This section is intended to provide evidence for the research question 2: Does the implicational markedness as predicted by NPAH for the resumptive pronouns
constrain the Chinese EFL learners’ interlanguage of relative clauses?
4.2.1 Sentence combination test
Table 4.7 presents the number of resumptive pronouns on sentence combination test by relative clause type and matrix position type. The rightmost column shows the total mean number of the retention of pronoun for matrix position versus matrix object position whereas the bottom row of the table demonstrates the total results of
each type of relative clauses without distinguishing between the two types of matrix positions. The graphical demonstration of the result is given in Figure 4.4. As expected, the subjects rarely supplied resumptive pronouns for SU relatives, but frequently for OCOMP relatives. However, that fact that the GEN relatives came right next to SU relatives violates the markedness relationship as implied by NPAH.
To be specific, the retention order is OCOMP> OPREP> IO> DO> GEN>SU (>means retains more pronouns than). In general, in the sentence combination test the subjects tended to supply resumptive pronoun in the order that matches the universal hierarchy as predicted by NPAH, with the exception of GEN relatives.
Table 4.7
Number of the resumptive pronouns on sentence combination test by relative clause type and Matrix position type
Relative clause type Matrix
OCOMP GEN
OPREP IO
DO SU
Mean
30
20
10
0
Figure 4.4
Mean number of the pronoun retention on sentence combination test by relative clause type and matrix position type.
4.2.2 Chinese-English translation test
As Table 4.8 displays, the order of resumptive pronoun in the Chinese-English translation test is IO> OPREP> OCOMP>GEN>DO>SU (>means retains more pronouns than). Figure 4.5 has the graphical demonstration of the results. The highest retention rate is found in IO relatives, rather than in OCOMP relatives. This result partially supports the universal hierarch predicted by NPAH, in which the order of IO and OPREP does not have support.
Table 4.8
Percentage of resumptive pronouns on Chinese-English translation test by relative clause type and Matrix position type
Relative clause type Matrix
Mean number of the pronoun retention on Chinese-English translation test by relative clause type and matrix position type.
4.2.3 Grammaticality judgment test
Due to the uniqueness of the item design in this task and the fact that there were no such cases in which pronouns were otherwise supplied for the correct sentences,
the sentences that were submitted to the examination of pronoun retention were as follows:
1. *My wife and I are really enjoying the TV set that we bought it for ourselves last week.
3. *The student who(m) Johnson is stronger than him is Ray.
5. *The professor whose his last name is Goose is excellent.
10. *Emily wrote on a topic which she knew nothing about it.
14. *People who work in the hunger program they estimate that 3500 people in the world die from starvation every day of the year.
16. *I still remember the man who he taught me to play the violin when I was a boy.
20. *The car that the man drove it was very fast.
21. *I saw the boy whose his mother is a nurse.
22. *The woman that I gave a book to her is my sister.
24. *I met a girl who(m) Mary is shorter than her.
26. *The woman who(m) I was talking about her suddenly walked into the room. I hope she didn’t hear me.
27. *The woman knows the boy who(m) Jerry gave a present to him.
In Table 4.9, the pronouns are retained in the grammaticality judgment task in the following order: DO>OCOMP/OPREP/SU>IO>GEN (>means retains more pronouns than). The graphical display of the results is provided in Figure 4.6. As is clear, this entirely contravenes the universal hierarchy as predicted by NPAH for resumptive pronoun, with the DO relative receives the highest retention rate, and SU relatives gets the same number as OPREP and OCOMP relatives.
Table 4.9
Percentage of resumptive pronouns on Grammaticality judgment test by relative clause type and Matrix position type
Relative clause type Matrix
Mean number of the pronoun retention on grammaticality judgement test by relative clause type and matrix position type.
4.2.4 Summary
Table 4.10 presents the summarization of the retention orders in the three tasks.
In comparison, the order in the sentence combination test almost fully complies with the prediction made by NPAH, while the result in the Chinese-English translation test has partial support for NAPH, and that in the grammaticality judgment test is the entire violation.
Table 4.10 The order of resumptive pronoun in the three tests Test type Order of pronoun retention
(> means retains more resumptive pronoun than) Sentence
combination test (10.7%)
OCOMP> OPREP> IO> DO> GEN>SU
Chinese-English Translation test (7.0%)
IO> OPREP> OCOMP>GEN>DO>SU
Grammaticality judgment test (44.9%)
DO> OCOMP/OPREP/SU >IO>GEN
Note: 1. the retention order by NPAH is OCOMP> GEN> OPREP> IO> DO >SU 2. > means have more pronoun retention than