Multiple Factors In Chinese EFL Learners’ Overpassivization Of English Unaccusative Verbs

Intransitive verbs are not homogeneous,which can be subdivided into unergatives(e.g.jump,walk)and unaccusatives(e.g.exist,fall)(Burzio 1986,Perlmutter 1987).The only argument of the former is the subject in deep-structure,which takes the role of agent,while the only argument of the latter is the object in deep-structure,which takes the role of patient and lacks of volition on the part of subject.Unaccusatives can be further divided into non-alternating unaccusatives(e.g.happen,die)and alternating unaccusatives(e.g.stop,break);the former can only be used as intransitives,while the latter can be used both as transitives and intransitives.The inconguency in the form-meaning of English unaccusatives led L2 learners of English to often wrongly use them in the passive structure,thus making the error of overpassivization.This mistake aroused numerous L2 researchers’ attention and they put forward many accounts for overpassivization,such as L1 transfer(Hubbard and Hix 1988),the Post-verbal NP Movement Hypothesis(Zobl 1989),Transitivization Hypothesis(Yip 1990,1995),the cognitive interpretation of causality(Ju 2000)and so on.In recent years,some researchers hold that overpassivization is the co-effect of multiple factors.Based on the previous studies,the present study tried to explore the reasons of Chinese EFL learners’ overpassivization of English unaccusatives,highlighting four factors(learners’ English proficiency level,verb frequency,animacy hierarchy of subject,verb alternation),which can be divided into two types(input factors and conceptualization factors),on the on-line processing of English unaccusatives.Besides,under the framework of usage-based model,the present study also tries to explore how the effect of input factors(learners’ English proficiency level,verb frequency)is modulated by conceptualization factors(animacy hierarchy of subject,verb alternation)in the on-line processing of English unaccusatives..This study adopted an on-line grammaticality judgment task.78 participants participated in the experiment,who were divided into 3 groups: the English native speaker control group(n=18),groups of Chinese EFL learners at low-proficiency level(n=30)and high proficiency level(n=30).The results of the experiment were as follows: 1)Compared with English native speakers,Chinese EFL learners made overpassivization errors in the on-line judgment of English unaccusatives;2)English proficiency level and verb frequency influenced the on-line judgment of English unaccusatives: the error rate in judging high-frequency unaccusatives was lower than low-frequency unaccusatives;the error rate of high-proficiency learners was lower than low-proficiency levels;3)subject animacy hierarchy influenced Chinese EFL learners’ on-line processing of English unaccusatives,but only in the [+animacy] and[-animacy] dichotomy: the error of English unaccusatives with human subjects was lower than those with nonhuman subjects,and this influence was modulated by input factors(English proficiency level and verb frequency);4)verb alternation influenced Chinese EFL learners’ on-line processing of English unaccusatives: the error rate of non-alternating unaccusatives was lower than alternating unaccusatives,but this influence was also modulated by input factors(English proficiency level and verb frequency).