The acquisition of the English passive structure by Chinese ESL learners.

by Jihua Zhou.Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1991.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 112-115).ACKNOWLEDGMENT --- p.iABSTRACT --- p.iiTABLE OF CONTENTS --- p.iiiLIST OF TABLES --- p.viiLIST OF FIGURES --- p.ixChapter CHAPTER 1 --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1Chapter 1.1 --- Aims and Scope --- p.1Chapter 1.2 --- Significance --- p.2Chapter 1.3 --- The Organization of the Study --- p.4Chapter CHAPTER 2 --- APPROACHES TO THE PASSIVE： LINGUISTIC ANALYSIS AND SOME ACQUISITION ISSUES --- p.5Chapter 2.0 --- Introduction --- p.5Chapter 2.1 --- Approaches to the Analysis of the Sentential Passive --- p.6Chapter 2.1.1 --- The Syntactic Structures and the Aspects Approach --- p.7Chapter 2.1.2 --- The Lexical Approach --- p.9Chapter 2.1.3 --- The Modular Approach --- p.10Chapter 2.1.4 --- Semantic Constraints On Theta-Role Assignment in the Sentential Passive --- p.14Chapter 2.2 --- The Analyses of the Nominal Passive --- p.16Chapter 2.3 --- Passive Related Structures --- the Ergative and the Middle --- p.19Chapter 2.4 --- Empirical Studies on the Passive Acquisition --- p.23Chapter 2.4.1 --- Studies on L1 acquisition --- p.23Chapter 2.4.1.1 --- Maratsos et al. (1985) --- p.23Chapter 2.4.1.2 --- Pinker et al. (1987) --- p.26Chapter 2.4.1.3 --- Gordon and Chafetz (1990) --- p.29Chapter 2.4.2 --- Studies on L2 passive acquisition --- p.31Chapter 2.4.2.1 --- Zhou (1989) --- p.31Chapter 2.4.2.2 --- Zobl (1989) --- p.32Chapter 2.5 --- Acquisition Issues --- p.34Chapter CHAPTER 3 --- RESEARCH DESIGN AND PROCEDURE --- p.39Chapter 3.0 --- Introduction --- p.39Chapter 3.1 --- Research Hypotheses --- p.40Chapter 3.2 --- Subjects --- p.43Chapter 3.3 --- Test Design --- p.44Chapter 3.3.1 --- Test1 --- p.44Chapter 3.3.2 --- Test2 --- p.46Chapter 3.3.3 --- Test3 --- p.48Chapter 3.3.4 --- Test4 --- p.50Chapter 3.4 --- Test Procedure and Test Scoring --- p.51Chapter CHAPTER 4 --- RESULTS --- p.54Chapter 4.1 --- Results of Test1 --- p.55Chapter 4.1.1 --- Learners' Sensitivity to the Conditions for NP-Movement Is Relatively Low --- p.57Chapter 4.1.2 --- Context-dependence of Learners' Sensitivity to the Requirements of Case Theory --- p.60Chapter 4.1.3 --- Learners' Sensitivity to NP-Movement in Sentences with or without the by-phrase --- p.64Chapter 4.1.4. --- Learners' Sensitivity to NP-Movement is Related to the Actionality of the Verb --- p.66Chapter 4.2 --- Results of Test2 --- p.68Chapter 4.2.1 --- The Interpretation of Thematic Roles --- p.68Chapter 4.2.2 --- The Acceptability of Thematic Role Pairs Violating THC --- p.71Chapter 4.2.3 --- The Thematic Interpretation of the Subject --- p.73Chapter 4.3 --- Results of Test3 --- p.76Chapter 4.3.1 --- Lower Sensitivity to NP-Movement in Nominal Passives --- p.79Chapter 4.3.2 --- Learners' Performance on Some Other Aspects of the Nominal Passive --- p.80Chapter 4.4 --- Results of Test4 --- p.83Chapter 4.5 --- Summary --- p.90Chapter CHAPTER 5 --- DISCUSSION --- p.92Chapter 5.1 --- The Availability of UG Principles in the Acquisition of the Passive Structure --- p.92Chapter 5. 2 --- Affectedness Constraint Posing a Very Difficult Learning Problem --- p.98Chapter 5.3 --- The Passive Related Structures and Learnability Issues --- p.101Chapter CHAPTER 6 --- CONCLUSION --- p.107REFERENCES --- p.112APPENDICES --- p.11