The role of the acquisition of the narrow range rules in distinguishing between alternating English verb classes and non-alternating

Abstract EN

The current paper provides an empirical investigation of the acquisition of narrow range rules governing the English dative alternation by Arab learners at three different proficiency levels : pre-intermediate, upper-intermediate and advanced.

the investigation was run to examine the fundamental difference hypothesis and the full transfer/full access hypothesis.

it adopted four of pinker's narrow range verb classes : tell, whisper, throw and push, each verb class was represented by four verbs in both structure the prepositional dative (PD) and the double object dative (DOD) followed by three-point likret scale, for the participants to rate.

it was found that advanced and upper-intermediate learners dealt with the DOD structure with tell verbs class similarly to the native speakers whereas the rating of pre-intermediate learners towards the DOD structure with throw verbs showed a significant disparity compared to the rating of the native speakers.

another important finding was that the participants were capable to differentiate appropriately between these classes of verbs.

therefore, it might be assumed that the current findings seem to be consistent with the concept of the full transfer/full access hypothesis.