Chinese Learners’ Acquisition Of English Psych Verbs

Verb argument structure is one of the key issues in the study, which deals with the interface between syntax and semantics. In particular, the argument structure of psych verbs is characterized as a much more challenging subject in related discussion, for it represents great complexity in the assignment of theta-roles to arguments. Due to the distinctions in lexical semantics, different types of psych verbs reflect different patterns linking nouns in syntactic positions with theta-roles, that is, state psych verbs place the Experiencer in the Subject position, and causative psych verbs place the Experiencer in the Object position. Therefore, such lack of uniformity in the arrangement of argument structure naturally poses much difficulty to learners of English when they try acquiring psych verbs.Although a lot of studies have been made by scholars and certain achievements have been gained, the acquisition of psych verbs still requires further study. First of all, these scholars adhere to their own opinion concerning the linking problem of psych verbs. Belletti and Rizzi (1988) hold that the difference between SE and OE verbs lies not at the level of D-structure, but at the level of S-structure; Grimshaw (1990) claims that the interaction of the thematic and aspectual properties of verbs accounts for the distinct linking behaviors between SE and OE verbs; while Pesetsky (1995) assumes that the theta roles involved in the psych verb alternations are not the same. These scholars hold different opinions concerning psych verbs’linking problem. Hence, further research is needed to verify different assumptions. Secondly, there are two quite different results regarding the effect of first language. Some scholars assume that there is no first language effect upon second language learning, whereas the others hold the opposite view. Therefore, more studies should be conducted to find out whether the transfer from the first language happens in the process of the second language acquisition. Thirdly, the learning of psych verbs usually begins in the first year of senior high school. However, in the previous studies, only college students were recruited as informants, which leads to the failure in collecting the information about the early knowledge of psych verbs from younger learners. In order to investigate the whole learning process, it is necessary to conduct a study to explore the acquisition of psych verbs of senior high school students. Finally, with regard to the psych verbs, few scholars use paired psych verbs in the study, so the scores collected from SE verbs tests and OE verbs tests are not comparable with each other. Therefore, choosing OE verbs which approximately match the SE verbs in meaning and studying the acquisition of these two types of verbs in pairs are quite significant.Based on previous studies, the thesis is designed to observe the acquisition of four pairs of psych verbs among the first-year students of senior high school and university students, who major in English. Ninety Chinese students were chosen in the experimental study, classified into three language proficiency levels:primary learners, intermediate learners and advanced learners. Each level involved 30 students, that is,30 grade one students from Yanqing No.1 High School,30 freshmen and 30 senior students, who major in English from Beijing Forestry University. In addition,18 English native speakers were recruited as control group. The study employed Multiple-choice Tasks, Sentence Judgment Tasks and Grammatical Judgment Tasks in the form of sentence-picture verification. All the data were analyzed through SPSS Statistics 20.0.Several findings are observed from the experiments:first of all, the acquisition of OE psych verbs is much more challenging than that of SE psych verbs. Secondly, the animacy of Subjects effects the acquisition of OE verbs. Sentences with animate Subjects bring more difficulty to intermediate and advanced learners. Thirdly, V-ing adjectives are more difficult than V-ed adjectives. Last but not least, Chinese students overuse make construction to express the causative meanings.In a word, with the framework of the argument structure theory, this thesis reveals the differences and similarities of the acquisition of psych verbs among primary learners, intermediate learners and advanced learners as well as English native speakers and second language learners. These findings deepen our understanding of language acquisition. The conclusions of this study enrich the literature of the acquisition of English psych verbs, which eventually benefit the teaching of English psych verbs in the context of Chinese. Based on the findings, some suggestions for English teaching are offered. Textbook compilers can arrange the psych verbs according to their difficulty and the English teachers can adjust their teaching methods to help the students acquire psych verbs quickly.