Not all English Resultative Constructions (ERCs) are equal: The acquisition of ERC by Spanish speakers

The English Resultative Construction (ERC) is a satellite-framed structure with no identical equivalent in Spanish. In a series of studies, we analyzed and compared recognition (acceptability judgment task) and comprehension (sentence comprehension task) of three ERC subtypes with the English Depictive Construction (EDC) (which has a Spanish counterpart) by Spanish speaker learners of English as a Foreign Language (EFL). Results showed that: 1) EDCs were better recognized than ERCs by L2 learners, but highly proficient participants were closer to English native speakers’ performance, 2) Less proficient EFLs comprehended EDCs better than those ERC subtypes that were further from Spanish (ERC Property and Fake Reflexive). We interpret our findings in terms of an interlinguistic distance gradient, where those constructions present (EDC) or closer (ERC-Path) to L1 are more readily acquired. This effect seems more prominent at lower EFL proficiencies, and fades as proficiency increases, evolving towards a more native-like pattern.

英语结果构式（English Resultative Construction，ERC）是一种卫星框架结构，在西班牙语中并无完全对等的构式。
在一系列研究中，我们针对英语作为外语（English as a Foreign Language，EFL）的西班牙语学习者，分析并比较了三类ERC子类型与英语描述构式（English Depictive Construction，EDC，该构式在西班牙语中存在对应形式）的识别（可接受性判断任务）与理解（句子理解任务）表现。
研究结果显示：1）第二语言学习者对EDC的识别表现优于ERC，但语言熟练度较高的参与者的表现更接近英语母语者的水平；2）熟练度较低的EFL学习者对EDC的理解表现优于两类与西班牙语差异较大的ERC子类型——属性型ERC与虚假反身型ERC。
我们从语际距离梯度的视角阐释本研究结果：即与母语（西班牙语）存在对应形式的EDC，或是与母语距离较近的路径型ERC（ERC-Path），更易于被学习者习得。该效应在低熟练度EFL学习者中更为显著，且随学习者熟练度提升逐渐减弱，最终趋近于母语使用者的典型表现模式。