Chapter 1 Introduction

1.1 Research Orientation

1.2 English Progressive Aspect:The Target of Research

1.3 Rationale

1.3.1 Decomposing the Learning Task of the English Progressive Aspect

1.3.2 Previous Studies and Their Inadequacies

1.4 Key Research Questions

1.5 Structure of the Book

Chapter 2 In Search of a Unified Theoretical Account for L2 Progressive Aspect Acquisition

2.1 Previous Studies on L2 Aspect Acquisition:Empirical Findings and Theoretical Explanations

2.1.1 Form-meaning Mapping of L2 Tense-aspect Acquisition:Aspect Hypothesis

2.1.2 Form-function Mapping of L2 Tense-aspect Marking:Discourse Hypothesis

2.1.3 Narrative Structure and Lexical Aspect:Conspiring Factors?

2.2 Theoretical Accounts of Form-meaning Mapping in Tense-aspect Acquisition

2.2.1 Language Bioprogram Hypothesis and Basic Child Grammar

2.2.2 Prototype Account and Distributional Bias Argument

2.2.3 Connectionist Account

2.3 Problems Existing in the Tense-aspect Acquisition Studies

2.4 Optimality Theory as a Unified Framework

2.5 Summary

Chapter 3 Constraints on the Progressive Aspect Marking in English and Chinese

3.1 Aspect and Other Related Notions

3.1.1 Aspect

3.1.2 Grammatical Aspect

3.1.3 Lexical Aspect

3.1.4 Technical Issues Related with Lexical Aspect

3.2 Interaction of Grammatical and Lexical Aspects

3.3 Semantic Constraints on Progressive Marking:The Form-meaning Mapping

3.3.1 The Formal Approach

3.3.2 The Functional Approach

3.3.3 The PROG Operator

3.4 Discourse Constraints of Progressive Aspect Marking:The Form-function Mapping

3.5 Cross-linguistic Analysis of the Progressive Aspect in Chinese and English

3.6 Summary

Chapter 4 An OT Analysis of the Constraints on the Progressive and Their Interaction

4.1 Optimality Theory

4.1.1 Basic Tenets of OT

4.1.2 Conventional Notations

4.1.3 Faithfulness and Markedness Constraints

4.1.4 OT Account of Language Acquisition

4.2 Conflicting Constraints on the Progressive Aspect Marking

4.2.1 Transitivity Hypothesis(TH)

4.2.2 Discourse Representation Theory(DRT)and Aspect Coercion

4.3 An OT Analysis of the Constraints on Aspect Marking and Their Ranking

4.3.1 Typology of Constraints on Aspect Marking in English

4.3.2 Constraint Ranking of Aspect Marking in English

4.3.3 Testing the Ranking of Constraints on Aspect Marking

4.4 Summary

Chapter 5 L2 Acquisition of the Progressive Aspect:Towards an OT Account

5.1 An OT Account of L2 Tense-aspect Acquisition

5.1.1 Initial Ranking of Constraints on Tense-aspect Marking

5.1.2 Learning Algorithms in OT

5.2 Hypotheses on L2 Acquisition of English Tense-aspect System by Chinese EFL Learners

5.2.1 Hypothesis on Aspect Coercion

5.2.2 Hypotheses on Constraint Reranking

5.2.3 Hypotheses on Cross-linguistic Constraints

5.3 Variables Involved in Hypothesis Testing

5.3.1 L2-English Proficiency Level

5.3.2 NoCoER Constraint

5.3.3 IDENT(TF)Constraint

5.3.4 Tense-aspect Marking

5.4 Summary

Chapter 6 Research Design,Instrumentation,Data Collection and Data Analysis

6.1 Research Design

6.2 Participants

6.3 Instrumentation

6.3.1 Acceptability Judgment Test(AJT)

6.3.2 Aspect Sentence Interpretation Task(ASIT)

6.3.3 Movie Clip Retell Task(MCRT)

6.3.4 Summary of Test Instruments

6.4 Data Collection

6.4.1 Time and Venue

6.4.2 Task Sequence

6.5 Data Scoring and Coding

6.5.1 Scoring of ASIT Data

6.5.2 Scoring of AJT Data

6.5.3 Coding and Scoring MCRT Data

6.6 Data Analysis

6.7 Summary

Chapter 7 Results for Research Hypotheses Testing

7.1 Results for Hypothesis 1

7.1.1 Testing Hypothesis 1 through Movie Clip Retell Test(MCRT)Data

7.1.2 Testing Hypothesis 1 through Aspect Sentence Interpretation Task (ASIT)

7.1.3 Testing Hypothesis 1 through Acceptability Judgment Task(AJT)

7.2 Testing Hypothesis 2

7.2.1 Testing Hypothesis 2 through Movie Clip Retell Task(MCRT)

7.2.2 Testing Hypothesis 2 through Aspect Sentence Interpretation Task(ASIT)

7.2.3 Testing Hypothesis 2 through Acceptability Judgment Task(AJT)

7.3 Testing Hypothesis 3

7.3.1 Testing Hypothesis 3 through Movie Clip Retell Task(MCRT)

7.3.2 Testing Hypothesis 3 through Aspect Sentence Interpretation Task (ASIT)

7.4 Testing Hypothesis 4

7.4.1 Testing Hypothesis 4 through Acceptability Judgment Task(AJT)

7.4.2 Testing Hypothesis 4 through Movie Clip Retell Task(MCRT)

7.5 Testing Hypothesis 5

7.5.1 Testing Hypothesis 5 through Acceptability Judgment Task(AJT)

7.5.2 Testing Hypothesis 5 through Movie Clip Retell Task(MCRT)

7.5.3 Testing Hypothesis 5 through Aspect Sentence Interpretation Task (ASIT)

7.6 Summary

Chapter 8 General Discussion

8.1 Developmental Route of English Tense-aspect Acquisition by Chinese EFL Learners

8.1.1 A Summary of Major Findings

8.1.2 Characterizing L2 Acquisition of the English Aspect Markers by Chinese EFL Learners

8.2 Implications of OT for the Developmental Route of L2 Tense-aspect Forms

8.2.1 An OT Account of the Initial State

8.2.2 The Triggering Factor in Tense-aspect Acquisition

8.2.3 The Spread from Prototypical to Non-prototypical Situation-aspect Mappings

8.2.4 The Role of Statives in Progressive Aspect Marking

8.3 The Explanatory Power of OT for L2 Aspect Acquisition

8.3.1 Temporal Semantics and Discourse Grounding:Two Conspiring Forces?

8.3.2 Nativism or Connectionism

8.4 Summary

Chapter 9 Conclusion

9.1 Conclusions

9.2 Implications

9.2.1 Implications for SLA Theory

9.2.2 Implications for L2 Tense-aspect Instruction

9.3 Limitations

9.4 Suggestions for Further Research

References

Appendix Ⅰ Progressive Aspect Acceptability Judgment Task(AJT)

Appendix Ⅱ Aspect Sentence Interpretation Task(ASIT)

Appendix Ⅲ Movie Clip Retell Task

Appendix Ⅳ Descriptive Statistic Data for the Figures

作者简介

List of Tables

3.1 Semantic Features of Aspectual Classes

3.2 Diagnostic Tests for Different Temporal Features of Situation

3.3 Interaction of Lexical Aspect with Grammatical Aspect

4.1 Aspect Marking Scenarios under Different Semantic-discourse Conditions

5.1 Violations of NOCOER Constraint on Different Situation Types

6.1 Grouping of Participants Based on Years of L2 English Learning and Scores on English Proficiency Test

6.2 Taxonomy and Token Numbers of the Verbs in AJT

6.3 Tokens of Telic Verbs in ASIT

6.4 Balancing Aspect, Test Statement and Filler Statement of One Passage across Arrangements of ASIT

6.5 A Summary of Instruments Developed for the Study

6.6 Coding of the Tense-aspect Forms in MCRT

7.1 Two-way ANOVAs(Repeated Measures)of Results for MCRT

7.2 Pairwise Comparisons of the Mean Differences Between Different Situation Types Marked with the Progressive Aspect(LSD)

7.3 Pairwise Comparisons of the Mean Differences Between Different Situation Types Marked with the Perfective Aspect(LSD)

7.4 Frequency Order of Perfective and Progressive Aspect Marking on Verbs of Five Situation Types by L2 Groups in MCRT

7.5 Effect of Verb Situation Type on Aspect Interpretation in ASIT

7.6 Effect of Verb Situation Type on Acceptability Judgment of Progressive Marking:Results for One-way ANOVA(Repeated Measures)

7.7 Pairwise Comparisons of Means for Five Situation Types by Each L2 Group in AJT

7.8 Effects of Proficiency Level and Situation Type of Verb on Progressive and Perfective Marking in MCRT:Results for Two-way ANOVA(Mixed Design)

7.9 Pairwise Comparisons of the Progressive and Perfective Marking on Verbs of Five Situation Types in MCRT (LSD)

7.10 Interaction Between Proficiency Level and Situation-aspect Mapping as Shown in ASIT:Results for Two-way ANOVA(Mixed Design)

7.11 Pairwise Comparisons of the Aspect Sentence Interpretations by Participants of Lower Proficiency Group and the Other Three Groups

7.12 Means and Standard Deviations of AJT by L2 Participants and Native Controls

7.13 Effects of Proficiency Level and Situation Type on Acceptability of Sentences Marked with Progressive:Results for Two-way ANOVA(Mixed Design)

7.14 Pairwise Comparisons of Mean Scores Between Low-level Group and Three Participant Groups for AJT

7.15 Aspect Marking for Two Discourse Grounding Status by Four Participant Groups in MCRT

7.16 Effects of Proficiency Level on Aspect Marking of Discourse Grounding in MCRT:Results for One-way ANOVAs

7.17 Mean Scores and Standard Deviations for Aspect Sentence Interpretation by Four Participant Groups(ASIT)

7.18 Effects of Sentence Aspect and Proficiency on Temporal Interpretation of Test Statement in ASIT:Results for Two-way ANOVA(Mixed Design)

7.19 Pairwise Comparison of the Mean Scores for Aspect Sentence Interpretation by Four Participant Groups(ASIT)

7.20 Mean Scores and Standard Deviations for Aspect Test Statement in Within-and After-text Position in ASIT

7.21 Three-way ANOVA for Test Statement Interpretation Related to Aspect,Position and Proficiency Level(ASIT)

7.22 Pairwise Comparisons of Mean Scores for Aspect Sentence Interpretation by Four Participant Groups (ASIT)

7.23 Mean Scores and Standard Deviations for Acceptability of the Progressive Marking on the Stative Verbs in AJT

7.24 ANOVA for Acceptability Judgment of Five Subtypes of Stative Verb by Four Participant Groups

7.25 Pairwise Comparisons of Mean Scores for Five Subclasses of Stative Verbs in AJT

7.26 Mean Scores and Standard Deviations for Progressive Aspect Marking on the Stative Verbs by Four Participant Groups in MCRT

7.27 Pairwise Comparisons of the Mean Scores for Progressive Aspect Marking on the Stative Verbs by Four Participant Groups in MCRT

7.28 Mean Scores and Standard Deviations for Acceptability of the Progressive Marking on Achievement Verbs in AJT by Four Participant Groups

7.29 Pairwise Comparisons of Mean Scores for Acceptability of Progressive Aspect Marking on Achievement Verbs in AJT

7.30 Mean Scores and Standard Deviations for Progressive Aspect Marking on Achievement Verbs in MCRT by Four Participant Groups

7.31 Pairwise Comparisons of Mean Scores for Progressive Aspect Marking on Achievement Verbs in MCRT

7.32 Mean Scores and Standard Deviations for Interpretation of Sentences Containing Achievement Predicates Marked with Progressive Aspect

7.33 Pairwise Comparisons of Mean Scores for Interpretation of Sentences Containing Achievement Predicates Marked with Progressive Aspect

List of Figures

3.1 A Preliminary Taxonomy of Aspect in Languages

3.2 Flowchart of Situation Type Identification Procedure

3.3 Reference of the Progressive Punctuals

3.4 The Functions of the[PROG]Operator

3.5 Semantic Referents of Progressive in Chinese and English

4.1 Mapping of Input to Output in OT Grammar

4.2 Conflicting Constraints on Aspect Marking in English

5.1 Categorical and Overlapping Ranking of Constraints along a Continuous Scale

6.1 Schematic Representation of the Acceptability Scale of AJT

6.2 Experimental Set-up and Variables in ASIT

7.1 Means of Progressive and Perfective Marking for Five Situation Types in MCRT

7.2 Probability of Interpreting Aspect Sentence as Denoting Completed Events by All Participant Groups in ASIT

7.3 Mean Scores for Acceptability of Progressive Marking in Five Situation Types by L2 Participants and the Native Controls

7.4 Mean Scores for Progressive Aspect Marking by All Participant Groups on Each Situation Type in MCRT

7.5 Mean Scores for Perfective Aspect Marking by All Participant Groups on Each Situation Type in MCRT

7.6 Interpretation of Critical Aspect Sentences by Four Participant Groups

7.7 Acceptability of Aspect Marking on Five Subclasses of Stative Verbs by Four Participant Groups

8.1 General Pattern of Constraints Re-ranking in L2 Tense-aspect Acquisition