臺灣博碩士論文加值系統

在漢語〈華語〉中，主題化結構廣泛地被使用，而在英語的語法中，含有主題化結構的句子則相當少見，由此可知，漢語與英語在主題化結構的用法上有很大的不同。因此，本研究之目的在探討，對於以漢語為母語的英文學習者而言，在語言學習者必須重新設定主題化結構之參數值的情況下，學習者是否會運用普遍文法；換言之，本研究在探討第二語言學習者在學習語言之過程中，是否會將中文的主題化結構之參數值重新設定成為英文的非主題化結構之參數值。抑或是在語言學習過程中產生語言遷移效應，而將母語主題化結構轉移到英文的句子中。本研究共有六項主題化相關之結構，即，「主題化、主詞省略、受詞省略、虛主詞省略、位移、及缺乏主詞與動詞的一致性」。本研究以480位以漢語為母語之英文學習者為研究對象，並將研究對象依照國中生、高中生、及大學生三種不同英語程度區分為三組。本研究之測驗工具為自行編製之三種測驗，即，「翻譯題〈中翻英〉、單一選擇題、和段落文意選擇題」。
經測驗結果之分析，得到下列兩項主要發現：〈一〉本研究中的480位英文學習者，在學習過程中，一開始會先將其漢語的主題化相關結構遷移到英文的句子中，稱之為語言的負遷移現象。但是隨著學習英文的時間及英文程度增加，學習者會漸漸地重新設定主題化相關結構之參數值，寫出非主題化結構的句子。因此，學習者在第二語言習得的過程中，仍能運用普遍文法。〈二〉在所有的主題化相關結構中，「主題化」是最難重新設定的語言參數；相反地，「位移」則是最容易重新設定的語言參數。本研究的研究對象大約在學習英文的第二年，有可能甚至更早，便重新設定好「位移」的參數值，但是直到大學一年級，也就是一般認為學習英文的第七年，仍有學習者無法將「主題化」的參數值重新設定成英文的「非主題化」參數值。至於其他有關主題化結構，如，主詞省略、受詞省略、虛主詞省略、及缺乏主詞與動詞的一致性，學習者大約在高中階段便將這些主題化相關結構重新設定為符合英文用法的參數值。

Topicalization constructions are commonly used in Chinese but they rarely occur in English. This causes big differences between the two languages. Therefore, this study aimed to determine whether Universal Grammar is still available for second language learners when involving a potential parameter resetting condition. It aimed to find out whether language transfer occurs when Chinese L1 learners of English acquire the English value of the Topicalization Parameter (TP). In the TP, Chinese, the learners’ L1, is the superset and English, the learners’ L2, is the subset. The Chinese property clusters of the TP contain several topicalized constructions, such as topicalization, absence of subjects, absence of objects, absence of dummy subjects, dislocation, and lack of subject-verb agreement. A total of 480 Chinese students participated in the cross-sectional survey. There were three groups of the participants: the junior high school student group, the senior high school student group, and the college student group. Each group represented an English proficiency level. Three self-designed tests, including translation, multiple-choice questions, and contextualized multiple-choice questions, were used to investigate the participants’ performance of the topicalized constructions in English.
Two major findings were found in the study. First, language transfer occurs in the very beginning of the participants’ learning of the English constructions involving TP. However, the learners gradually reset the parameter value into that of the target language. This shows that Universal Grammar is still available for these learners in their acquisition of English. Second, among the six topicalization constructions of the TP examined, topicalization value is the most difficult to reset, while dislocation value is the easiest to reset. The participants may have reset dislocation value around the second year of English learning or probably even earlier. They seemed to reset most of the English values of the other topicalization constructions, such as absence of subjects, absence of objects, absence of dummy subjects, and lack of subject-verb agreement, around senior high school years. However, the value of the topicalization construction was the last to be reset, i.e., during their college years or later.

CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION 1
Introduction 1
Background of the Study 1
Motivation and Rationale of the Study 5
Purpose of the Study 7
Significance of the Study 8
Research Questions 9
Definition of Terms 10
Organization of the Study 13
Summary of this Chapter 14

CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW 15
Theories of Language Acquisition 16
Universal Grammar 17
Principles and Parameters 19
Principles 20
Parameters 24
Parameter Setting in UG-Constrained Grammars Summary of UG 26
Universal Grammar and First Language Acquisition 27
Three Problems with Input 29
Underdetermination 29
Degeneracy 31
Negative Evidence 32
The Poverty of the Stimulus 35
Universal Grammar and Second Language Acquisition 38
UG Access 38
Direct Access to UG 39
Indirect Access to UG 40
No Access or Partial Access to UG 41
Subset Principle 42
Language Transfer 47
The Notion of Language Transfer 48
Positive and Negative Transfer 51
Necessary Conditions for Transfer 55
Language Transfer and Universal Grammar 56
The Full Transfer Full Access Hypothesis 61
The Minimal Trees Hypothesis 62
The Valueless Features Hypothesis 63
Full Access Hypothesis 64
Comparative Analysis of Chinese and English 68
Distinction between Subject and Topic 68
Language Categories 73
Chinese as a Topic-Prominent Language vs. English as a Subject-Prominent Language 75
Topicalization Constructions 80
The Topicalization Construction (T Construction) 81
The Subject Absence and Object Absence Construction (SA and OA Construction) 83
The Dislocation Construction (D Construction) 84
The Dummy Subject Absence Construction (DSA Construction) 85
The Lacking of Subject-Verb Agreement Construction (LSA Construction) 85
Summary of this Chapter 87

CHAPTER THREE METHODOLOGY 89
Research Design 89
Participants 89
Materials 90
Data Collection 93
Data Analysis 94
Summary of this Chapter 94

CHAPTER FOUR RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 96
Results of the Six Topicalization Constructions 96
Findings of Research Question One 114
The Participants’Overall Performance on the Topicalization Constructions 115
Findings of Research Question Two 120
Different Performances among Groups 122
Findings of Research Question Three 126
Findings of Research Question Four 127
Influence of Task Types 128

CHAPTER FIVE CONCLUSION 131
Pedagogical Implications 133
Limitations of the Study 135
Suggestions for Further Research 137

APPENDIXES 151
Appendix A: The Topicalized Construction Test (Part I: Translation) 151
Appendix B: The Topicalized Construction Test with Codes (Part I: Translation) 152
Appendix C: The Topicalized Construction Test (Part II: Multiple-Choice Questions) 154
Appendix D: The Topicalized Construction Test with Codes (Part II: Multiple-Choice Questions) 157
Appendix E: The Topicalized Construction Test (Part III: Contextualized Multiple-Choice Questions) 160
Appendix F: The Topicalized Construction Test with Codes (Part III: Contextualized Multiple-Choice Questions) 165
Appendix G: Correct Sheet 170

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