Multiple Constraints on Second Language Processing of English Dative Alternation

ABSTRACT The present study investigates the multiple constraints on the processing of English dative alternation by Chinese EFL (English as a Foreign Language) learners. The intermediate and advanced learners completed an acceptability judgment task which was composed of 30 dative alternations selected from a spoken corpus. The results showed that the intermediate learners were constrained by only one predictor (pronominality of Recipient), whereas the advanced learners were constrained by eight predictors, including animacy of Recipient, syntactic complexity, pronominality of Theme, pronominality of Recipient, person of Recipient, number of Theme, concreteness of Theme as well as preemption. The results demonstrated that the advanced learners were sensitive to multiple constraints when they processed the dative alternation, but the intermediate learners were not. Our findings imply that L2 learners’ sensitivity toward multiple constraints increased as their L2 proficiency improved.