(±animate) before the possessor constraint(±possession).
Fourth, there were developmental differences between middle and high school students in the acquisition of alternating or nonalternating dative verbs' argument structures. Middle school students allowed only the prepositional dative regardless of the alternating status of the verbs. High school students' grammaticality judgements to alternating dative verbs and narrow range rule-governed nonalternating dative verbs were similar to English native speakers'. But in the case of nonalternating dative verbs related to morphophonological constraint, high school students overgeneralized the double object dative. This supports for Pinker's(1989) claim that argument structure alternation is fundamentally governed by the semantic constraints.
In conclusion, the results of this study show that second language acquisition develops according to Schwartz and Sprouse(1996)'s Full Transfer Full Access Hypothesis. So, the teaching-learning methods decreasing negative L1 transfer may be necessary to encourage more effective second language acquisition. Also, the teaching focus needs to be differentiated according to learners' interlanguage developmental stages: for example, alternating dative structures for the learners at the initial stage, and nonalternating ones for the learners at the overgeneralization stage need to be more focused.
，韩语论文，韩语论文网站 |
