Noun Animacy Constraints on English Sentence Completion by Taiwanese English Learners

名詞動物性對台灣英語學習者完成英語句子的影響

10.7084/LIS.201012.0025

楊碧藍(Pi-Lan Yang)；石素錦(Su-Ching Shih)

名詞動物性線索 ； 完成句子的任務 ； 主動詞 ； 省略關係子句動詞 ； noun animacy cue ； sentence completion task ； MV ； RRC

語文與國際研究

7期（2010 / 12 / 01）

25 - 42

英文

透過不同的任務，相關研究顯示名詞動物性線索在句子處理上扮演重要角色。極少研究利用完成句子的任務來探究此一線索。在完成句子的任務裡，受試者必須先詮釋瞭解已提供的片斷字詞，然後才能寫出句子。藉由完成句子的任務，本文試圖對名詞動物性線索，在三十一位台灣英語系學生完成帶有主動詞／省略關係子句動詞的花園路徑句子的主要關鍵模糊片段時，所扮演的角色，能有進一步的瞭解。研究結果顯示名詞動物性線索的確影響或侷限了完成句子的過程。然而，這些來自名詞動物性的侷限卻也象徵了對最少附著策略的偏愛。這些發現說明了英語課程中清楚的教學和重覆的解釋，可能加速地培養出學生對名詞動物性所透露出的角色訊息和句子結構之間的關係的敏銳度。

Through different tasks, relevant studies showed that noun animacy cue plays an important role in sentence processing. Very few studies explored the cue in sentence completion task in which the process of producing sentences is based on the process of comprehending the sequential words provided. Using a sentence completion task, the present study aimed to increase current understanding of the role of noun animacy cue in the completion of noun/verb sequences, which are the ambiguous parts of main verb (MV) versus reduced relative clause (RRC) ambiguities, as sentences with MV and/or RRC readings by 31 English-major freshmen in Taiwan. Chi-Square tests and ANOVA results showed that noun animacy cue did influence or constrain such completion. The noun animacy constraints, however, signaled the preference for the minimal attachment strategy. The finding is argued to indicate that the development of optimal sensitivity to the relationship between thematic role information and syntactic structure might be accelerated by explicit instruction and repeated explanation in English language classroom.

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1. Yang, Pi-Lan(2015).Referential Constraints on L2 Processing of MV/RRC Ambiguities.英語教學期刊,39(2),121-150.