The Role of Plausibility and Structural Information in L2 Learners’ Acceptability Judgments of English Verbs

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This study investigates the role of plausibility and structural information in L2 learners’ acceptability judgments of English sentences with verbs differing in transitivity. Results showed that both structural information and semantic plausibility significantly affected acceptability ratings. L2 learners showed a tendency to give higher ratings to sentences with NP-V-NP constructions when the verb was a transitive verb. Higher ratings were also given to sentences in which the NP following the main verb was a plausible object, or semantically associated with the subject. The results also showed an interaction between structural information and plausibility, with greater effects of plausibility for the transitive verb conditions. The current results suggest that L2 learners are sensitive to both structural and plausibility factors when judging the acceptability of English sentences. However, L2 learners with lower proficiency may rely more on plausibility information for intransitive verbs. These results are consistent with previous studies suggesting that intransitive verbs are a common source of difficulty in both acquisition and processing for L2 learners, and are also compatible with theories that claim L2 learners are more reliant on semantic/plausibility information than native speakers.

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