Cover not available

In:Multilingual Acquisition and Learning: An ecosystemic view to diversity
Edited by Elena Babatsouli
[Studies in Bilingualism 67] 2024
► pp. 529–555

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload Book PDF
EPUB logo with download linkDownload Book EPUB
authorization required

Chapter 20
On the nature of operators in the grammar of L1 Chinese learners of L2 Japanese

 | Osaka University
 | Chukyo University
 | Waseda University
 | Miyagi Gakuin Women’s University
Published online: 30 May 2024
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/sibil.67.20miy
Abstract
Under the current generative framework (Chomsky, 1993, 1995), this paper examined the acquisition of wh-questions and conditional sentences in the L2 Japanese grammar of L1 Chinese learners, focusing on whether properties of wh-phrases divergent across languages can be acquired in L2. We used an acceptability judgement task and conducted the experiment online. Theoretically, the study investigated the acquisition of operator-variable chains in their grammar. The results showed that their L2 Japanese grammar is a mixture of L1 Chinese and L2 Japanese. This apparent inconsistency most likely results from the way that operators are fully construed with all the necessary features in place: Chinese operators are formed in the lexicon, while Japanese ones are construed in core syntax (Saito, 2017, 2021). The current finding is taken as support for the Feature Reassembly Hypothesis (Lardiere, 2008, 2009), which states that L2 learners reassemble L1 features in order to construct L2 grammar.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Theoretical background
  • 3.Previous research on wh-movement in L2 acquisition
    • 3.1Towards explaining the L2 development
    • 3.2Recent feature-based proposals on L2 acquisition models
    • 3.3Previous proposal on wh-movement in L2 Japanese grammar of L1 Chinese learners
    • 3.4Recent feature-based proposal on wh-movement in L2 English grammar of L1 Chinese learners
    • 3.5Research questions
  • 4.Experiment
    • 4.1Participants
    • 4.2Test materials and procedure
  • 4.3Data analysis and results
    • 4.4Wh-questions
    • 4.5Conditional sentences
    • 4.6Additional analysis
  • 5.Discussion
    • 5.1Feature sets and acquisition of operator-variable chains
    • 5.2Connecting the current proposal to Kimura (2022)
    • 5.3Connecting the current proposal to Umeda (2008)
  • 6.Concluding remarks
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
References (33)
References
Baayen, H., Davidson, D. J., & Bates, D. M. (2008). Mixed-effects modeling with crossed random effects for subjects and items. Journal of Memory and Language, 59, 390–412. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bošković, Ž. (2007). On the locality and motivation of Move and Agree: An even more minimal theory. Linguistic Inquiry, 38, 589–644. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chomsky, N. (1981). Lectures on government and binding. Foris.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(1993). A minimalist program for linguistic theory. In K. Hale & S. J. Keyser (Eds.), The view from building 20: Essays in linguistics in honor of Sylvain Bromberger (pp. 1–52). TheMIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(1995). The minimalist program. The MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Deguchi, M., & Kitagawa, Y. (2002). Prosody and wh-questions. Proceedings of the North East Linguistic Society, 32(Vol. 1), 73–92.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gil, K. -H., & Marsden, H. (2013). Existential quantifiers in second language acquisition: A feature reassembly account. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism, 3, 117–149. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hawkins, R., & Hattori, H. (2006). Interpretation of English multiple wh-questions by Japanese speakers: A missing uninterpretable feature account. Second Language Research, 22, 269–301. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Haznedar, B., & Schwartz, B. D. (1997). Are there optional infinitives in child L2 acquisition? In E. Hughes, M. Hughes, & A. Greenhill (Eds.), Proceedings of the 21st annual Boston University Conference on Language Development (pp. 257–268). Cascadilla Press.
Heim, I. (1982). The semantics of definite and indefinite noun phrases (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Ionin, T., Ko, H., & Wexler, K. (2004). Article semantics in L2 acquisition: The role of specificity. Language Acquisition, 12, 3–69. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ishihara, S. (2002). Invisible but audible wh-scope marking: Wh-constructions and deaccenting in Japanese. In L. Mikkelsen & C. Potts (Eds.), Proceedings of the 21st West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics (pp. 180–193). Cascadilla Press.
Kimura, T. (2022). Feature selection, feature reassembly, and the role of universal grammar: The acquisition of wh-questions by Japanese and Chinese learners of English (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Chuo University.
Kuroda, S. -Y. (1965 [1979]). Generative grammatical studies in the Japanese language (Doctoral dissertation MIT). Garland.
Lardiere, D. (2008). Feature-assembly in second language acquisition. In J. Liceras, H. Zobl, & H. Goodluck (Eds.), The role of features in second language acquisition (pp. 106–140). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2009). Some thoughts on the contrastive analysis of features in second language acquisition. Second Language Research, 25, 173–227. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lasnik, H., & Saito, M. (1992). Move α: Conditions on its application and output. The MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Martohardjono, G., & Gair, J. (1993). Apparent UG inaccessibility in second language acquisition: Misapplies principles or principled misapplications? In F. R. Eckman (Ed.), Confluence: Linguistics, L2 acquisition and speech pathology (pp. 79–103). John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Miyamoto, Y., & Yamada, K. (2020). On null arguments and phi-features in second language acquisition. Journal of Japanese Linguistics, 36, 179–223. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pesetsky, D. (1987). Wh-in-situ: Movement and unselective binding. In E. Reuland & A. ter Meulen (Eds.), The representation of (in)definiteness (pp. 98–129). The MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Prévost, P., & White, L. (2000). Missing surface inflection or impairment in second language? Evidence from tense and agreement. Second Language Research, 16, 103–133. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Saito, M. (2017). Japanese wh-phrases as operators with unspecified quantificational force. Language and Linguistics, 18, 1–25.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2021). Wh-phrases without quantificational particles. Talk at the Seminar of the JSPS Core-to-Core Program (A) International Research Network for the Human Language Faculty, 18 September.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schwartz, B. D., & Sprouse, R. A. (1996). L2 cognitive states and the Full Transfer/Full Access model. Second Language Research, 12, 40–72. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Slabakova, R. (2013). What is easy and what is hard in second language acquisition: A generative perspective. In M. D. P. García Mayo, M. J. Gutierrez-Mangado, & M. Martinez Adrián (Eds.), Contemporary approaches to second language acquisition (pp. 5–28). John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Takita, K., Fuji, C., & Yang, B. C.-Y. (2007). Wh-questions in Chinese and Japanese I: Anti-crossing and anti-superiority. Nanzan Linguistics, 1(2), 99–112.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tsai, W. -T. D. (1994). On economizing the theory of A’-dependences (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). MIT.
(1999). On lexical courtesy. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 8, 39–73. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tsimpli, I. M., & Dimitrakopoulou, M. (2007). The interpretability hypothesis: Evidence from wh-interrogatives in second language acquisition. Second Language Research, 23, 215–242. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Umeda, M. (2008). Second language acquisition of Japanese wh-constructions (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). McGill University.
Yamada, K., & Miyamoto, Y. (2017). On the interpretation of null arguments in L2 Japanese European non-pro-drop and pro-drop language speakers. Journal of European Second Language Association, 1, 73–89. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Yusa, N. (1999). Multiple specifiers and wh-island effect in L2 acquisition: A preliminary study. In E. C. Klein & G. Martohardjono (Eds.), The development of second language grammars: A generative approach (p. 289–315). John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zehr, J., & Schwarz, F. (2018). PennController for internet based experiments (IBEX). Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue