Julia Lavid & Jorge Arús Hita

Department of Filología Inglesa, Universidad Complutense de Madrid

Teaching Transitivity to Second Language Learners: a Systemic-Functional Perspective

This paper focuses on the teaching of one area of the lexicogrammar in the context of second language learning. Our proposal is based on a systemic-functional account which emphasises the paradigmatic transitive / ergative distinction as fundamental for an accurate contrastive description of transitivity in English and Spanish (Lavid and Arús 2002/2003, 1998a, 1998b; Arús 2003; Arús and Lavid 2001). More specifically, the current paper concentrates on the subgroup of mental processes, since they nicely illustrate how semantically related processes behave differently in both languages: while mental processes are practically all transitive in English, in Spanish the same processes are ergative. In addition, both languages also differ in the coselection of options within the systems of SENSING-TYPE and PHENOMENALIZATION, where we enter the realm of the distinction indicative/subjunctive, much more overtly preserved in Spanish than in English. The paper shows how the proposed systemic-functional account can be used to develop literacy in second language learners. This can be achieved by focusing on the contextualized use of linguistic resources, particularly those areas in which the learners´ mother tongue and the second language contrast the most.

References:

Arús, J.(2003): Hacia una especificación computacional de la transitividad en español: estudio contrastivo con el inglés. Ph. D. dissertation, Universidad Complutense de Madrid.

Arús, J. and Lavid, J. (2001): “The grammar of relational processes in English and Spanish: Implications for machine translation and multilingual generation”. Estudios Ingleses de la Universidad Complutense 9: 61-79.

Lavid, J. and Arús, J. (2002/2003): “Nuclear transitivity in English and Spanish: a contrastive functional study”. Languages in Contrast 4:(1), Special Issue on Functional Linguistics and Contrastive Description, 75-103.

Lavid, J. and Arús, J. (1998a): “Exploring Transitivity / Ergativity in English and

Spanish: Empirical and Computational Findings”. In Transitivity Revisited, M. Martínez (ed.). Publicaciones de la Universidad de Huelva, 259-275.

Lavid, J. and Arús, J. (1998b): “Aspectos lingüísticos y computacionales de la transitividad mental en inglés y en español."" Paper presented at the 18th Symposium of the Spanish Linguistic Society, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Madrid, December 1998.