普遍語法與華語正反問句的第二語言習得

Abstract

本實驗旨在藉由研究來台學習華語之日本學生與美國學生華語正反問句(A-not-A Questions) 之習得情形，探討第二語言中普遍語法之重要性與母語之角色。實驗組是 60 位師大國語中心的美、日學生；控制組則是 20 名中國學生。本實驗共設計兩組測驗：一是偏好題 (a preference task) 、另一是重組題 (a restructuring task) 。實驗結果發現大部分的美、日學生在華語習得初期即對主要成份參數 (the Head Parameter) 作出正確反應，顯示母語干擾並不顯著。由此可見，第二語言習得中普遍語法之存在。本實驗結果，除可証實普遍語法在第二語言中之重要性外，對華語正反問句語法理論之沿革，亦有參考之價值。

This study sets out to determine whether L2 acquisition is dominated by L1 and UG by examining Japanese- and English-speaking learners' second language acquisition of Chinese A-not-A questions. Sixty students at the Mandarin Training Center of National Taiwan Normal University, together with twenty native controls, were asked to perform two experimental tasks (i.e. a preference task and a restructuring task). The results show that a1l of the L2 learners were sensitive to the Head Parameter at the early stage of acquisition, suggesting that UG is operative in second 1anguage acquisition, but L1 influence is not significant. The present findings not only argue for the UG hypothesis but also provide empirical evidence for a revision of syntactic theory for A-not-A constructions.