Abstract:
SLA of Mandarin Nominal Syntax: Early stages Abstract In SLA, certain structures of the L2 emerge in the same order in the speech of learners with different L1s, taught in different contexts, regardless of the teaching order (Dulay and Burt, 1974; Clahsen 1984; Pienemann, 1998). Processability Theory (PT) (Pienemann, 1989, 2005) suggests that this natural emergence order reflects the architecture of the mental language processor. When learners can perform only the simplest syntactic process, they can produce only the simplest structures, but they are also ready to begin acquiring a more complex process that involves the first. This cycle repeats allowing learners gradually to perform more and more complex processes, producing more and more complex structures. A couple of factors impede the application of PT to Chinese. First, few studies of CSL have collected data in the way PT requires i.e. unrehearsed speech elicited in ways that encourage the use of target structures. Secondly, Chinese and other isolating languages lack the inflectional morphology – plural marking; agreement in the NP, and Subject-Verb agreement- that PT uses to assess the relative processing demands of syntactic structures in Indo-European languages. This paper reports on a study of the acquisition of Mandarin as a Foreign Language (MFL) that did employ the standard PT methodology for elicitation and calculates processing demands through an analysis of syntactic relations in the theoretical framework of Lexical Functional Grammar. It describes the acquisition order for Mandarin Nominal structures (NP/DP) observed during the first year of formal study in New Zealand, then explains the observed emergence order for structures that include the functional particle 'de' (的) by reference to different syntactic relationships existing in different 的- structures. It concludes that standard PT cannot account for the emerged observance order, but proposes a modified framework, based on processability that can: Emergent Functional Grammar. 从第二语言习得的初步阶段分析汉语的名词性句法 (nominal syntax) 提要: 在第二语言的习得过程中,不管母语、 学习情况、教学顺序如何,第二语言的某些句法结构是随着一定的顺序而出现在学习者的自发言语里 (Dulay and Burt, 1974; Clahsen 1984; Pienemann, 1998)。按照处理能力理论(Processability Theory (PT) (Pienemann, 1989, 2005) 的解释,这么一种自然显现顺序 natural emergence order)反映出心理句法处理者(mental language processor) 的内在构造。习得第二语言的过程分阶段进行.把握了初步阶段的语法处理过程后才有条件开始习得下一阶段的处理过程. 这种习得循环陆续重复,使学习者能够逐步地习得越来越复杂的处理过程,而产生越来越复杂的句法结构。若要把处理能力理论应用于汉语作为第二语言的研究当中,有两种阻碍元素。首先,处理能力理论要特意设计材料来引起学习者在自发言语中运用目标结构,而到目前为止只有少数研究汉语作为第二语言的项目用这种方法来收集材料。 其次,为了推算印欧语系中的各种句法结构的认知处理需求 (cognitive processing demands),处理能力理论依赖屈折形态的标志,比如复数标志名词词组内在的一致标志动主之间的一致关系标志等等 而汉语像其他孤立性语言一样缺乏这种屈折形态 。本项研究应用处理能力理论的通用方法来推导出资料调查汉语作为外语的习得, 观察了三位学习者在新西兰大学的中文系里在第一年学习汉语时的汉语名词性结构(NP/DP)的习得顺序, 通过词汇功能语法理论(Lexical Functional Grammar, LFG)分析汉语名词性短语的结构,计算了其认知处理需求. 本文描写各种包括“的”字助词的结构显现顺序, 通过“的”字结构表示的不同句法关系和其不同的处理要求解释“的”字结构的显现顺序, 做出结论,认为标准的处理能力理论无法解释所观察出来的显现顺序,而提出基于处理能力理论的新解释方法论,称为“显现功能语法”(Emergent Functional Grammar),来更好地处理此类现象。