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Article published In: Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism
Vol. 13:4 (2023) ► pp.576–606

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Asymmetric transfer and development of temporal-aspectual sentence-final particles in English-Cantonese bilinguals’ L3 Mandarin grammars

ORCiD logo with link | University College Cork
ORCiD logo with link | Shanghai Jiao Tong University | University of Cambridge
Published online: 26 November 2021
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/lab.20116.guo
Abstract
Aiming to shed new light on the discussion on transfer at initial stages of third language (L3) acquisition and development at later stages, this article reports on an empirical study of L3 acquisition of Mandarin temporal-aspectual sentence-final particles (SFPs) le, ne and láizhe by English speaking and English-Cantonese bilingual learners, at both low and high proficiency levels. Cantonese is typologically and structurally closer to Mandarin than English is. Our findings show obvious facilitative effects on le by its Cantonese counterpart in English-Cantonese bilingual learners’ L3 Mandarin, which supports the L3 models that advocate the deterministic role of structural similarity in the transfer source selection. A transfer asymmetry is observed between the cases of le and láizhe. No transfer effects are found in the L3 Mandarin data of láizhe, even though it has an equivalent SFP in Cantonese. This discrepancy is argued to be attributable to input factors and misleading forms. Moreover, patterns observed over different proficiency levels indicate that the quality and quantity of input and the register property of a particular SFP can greatly affect initial transfer and later development of L3 acquisition.
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • 1.Main themes of current L models and influential factors involved
    • 1.1The order of acquisition vs. the structural similarity
    • 1.2What and when to transfer
    • 1.3Other factors?
  • 2.Mandarin SFPs le, ne and laizhe and the (un)availability of their counterparts in Cantonese and English
    • 2.1The SFP le
    • 2.2The SFP láizhe
    • 2.3The SFP ne
  • 3.The study
    • 3.1Participants
    • 3.2Instrument and procedure
  • 4.Results
    • 4.1Results of le
    • 4.2Results of láizhe
    • 4.3Results of ne
  • 5.Discussion
    • 5.1Transfer source selection at L early stages
    • 5.2Transfer asymmetry: The effect of input and misleading forms
    • 5.3Important factors in L development
  • 6.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
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