The present study investigates the acquisition of the English double object constructions (GOLDBERG, 1995) by Brazilian learners. We hypothesize that, due to first language (L1) influences, the prepositional ditransitive construction (John gave a book to Mary) will be acquired earlier, while the ditransitive construction (John gave Mary a book) will be part of the learner's interlanguages (SELINKER, 1972) only at the advanced level of proficiency. We also hypothesize that learners may transfer (ODLIN, 1989) the placement of the object pronoun in pre-verbal position from their L1 to their interlanguage in early stages of acquisition (João me deu um livro / *John me gave a book). We test our hypotheses by comparing the performance of three groups of learners (beginning, intermediate, and advanced) and native speakers of English on an acceptability judgment task used as a measure of learnability and generalization. Results confirm the order of acquisition of the English double object constructions predicted for native speakers of Brazilian Portuguese. Moreover, results suggest that, although mother tongue influences may have taken place, they do not do so pervasively, but rather selectively, corroborating the proposal by Kellerman (1983).• KEYWORD: Cross-linguistic influence. Selective transfer. Double object constructions.Bilingualism.
introductionThe linguistic realizations of predicators -especially as expressed by verbs -and the arguments that accompany them to saturate a semantic configuration are taken as a central element of knowledge of language in several theoretical frameworks, such as Chomsky (
Environmental issues have been at the center of society's concerns for a long time. Recently, this kind of concern is growing even more due to the damage caused to the environment by electrical and electronic product waste. Based on this same concern, this work aimed to analyze, through a literature review, the production and treatment of electronic waste in today's world, with an emphasis on Brazil and China. The articles reviewed point to an increase in the production of this type of waste, in both Brazil and China, and reveal that the current processes of treatment of electronic waste mostly aim to obtain profit through the recovery of precious metals such as copper. This paper concluded that although Brazil is one of the major producers of e-waste, more than 90% of its e-waste has not had a proper final destination. This deficiency in e-waste treatment in Brazil is mainly due to financial factors and the lack of a robust educational policy focused on the environment. Thus, this work suggests the implementation of an effective educational policy aimed at environmental conservation, as well as investments in research on recycling methods in Brazil, especially on the use of e-waste as an aggregate in the manufacture of concrete.
RESUMO
Este estudo investigou a sensibilidade de aprendizes brasileiros de inglês aos seguintes fatores que influenciam a alternância dativa do inglês: pronominalidade, animacidade, acessibilidade discursiva e extensão dos argumentos recipiente e tema. Utilizando a metodologia da Linguística de Corpus (MCENERY & HARDIE 2012), nossa investigação baseou-se na análise de produções escritas e orais de falantes de inglês/L1 e da interlíngua português/ inglês extraídas de 4 corpora. Os resultados obtidos por meio dessa análise indicam que brasileiros aprendizes de inglês de níveis intermediário e avançado são capazes não somente de adquirir as construções dativas do inglês, mas também de selecioná-las em seus contextos preferenciais de uso.
ABSTRACTThis study has investigated Brazilian English learners' sensitivity to the following factors that influence the dative alternation in English: pronominality, animacity, discursive accessibility
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