Passives in Chinese speakers' L2 English

Abstract

This study investigates adult Chinese speakers of L2 English in the domain of passive constructions, testing between the Valueless Feature Hypothesis (Eubank, 1993/1994, 1994, 1996) and the Interpretability Hypothesis (Tsimpli and Dimitrakopoulou, 2007). The Valueless Feature Hypothesis proposes that L1 functional categories are transferred but feature values of these categories are valueless in the initial L2 grammar. It also argues for input-driven L2 ultimate attainment. The Interpretability Hypothesis cautions interpreting target-like performance as equivalent to the same underlying grammatical representations as native speakers'. In particular, it proposes that native non-native mental-grammar divergence in the end-state of SLA is a result of the unavailability of certain uninterpretable syntactic features in the L2. One hundred and six Chinese speakers of different proficiency in L2 English were invited to participate in an acceptability judgment test (AJT) and a translation test (TT). Their responses in the AJT were compared to those of a native speaker control group. Results show that be and get-passives were acquired in early stages; however, it is also observed that the advanced learners diverged from native speakers in allowing passivized ergatives (e.g. *An accident was happened.) and pseudo-passives (e.g. *Those books can divide into two types.). We discuss the data in light of what they bring to bear on questions pertinent to the two hypotheses.