Abstract—In this study, 262 Chinese-speaking English
learners have been randomly sampled as subjects by stratified
sampling in terms of their natural groups (i.e., schools, majors
or grades) to demonstrate their transformation of dative
wh-question into relative clause construction. Based on the
acquisition data collected, the conclusive implication is
predictably analogous to that of dative wh-question alternation.
To elaborate, the marked PS occurs before its unmarked
counterpart PPP, which is obviously incompatible with the
markedness hypothesis, however, conforming to the
syntactically termed economy principle adopted generally to
account for an otherwise unexplained phenomenon from a
markedness perspective. As far as the structure of the items is
concerned, learners tend to take No-prep. strategy (omitting the
preposition at all) corresponding to the stimulus sentences
categorized under certain type. Thus, the acquisitional sequence
in real time is: PS < No-Prep. < PPP. Chi-square test suggests
that the difference between the acquisitional sequence and
English proficiency level of subjects is significant, so is the
difference between the acquisitional sequence and the structure
of the stimulus sentences. Furthermore, PPP shares a higher
percentage in relative clauses than that in wh-questions, which
is accounted for as the influence of topic-command structure, a
usual sentence type in Chinese defined as the topic-prominent
language. Besides, the markedness status of who and whom also
exerts its influence on the acquisitional sequence, which
provides the prerequisite for the construction of the processing
acquiring mechanism hypothesis. It is suggested in conclusion
that items may as well be inputted in the form of routines,
rather patterns.
Index Terms—Markedness theory, preposition pied piping,
processing acquiring mechanism hypothesis, topic-command
structure.
Jianhong Yang is with Tianjin University, Renai College, Tianjin, CO
301636 China (e-mail: tianjinjianhongyang@hotmail.com).
Cite: Jianhong Yang, "Transfer Explanation of Markedness to Learning Difficulty of Preposition Pied Piping in Dative Relative Clause Construction," International Journal of Information and Education Technology vol. 8, no. 11, pp. 779-785, 2018.