Middle Verbs and Their Acquisition

Abstract

The ultimate goal of this paper is to provide an in-depth analysis of the L2 learners’ acquisition of middle constructions. One of the properties of middle constructions is that the subject of middle verbs must be a definite NP. Middle verbs can occur by revealing an intrinsic characteristic or property of the definite NP. In addition, middle verbs can only occur along with short adverbs such as well and easily. In this paper, we conduct a survey and evaluate the L2 learners’ responses to middle verbs. More specifically, we have examined how the L2 learners acquired the abstract constraint, the middle construction condition, the definite DP condition, and the adverb constraint. It is worth noting that 45% of the adult subjects acquired the definite condition, 32.5% of the L2 learners acquired the middle construction condition, 50% of the adult subjects acquired the abstract noun constraint, and 20% of the L2 learners acquired the adverb constraint. This in turn indicates that that the abstract noun constraint was first acquired by the adult subjects, followed by the definite DP condition, the middle construction condition, and the adverb constraint, in that order. With regard to middle verbs, it is significant to note that English are subject to the abstract noun constraint, the middle construction condition, the definite DP condition, and the adverb constraint, whereas Korean is not subject to the abstract noun constraint, the middle construction condition, and the definite DP condition. This in turn suggests that Korean is a superset language, compared to English. Thus, learning difficulty arises. Finally, this paper argues that unlike Chomsky’s UG hypothesis (Chomsky 1981, 1982, 2019a, 2019b), the L2 learners looked for similarities between L1 and L2 and thus relied on their L1.