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Article published In: Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism
Vol. 11:3 (2021) ► pp.368–388

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The influence of first language at the semantics–pragmatic interface

Evidence from definite and demonstrative determiners in L2 English

 | Fudan University
Published online: 20 February 2020
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https://doi.org/10.1075/lab.18096.zha
Abstract
Definite and demonstrative determiners in English share the same central semantics of uniqueness (e.g., Hawkins, J. (1991). On (in)definite articles: Implicatures and (un)grammaticality prediction. Journal of Linguistics, 271, 405–442. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar; Ionin, T., Baek, S., Kim, E., Ko, H., & Wexler, K. (2012). That’s not so different from the: Definite and demonstrative descriptions in second language acquisition. Second Language Research, 28(1), 69–101. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar; Wolter, L. K. (2006). That’s that: The semantics and pragmatics of demonstrative noun phrases. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of California at Santa Cruz, CA, USA.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar), but the computation of the semantics is constrained by different discourse conditions and determined by pragmatic knowledge, which pertains to the interface between semantics and pragmatics. This paper investigates whether L2 learners may have persistent difficulty in acquiring properties involving the semantics-pragmatics interface, by exploring the acquisition of L2 English definite and demonstrative determiners by advanced and near-native L1 Chinese learners of English. It also examines whether acquisition results are influenced by the learners’ L1 Chinese, which lacks an article system but allows demonstrative determiners. The results from a forced-choice written task show that advanced learners were unable to distinguish between the two determiners in different discourse conditions; near-native-level L1 Chinese learners displayed a native-like preference for the definite determiner, but not for the demonstrative determiner. It is argued that convergence at the semantics-pragmatics interface is not impossible for L2 learners, but (un)acquirability may be constrained by asymmetries in the L1–L2 realizations of semantics-pragmatics mappings. The findings raise interesting questions for future research into factors that can influence the acquisition of external interfaces.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Definite and demonstrative determiners in English and Chinese
    • 2.1Definite and demonstrative determiners in English
    • 2.2Definite and demonstrative determiners in Chinese
  • 3.Previous L2 studies on articles
    • 3.1The Interface Hypothesis and the acquisition of articles
    • 3.2Studies of L2 acquisition of the distinctions between definite and demonstrative determiners in English
  • 4.Current study
    • 4.1Research questions
    • 4.2Experiment 1
      • 4.2.1Participants
      • 4.2.2Instrument and materials
      • 4.2.3Results
    • 4.3Experiment 2
      • 4.3.1Participants
      • 4.3.2Materials
      • 4.3.3Results
  • 5.Discussion
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
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