Bidirectional Conceptual Transfer In Motion Events Of Chinese EFL Learners

Conceptual transfer is a new research trend in the field of language transfer,yet issues regarding its definition and mode of verification remain unsettled.Previous studies mostly based their investigation of conceptual transfer on participants’ verbal expression,which is insufficient to prove that the transfer identified occurs at the conceptual level.Moreover,the bidirectionality of conceptual transfer is seldom touched upon.Motion event is a commonly chosen conceptual domain to study conceptual transfer.Different languages may differ in their ways of conceptualizing and lexicalizing motion events,and this cross-linguistic difference lays the foundation for detecting conceptual transfer.Nonetheless,the motion event typology of Chinese is still controversial,thus studies on conceptual transfer based on the Chinese-English differences in motion events are limited in number and conflicting in results.By clarifying the criteria and methods of verifying conceptual transfer,as well as the differences between Chinese and English in motion event lexicalization and conceptualization patterns,this study investigated Chinese EFL learners’ lexicalization and conceptualization of motion events,focusing on two crucial components of motion events,Manner and Path.To explore whether bidirectional conceptual transfer occurs and whether the transfer is influenced by L2 proficiency,two experiments were conducted:an offline story retelling task and an online similarity judgment task.Four groups of participants took part in the two experiments:low-proficiency EFL learners,high-proficiency EFL learners,native Chinese speakers and native English speakers.The data were collected and analyzed with the help of E-Prime 2.0,BFSU PowerConc 1.0 and SPSS 16.0,with several statistical tests including linear mixed-effects model employed to examine the significance of the effects.The study has three findings.Firstly,Chinese and English differ significantly in motion event lexicalization and conceptualization,which is manifested as that native Chinese speakers use more path verbs(and path satellites)and Path-salient construction types,while native English speakers use more manner verbs and Manner-salient construction types;accordingly,in the similarity judgment task,native speakers of Chinese and English significantly differ in the preference types and reaction time of Manner-match and Path-match stimuli,indicating that Chinese and English are different in the relative salience of Manner and Path,Chinese more salient in Path whereas English more in Manner.Secondly,Chinese EFL learners have undergone bidirectional transfer when conceptualizing and lexicalizing motion events.Forward transfer is manifested as that EFL learners’ motion event description in English,presenting Chinese features of motion event lexicalization,is significantly different from that of native English speakers in that they use more path verbs(and path satellites)and Path-salient construction types but fewer manner verbs and Manner-salient construction types.Backward transfer is supported by the evidence that EFL learners use fewer path verbs(and path satellites)and Path-salient construction types but more manner verbs and Manner-salient construction types than native Chinese speakers when describing motion events in Chinese,showing the features of English motion event lexicalization.EFL learners also differ significantly from native speakers of Chinese and English in terms of motion event conceptualization,who neither emphasize Manner nor pay attention to Path as much as do native speakers of Chinese and English,but present a tendency of "neutrality" in motion event conceptualization.Besides,a significant by-subject correlation is identified between motion event lexicalization patterns and conceptualization patterns,proving that bidirectional transfer in language expression occurs at the conceptual level.Thirdly,high-proficiency EFL learners’ motion event lexicalization and conceptualization patterns are generally significantly different from those of low-proficiency EFL Learners with the former more similar to native English speakers while the latter more approximate to native Chinese speakers,indicating that the higher the English proficiency,the less prominent the forward transfer and the more prominent the backward transfer.On the basis of the results of the two experiments,this study further discusses the manifestation of bid irectional conceptual transfer by case analysis,explores the mechanism of bidirectional conceptual transfer as well as its variation along with L2 development,and also finds that EFL learners have unique features in motion event conceptualization and lexicalization which are different from L1 and L2 monolinguals.The present study clarifies the features of Chinese and English motion event lexicalization and conceptualization,deepens our understanding of the interaction between languages at the conceptual level,optimizes the method of testing and analyzing conceptual transfer,and also has some implications to foreign language teaching,highlighting the importance of instructing cross-linguistic differences at the conceptual level.