The acquisition of the Chinese 被 bèi passive construction by L1 Italian learners

This study investigates the L2 acquisition of the Chinese 被 bèi passive construction (BPC) by L1 Italian learners, focusing on four challenging features: the acceptability of the post-verbal patient, the unacceptability of the post-verbal agent, and the incompatibility with stative and creation verbs. Learners’ knowledge was examined through triangulating acceptability judgment tests and verbal reports. Participants included 108 L1 Italian learners and 33 native Chinese speakers as a baseline. Results show that learners are familiar with BPC but lack explicit and metalinguistic knowledge of the investigated features. Compared to native speakers, they struggle to understand the dislocation of the direct patient when there is an indirect patient in topic position, the unacceptability of post-verbal agents, and verb-type restrictions. Structural mismatches between the Chinese BPC and the Italian passive likely contribute to learners’ difficulties in grasping the construction, alongside other interacting factors such as variability in L2 input and instructional shortcomings.

本研究探讨了以意大利语为母语的学习者在习得汉语“被”字被动句（BPC）过程中的二语习得情况，重点分析四个具有挑战性的特征：动词后受事的可接受性、动词后施事的不接受性，以及与状态类动词和创造类动词的不兼容性。通过可接受性判断测试与回顾性访谈相结合的三角测量方法，对学习者的相关知识进行了考察。参与者包括108名以意大利语为母语的学习者和33名以汉语为母语的对照组成员。研究结果表明，尽管学习者对“被”字句有所了解，但在所考察特征上缺乏明确的语言知识和元语言意识。与母语者相比，学习者难以理解在话题位置已有间接受事的情况下直接受事后置的合法性、动词后施事的不接受性以及动词类型的限制。这些问题可能与汉语“被”字句与意大利语被动结构之间的结构差异有关，同时也受到二语输入的多样性与教学缺失等多种交互因素的影响。