Volume 7-4 August 2011.

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Title
 The Acquisition of English Locative Constructions By Persian Speakers: Syntax-Semantic Interface

Authors

Mohammad Javad Rezai (Ph.D.)
Yazd University, Yazd, Iran
                                            
Saeedeh Avand (M.A.)
Yazd University, Yazd, Iran

Bio data

Dr. Mohammad Javad Rezai assistant professor of applied linguistics at Yazd University, Yazd, Iran. He has published articles on various topics in Applied Linguistics and Acquisition in some international journals. He has also presented papers in national and international conferences. His research interest includes second language acquisition, psycholinguistics and language testing.

Saeedeh Avand holds an M.A. in TEFL from Yazd University, Yazd, Iran. She works as a trainer in Medical College, Fasa, Fars, Iran. Her research interest includes second language acquisition and psycholinguistics.

Abstract
The present research aimed at investigating the acquisition of English locative verbs by Persian speakers and its relationship to theories of language acquisition regarding the role of proficiency. In English there are four kinds of locative constructions namely non-alternating figure and ground verb and alternating figure and ground verbs. In Persian, just the non-alternating forms are existent. 60 intermediate and advanced subjects completed three tasks, namely forced-choice picture selection, production and grammaticality judgment task. The results of the production and grammaticality judgment tasks showed that both groups of learners tended in producing one structure and judging one form as acceptable for alternating verbs. We interpret this as indicator of not achieving native-like knowledge of the narrow classes. On the other hand, in force-choice picture selection task when presented with a ground-object structure, both groups of learners preferentially chose a ground-holism picture. We interpret this as a reflection of the knowledge of holism effect. In sum, the overall results indicated that the acquisition of argument structure can cause learnability problems in narrow-range constraints even in higher levels.
      
Keywords: Locative verbs, Broad-range rules, Narrow-range rules, Object holism   effect