How Italian learners acquire the Chinese bèi passive construction

What is it about?

This study looks at how Italian speakers learn the Chinese bèi passive, a type of sentence that can be tricky for learners. We focused on four challenging aspects: the acceptability of objects in post-verbal position, the unacceptability of the agent after the verb, and the incompatibility with two types of verbs, i.e., stative and creation verbs. To understand learners’ knowledge, we combined judgment tests and verbal reports, studying 108 Italian learners and 33 native Chinese speakers for comparison. The results show that while learners are generally familiar with the bèi passive, they struggle with certain word orders and verb restrictions, and they lack detailed knowledge of these rules. Differences between Chinese and Italian passives, along with limited input and teaching, help explain these difficulties.

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Why is it important?

This study combines experimental tests with verbal reports to give a detailed picture of how Italian learners acquire the Chinese bèi passive, a construction that differs in important ways from Italian passives. By identifying the specific challenges learners face, such as word order and verb restrictions, this work highlights the influence of structural differences between languages on second language acquisition. These findings can help teachers design more effective instruction and provide insights for future research on learning difficult grammatical constructions.

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