Edited by Robert Bayley, Dennis R. Preston and Xiaoshi Li
Variationist work in Second Language Acquisition (SLA) began in the mid 1970s and steadily progressed during the 1980s. Much of it was reviewed along with newer approaches in Bayley and Preston 1996 (B&P), heavily devoted to VARBRUL analyses that exposed the variability in developing interlanguages… read more
This paper compares the acquisition of subject pronoun expression in written Spanish by first-language (L1) speakers of English learning Spanish as a second language and L1 speakers of Chinese learning Spanish as a third language. A mixed-effects regression indicated that learners’ choices… read more
The most widely studied aspect marker in Chinese is ‑le. In addition to functioning as a perfective aspect marker to indicate action completion, it can also serve as a sentence final particle to indicate a currently relevant state. It is obligatory in some situations but optional in others. And,… read more
le is the mostly widely studied aspect marker in Chinese. In addition to perfective aspect marker to indicate action completion, le can also serve as a sentence-final particle to indicate a currently relevant state. This study investigates how Chinese native speakers use le in oral… read more
With the rise of exemplar theory, the role of lexical frequency in language variation has been the object of considerable study. Recently, Erker and Guy (2012) extended the analysis of frequency to morphosyntactic variation and examined the role of frequency in variation between null and overt… read more
This study examines stylistic variation patterns in L1 and L2 Chinese, focusing on two linguistic structures: morphosyntactic particle DE and subject pronoun. The data were from thirteen native speakers, four Chinese instructors, twenty-three L2 Chinese learners, and four Chinese textbooks.… read more
