Is Missing Prepositions in English Relative Clauses due to Insensitivity to Transitivity?

Abstract

The study aims at providing empirical evidence on the phenomenon of missing prepositions in relative clauses in connection with L2 learners' sensitivity to transitivity of English verbs and support the constructionism view based on the Minimalist Program (MP) notion. The results from both productive and receptive data obtained from 89 Korean EFL college learners yielded three main findings. First, sensitivity to transitivity develops differently according to productive-receptive modes and transitive-intransitive verb types. The overall accuracy concerning transitive verbs was much higher in the productive task, but as far as intransitive verbs go, the opposite results were observed; the accuracy of the receptive task was higher. Due to the different morpholexical features between L1 and L2, the participants have more difficulty in producing prepositions after intransitive verbs than in receiving them. Second, the degree of frequent exposure to L2 verbs is related to intransitive verbs in the receptive task and with transitive verbs in the productive task. Finally, lack of prepositions in the productive task was distinctive in all groups although their accuracy was higher in the receptive task. As for these inconsistent results, the constructionism view offers an articulated explanation for L2 developmental relationship between syntax and morpholexicon