1、I Disappoint You or You Disappoint Me: L2 Acquisition of English Psych Verbs by Chinese EFL LearnersAi-li C. Hsin (忻愛(ài)莉)English Dept., NKNUEmail: 1IntroductionWhat are Psych Verbs?The positions for the stimuli and the experiencer in the sentencese.g. PleaseJohns words pleased everybody.Everybody was

2、pleased by Johns words.e.g. EnjoyThe children enjoyed the story.2Types of Psych VerbsTheme-Experiencer VerbsExperiencer-Theme Verbs3Mapping Arguments to Their Syntactic PositionsThe alternation of argument structure between the two classes of psych verbs1a. The student fear exams. (Experiencer = Sub

3、ject)1b. Exams frighten the student. (Experiencer = Object)4Mapping Arguments to Their Syntactic PositionsPossible Explanation (1)Thematic Hierarchy (Grimshaw, 1990)Agent Experiencer Goal ThemeUniformity of Theta Assignment Hypothesis (UTAH) (Baker, 1988)UTAH: Identical thematic relationships betwee

4、n items are represented by identical structural relationships between those items at he level of D-structure 5Mapping Arguments to Their Syntactic PositionsPredicted Errors (White et al. 1999)2a. *The students frighten exams.2b. *Exams fear students.6Mapping Arguments to Their Syntactic PositionsPos

5、sible Explanation (2)Pesetsky (1995)The major difference between the two classes of psych verbs is in the presence of a cause argument in theme-experiencer verbs.Errors occur because learners cannot distinguish the causative nature of theme-experiencer verbs.7Conflation in Psych Verbs (Juffs 1996)CA

6、USE and STATE can be conflated in one verb. (See 3a)The other alternative construction: The periphrastic construction of causative verb make (See 3b)3a. The students behavior disappointed the teacher.3b. The students behavior made the teacher disappointed.8Conflation Parameter of Psych VerbsWhite (2

7、003) explained that the conflation of semantic primitives CAUSE and STATE is not possible in Chinese. Hence periphrastic causative is adopted. This the parametric variation between English and Chinese.3a. The students behavior disappointed the teacher.3b. *學(xué)生的行為失望了老師。9Conflation of CAUSE and STATE i

8、n ChineseThe conflation of semantic primitives CAUSE and STATE in Chinese is limited to a few words, but not entirely impossible. 4a. Ta55 fan35 wo214. He annoy meHe annoyed me. 4b. Ta55 shi214/rang51 wo214 hen214 fan35. he make me very annoyed He made me annoyed.10Conflation of CAUSE and STATE in C

9、hineseThe problem with conflation of CAUSE and STATE in Chinese: Ambiguity.5. Ta55 qi51 ta55 lao214-gong55.she angry her husbanda. She made her husband angry.b. Her husband made her angry.11Passive Theme-Experiencer Sentence vs. Adjectival StructureCupples (2002):In English, a passive theme-experien

10、cer sentence resembled an adjectival structure and is more readily comprehensible than an active theme-experiencer sentence.6a. The students behavior disappointed the teacher.6b. The teacher was disappointed. (lao214shi55 jue35de0 hen214 shi55wang51).12Research DesignHypothesisA psych verb is more d

11、ifficult to acquire than an action verb.An experiencer-theme verb is less problematic than a theme-experiencer verb.L2 learners do not distinguish the two types of English psych verbs randomly; they can better tell one type from the other as their proficiency level improves.13Research Design101 Chin

12、ese-speaking learners of English participated in the study.39 junior high school students40 senior high school students22 graduate students (all majored in English)14Research DesignMaterialsA total of 12 sentences were investigated in a grammaticality judgment task. Three correct sentences and one i

13、ncorrect sentence for each verb type.Incorrect sentences were constructed by misplacing the arguments.Samples of test items: E-T verb: The girl feared big cats. T-E verb: *His father surprised his decisionAction verb: Students played basket ball.15Result and DiscussionMean scores for each verb typea

14、ction verbs experiencer-theme verbs theme- experiencer verbsThis order correlates with the Thematic Hierarchy Agent Experiencer Goal Theme16Result and DiscussionThe general performance by the three groupsGraduate Students Senior H Students Junior H StudentsMeans scores for psych verbsJunior H Studen

15、ts Senior H Students 17Result and DiscussionAction Verbs Significant differences are found between Graduate and Junior H, Senior H and Junior HE-T VerbsSignificant differences are found betweenGraduate and Senior H, Graduate and Junior HT-E VerbsSignificant differences are found betweenGraduate and

16、Senior H, Graduate and Junior H18Result and DiscussionSignificant difference bet. 3 Groups in Verb Categories 19Result and DiscussionActive-Passive ContrastIn the graduate group, a significant difference of active-passive contrasts is observed for both action verbs and T-E verbs. In the senior h gro

17、up, no significant difference is observed for any verb types.In the junior h group, a significant difference of active-passive contrasts is observed for action verbs and T-E verbs. 20Result and DiscussionActive-Passive Contrasts for the Three Groups21Result and DiscussionAccuracy Rate by the Three Participant Groups22ConclusionAll three groups show the same order of acquisition action verbs (learnt before) E-T verbs T-E verbs. The senior high group succeeded less well in psych verbs than the junior high group; it could be reasoned that