L2 Learners’ Awareness of Transitivity Bias of English Lexical Verbs: A Corpus-based Comparative Study
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Verb biases have received significant attention in the field of psycholinguistics due to their important role in sentence processing and as facilitators in comprehension. Thjs study seeks to identify advanced L2 learners’ awareness of the transitivity bias of English lexical verbs in L2 English essays produced by-bidding 202 Korean university students. The study compares corresponding data from a corpus of native students. In addition to investigating the usage frequency of lexical verbs and conducting a transitivity error analysis, the distributions of three types of verbs by different transitivity biases- high-transitive (HT), mid-transitive (MT), and no-transitive (NT) verbs-, were examined qualitatively as well as quantitatively. The results revealed similar distributions of frequent lexical verbs and verb types by transitivity bias with a significantly higher frequency of HT across the two corpora, despite some minor variables between them. The usage patterns of the three verb types in transitive constructions were similar between L2 learners and native college students. Second, Korean learners’ incorrect use of transitivity bias accounted for 2.21% of all errors, with 12 errors for the NT category and 6 errors for the HT category. However, no errors were observed in the top 50 most frequent verbs. These results verify that the more frequently L2 verbs are used, the higher sensitivity to transitivity learners obtain; this confirms the prediction derived from the Entrenchment Hypothesis. The study also showed that L2 learners have an awareness of obligatory prepositions in intransitive constructions despite having difficulty in realizing a specific preposition in production. From a developmental perspective, greater opportunities of exposure to negative as well as positive evidence of less frequently used verbs need to be provided for advanced L2 learners to reinforce their awareness of the transitivity bias.
Abstract
Verb biases have received significant attention in the field of psycholinguistics due to their important role in sentence processing and as facilitators in comprehension. Thjs study seeks to identify advanced L2 learners’ awareness of the transitivity bias of English lexical verbs in L2 English essays produced by-bidding 202 Korean university students. The study compares corresponding data from a corpus of native students. In addition to investigating the usage frequency of lexical verbs and conducting a transitivity error analysis, the distributions of three types of verbs by different transitivity biases- high-transitive (HT), mid-transitive (MT), and no-transitive (NT) verbs-, were examined qualitatively as well as quantitatively. The results revealed similar distributions of frequent lexical verbs and verb types by transitivity bias with a significantly higher frequency of HT across the two corpora, despite some minor variables between them. The usage patterns of the three verb types in transitive constructions were similar between L2 learners and native college students. Second, Korean learners’ incorrect use of transitivity bias accounted for 2.21% of all errors, with 12 errors for the NT category and 6 errors for the HT category. However, no errors were observed in the top 50 most frequent verbs. These results verify that the more frequently L2 verbs are used, the higher sensitivity to transitivity learners obtain; this confirms the prediction derived from the Entrenchment Hypothesis. The study also showed that L2 learners have an awareness of obligatory prepositions in intransitive constructions despite having difficulty in realizing a specific preposition in production. From a developmental perspective, greater opportunities of exposure to negative as well as positive evidence of less frequently used verbs need to be provided for advanced L2 learners to reinforce their awareness of the transitivity bias.
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