剑桥大学袁博平教授学术讲座通知

剑桥大学袁博平教授学术讲座通知

时间：2015年3月20日下午1点

地点： 外语学院215会议室

题目：The effect of computational complexity on L1 transfer: evidence from L2 Chinese attitude-bearing wh-questions

摘要：

This talk reports on an empirical study of attitude-bearing wh-questions in English speakers’ second language (L2) Chinese. Although English and Chinese wh-questions are different in that the wh-word in the former moves to the sentence initial position while that in the latter stays in situ, the two languages share some characteristics in their attitude-bearing wh-questions. It is widely assumed in L2 research that first language (L1) structures similar to or the same as those in the target language can facilitate the course of L2 acquisition but L1 structures which are different from the target language interfere with successful L2 acquisition. However, the findings in this study show that wh-movement in English wh-questions is not transferred into their L2 Chinese and that the similarities between English and Chinese have very limited facilitating functions in English speakers’ handling of Chinese attitude-bearing wh-questions. The findings here support Yuan’s (2001) 

argument that L1 transfer is a relative phenomenon in L2 acquisition and can be accounted for on the basis of Prévost et al.’s (2014) analysis that computation complexity can override L1 influence.

袁博平教授简介：

英籍华人，国际知名语言学专家。1954年生于青岛，1978年考入烟台师范学院（鲁东大学前身），1988年赴英留学，1993年获英国爱丁堡大学博士学位，同年受聘于英国剑桥大学，任剑桥大学丘吉尔学院院士、博士生导师、学术督导。同时，他还担任SSCI 收录的Second Language Research和International Review of Applied Linguistics等国际期刊以及《世界汉语教学》《外语教学与研究》《现代外语》等国内期刊的编委，以及世界汉语教学学会副会长、常务理事等职。

     袁博平教授的主要研究领域为汉语二语习得，在SSCI收录的国际顶级期刊上发表论文20余篇，近五年发表的主要SSCI论文如下：

Yuan B (2014) “Wh-on-earth” in Chinese Speakers’ L2 English: Evidence of Dormant Features. Second Language Research 30: 515-549.

Yuan, B. (2013) “Is Chinese ‘daodi’ ‘the hell’ in English speakers’ L2 acquisition of Chinese daodi … wh … questions? Effects and recoverability of L1 transfer at L2 interfaces”. International Journal of Bilingualism, 17, 403-430.

Yuan, B. and Dugarova, E. (2012) “Wh-topicalization at the syntax-discourse interface in English speakers’ L2 Chinese grammars”. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 34, 533-560.

Yuan, B. and Zhao, Y. (2011) “Asymmetrical syntactic and thematic reconfigurations in English speakers’ L2 Chinese resultative compound constructions”. International Journal of Bilingualism, 15: 38-55.

Yuan, B. (2010) “Domain-wide or variable-dependent vulnerability of the semantics-syntax interface in L2 acquisition? Evidence from wh-words used as existential polarity words in L2 Chinese grammars”. Second Language Research, 26: 219-260.