Acquisition of English Reflexive Verb Constructions: Roles of Syntactical Indeterminacy and Token Frequency

This study draws on usage-based approach to language learning and investigates the role of syntactical indeterminacy and token frequency in constructional acquisition, for which reflexive verb constructions were selected as the testing field. Syntactic structures of reflexive verbs are either by reflexive constructions or adjectival passive, which have a polysemous interrelationship within the verb. To examine whether syntactic indeterminacy and token frequency play a role in the acquisition of reflexive verb constructions, a test of reflexive verb constructions and a baseline test formed with transitive verbs were developed and administered to L2 learners of an intermediate proficiency level. The findings show: (1) L2 reflexive verb constructions were less acquired than transitive constructions, suggesting that syntactic indeterminacy had an impact upon sentence production; (2) no significant difference was found between the productions of reflexive constructions and adjectival passives, but descriptive statistics showed that learners were attracted to the adjectival passive for production; (3) production of both syntactic structures reflected token frequency trend from COCA, indicating the important role of frequency in complex constructional acquisition.