華語為第二語言習得者之抽象句法表徵發展之探究：來自不同語言熟練度學習者句法激發之產出的證據

Development of the Abstraction of Second Language Learners’ Syntactic Representation: Evidence from Structural Priming in Different Levels of Proficiency

本文旨在運用漢語中主動賓句以及把字句之間的轉換所產生的句法激發探究不同熟練程度之華語作為第二語言學習者之抽象句法表徵的發展並且運用所得之結果，探討適宜解釋此發展之語言產出以及習得之理論。運用漢語的「把」字句於世界語言中的特殊性來探究此議題，可以消弭先前研究使用不當之結構所產生之疑慮，較得以窺得第二語言學習者句法發展之全貌。實驗所得結果支持句法激發為學習的語言產出理論以及使用者為基的語言習得理論。

This study attempts to investigate the development of abstraction of syntax among adult Mandarin second language learners (hereafter L2ers) at different levels of proficiency with the Mandarin SVO-ba alternation using structural priming. The Mandarin ba-construction does not exist in L2ers’ first language (L1). Strong L1 positive and negative transfer of word order upon structural priming obscures the chance to articulate how L2ers develop abstraction of syntax with changes in language proficiency. However, results indicate that structural priming co-varies with L2ers’ levels of proficiency. Mandarin L2ers of intermediate proficiency or above exhibit structural priming whereas elementary L2ers do not. The results lend support to usage-based linguistics and an extended structural-priming-as-learning account. L2ers learned to develop a syntactic abstraction of the ba-construction through the accumulation of exemplars from input. Therefore, the learning mechanism acts on a learner’s developed abstract representation of syntax to self-adapt in response to input, yielding structural priming.