Proceedings of the 2022 3rd International Conference on Language, Art and Cultural Exchange(ICLACE 2022)

The Effects of Two Usages and Animacy on the Acquisition of Ergative Verbs by Chinese University Learners of English

Authors
Yuxuan Chen
School of literature, Journalism and Communication, Qingdao University, Qingdao, Shandong, 266071, China
*Yuxuan Chen. 2018201873@qdu.edu.cn
Corresponding Author
Yuxuan Chen
Available Online 14 July 2022.
DOI
10.2991/assehr.k.220706.037How to use a DOI?
Keywords
ergative verbs; usages; animacy of subjects
Abstract

Given that there are ergative verbs in both Chinese (L1) and English (L2), Chinese learners of English (CLE) can easily master both transitive and intransitive usages of English ergative verbs as long as the L1 positive transfer occurs. This research aims to explore what and how factors influenced the accuracy of English ergative verbs tested by Chinese university learners of English with quantitative methods. One hundred intermediate level Chinese university learners of English were selected to test the usage of 15 ergative verbs in a grammatical judgement test (GJT). After paired t test and a two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) analysis, the results reflected that there are two factors (usages of ergative verbs and animacy of subjects) influenced the participants’ accuracy of tested English ergative verbs. To be more specific, first, sentences of intransitive usages are harder to judge correctly than those of transitive ones. Second, sentences including inanimate subjects are more problematic to judge grammatically than those containing animate subjects. Third, the participants found it most challenging to correctly judge sentences with inanimate subjects in intransitive usages.

Copyright
© 2022 The Authors. Published by Atlantis Press SARL.
Open Access
This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC 4.0 license.

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Volume Title
Proceedings of the 2022 3rd International Conference on Language, Art and Cultural Exchange(ICLACE 2022)
Series
Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research
Publication Date
14 July 2022
ISBN
10.2991/assehr.k.220706.037
ISSN
2352-5398
DOI
10.2991/assehr.k.220706.037How to use a DOI?
Copyright
© 2022 The Authors. Published by Atlantis Press SARL.
Open Access
This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC 4.0 license.

Cite this article

TY  - CONF
AU  - Yuxuan Chen
PY  - 2022
DA  - 2022/07/14
TI  - The Effects of Two Usages and Animacy on the Acquisition of Ergative Verbs by Chinese University Learners of English
BT  - Proceedings of the 2022 3rd International Conference on Language, Art and Cultural Exchange(ICLACE 2022)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 180
EP  - 186
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/assehr.k.220706.037
DO  - 10.2991/assehr.k.220706.037
ID  - Chen2022
ER  -