Abstract This study presents data from an experiment on the interpretation of thematic and non-thematic verbs in second language (L2) English by three groups of adult native Chinese speakers and a group of native English speakers. English allows non-thematic verbs to raise but requires thematic verbs to remain in-situ. In contrast, neither thematic nor non-thematic verbs are allowed to raise in Chinese. The results indicate that there is a discrepancy between native and non-native mental representations of the grammars concerned; whereas native grammars require English thematic verbs to remain in-situ but allow non-thematic verbs to raise, neither thematic nor non-thematic verbs are allowed to raise in learners L2 English grammars. Results of the study argue against the Valueless Features Hypothesis (Eubank 1993/94. On the transfer of parametric values in L2 development. Language Acquisition 3. 183–208, 1994. Optionality and the initial state in L2 development. In T. Hoekstra & B. Schwartz (eds), Language acquisition studies in generative grammar: Papers in Honour of Kenneth Wexler from the 1991 GLOW Workshop, 369–388. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 1996. Negation in early German-English interlanguage: More valueless features in the L2 initial state. Second Language Research 12. 73–106.), which posits that the L1 syntactic features of INFL are initially inert and are not transferred. Instead, the results support the Interpretability Hypothesis (Tsimpli and Dimitrakopoulou 2007. The interpretability hypothesis: Evidence from wh-interrogatives in second language acquisition. Second Language Research 23. 215–242.), which argues for the inaccessibility of uninterpretable syntactic features beyond a critical period. In particular, it is argued that uninterpretable syntactic features not selected during early stages of primary language acquisition become inaccessible in subsequent language acquisition. The results suggest that there may be cases where apparent target-like performance conceals non-target-like underlying competence.

中文翻译：

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解释二语英语中主位和非主位动词的不对称解释

摘要 本研究展示了三组以中文为母语的成人和一组以英语为母语的成人对第二语言 (L2) 英语中主位和非主位动词的解释实验数据。英语允许非主题动词上升，但要求主题动词保持原位。相比之下，主位动词和非主位动词在汉语中都不允许出现。结果表明，相关语法的母语和非母语心理表征之间存在差异；母语语法要求英语主位动词保持原位，但允许非主位动词上升，而在学习者二语英语语法中，主位动词和非主位动词都不允许上升。研究结果反对无价值特征假设（Eubank 1993/94。关于 L2 开发中参数值的传递。Language Acquisition 3. 183-208, 1994. L2 开发中的可选性和初始状态。在 T. Hoekstra 和 B. Schwartz（编辑），生成语法中的语言习得研究：1991 年 GLOW 研讨会上纪念 Kenneth Wexler 的论文，369-388。阿姆斯特丹：John Benjamins，1996 年。早期德英中介语中的否定：L2 初始状态中更无价值的特征。Second Language Research 12. 73–106.)，它假定 INFL 的 L1 句法特征最初是惰性的，不会转移。相反，结果支持可解释性假设（Tsimpli 和 Dimitrakopoulou 2007。可解释性假设：证据来自第二语言习得中的 wh-疑问句。第二语言研究 23. 215-242.），这证明了在关键时期之后无法解释的句法特征是不可访问的。特别是，有人认为，在初级语言习得的早期阶段没有选择的无法解释的句法特征在随后的语言习得中变得难以接近。结果表明，可能存在明显的类似目标的表现掩盖了非类似目标的潜在能力的情况。