Overpassivization and Overcausativization: Was It Happened Because Someone Happened It?

초록

In an attempt to explore the source of overpassivization with unaccusative verbs, this study investigated the relationship between overpassive and overcausative errors of L2 learners of English. A total of 101 Korean college EFL learners participated in this study. Data were collected via a picture-based written production task and an acceptability judgment task. The learner responses were classified into the four patterns: a) accept/produce both a passive and a causative, b) accept/produce a passive but not a causative, c) accept/produce a causative but not a passive, and d) accept/produce neither a passive nor a causative. Overall, there were more learners who showed the pattern a) than those who showed the pattern b). However, there was a wide variation in the distribution of the patterns among verbs. While the pattern a) was dominant in less acquired verbs, various patterns were observed in verbs which were relatively well-known to the learners. This indicates that input and instruction may have played a role in L2 learners’ overpassive and causative errors. The results of the present study are in support of the Causativization Hypothesis which considers overcaustivization of unaccusative verbs a source of overpassivization, with the proviso that the more frequently L2 learners are exposed to input or instruction, the less tight the tie comes between overpassives and causatives.

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