A SUBJECT-OBJECT ASYMMETRY IN THE ACQUISITION OF RELATIVE CLAUSES IN KOREAN AS A SECOND LANGUAGE

2003 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 433-448 ◽  
Author(s):  
William O'Grady ◽  
Miseon Lee ◽  
Miho Choo
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Distance Effect ◽  
Direct Object ◽  
Strong Preference ◽  
Structural Factors ◽  
Structural Account ◽  
Linear Distance ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Object Relative

A variety of studies have reported that learners of English as a second language find subject relative clauses easier to produce and comprehend than direct object relatives, but it is unclear whether this preference should be attributed to structural factors or to a linear distance effect. This paper seeks to resolve this issue and to extend our understanding of SLA in general by investigating the interpretation of subject and direct object relative clauses by English-speaking learners of Korean, a left-branching language in which subject gaps in relative clauses are more distant from the head than are object gaps. The results of a comprehension task conducted with 53 beginning and intermediate learners point toward a strong preference for subject relative clauses, favoring the structural account.

The comprehension of Turkish relative clauses in second language acquisition and agrammatism

2007 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 295-315 ◽  
Author(s):  
ÖZGÜR AYDIN
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Linear Distance ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Structural Distance ◽  
Early Learners ◽  
Significant Support ◽  
Object Relative

The purposes of this study are to test whether the processing of subject relative (SR) clauses is easier than that of object relative (OR) clauses in Turkish and to investigate whether the comprehension of SRs can be better explained by the linear distance hypothesis or structural distance hypothesis (SDH). The question is examined in two groups of second language (L2) learners of different proficiency levels and a few agrammatics expected to show a similar pattern. Each participant is asked to comprehend 15 sentences containing SRs and ORs via a picture selection task. The results indicate that comprehension of SRs is easier than that of ORs for intermediate level L2 learners, whereas there is no significant difference between the types of relative clauses for early learners. Another result is that early learners produce errors similar to those of agrammatics, which are explained through trace deletion and referential strategy. These findings on Turkish provide significant support for the SDH.

Acquiring Pronouns in a Second Language: Evidence for Hypothesis Testing

1984 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 215-225 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeanette K. Gundel ◽  
Nancy Stenson ◽  
Elaine Tarone
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Hypothesis Testing ◽  
Direct Object ◽  
French Immersion ◽  
Direct Transfer ◽  
Language Pattern ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Three Stages ◽  
L1 And L2

Gundel and Tarone (1981) studied the acquisition of pronouns by Chinese and Spanish speaking adults learning English. On the basis of this study it was proposed that when L1 and L2 differ in the relative order of object pronoun and verb, the acquisition of direct object pronouns proceeds in three stages: (1) direct transfer of the native language pattern; (2) zero anaphora, i.e. no overt form at all, in direct object position; (3) the correct L2 pattern. The present paper presents further evidence for this proposal, and hence for a hypothesis-testing view of second language acquisition, on the basis of longitudinal data from English speaking children learning French in the Toronto French Immersion Program.

The relative effect of recasts on L2 Korean learners’ accuracy development of two different forms and its relationship with language analytic ability

2019 ◽  
pp. 136216881985991
Author(s):  
Ji Hyun Kim
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Relative Effect ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Language Tests ◽  
Communicative Activities ◽  
Korean Learners ◽  
Positive Effect ◽  
Object Relative

This study explored the relative effect of recasts on second language (L2) Korean learners’ accuracy development of the object relative clauses (RCs) and the honorific subject–verb (S-V) agreement in Korean and its relationship with language analytic ability (LAA). Forty-five L2 Korean learners participated in the study and five Korean native speakers participated as their dyadic partners. The learners were assigned into the recast group ( n = 27) and the control group ( n = 18). The recast group received recasts to their errors of the target forms from an interlocutor, a native Korean speaker, during their engagement in four communicative activities, but no recasts were provided to the control group. Three language tests (i.e. a pretest, an immediate posttest, and a delayed posttest) to measure accuracy development and a LAA test were applied to both groups. The study found that recasts benefited L2 Korean learners’ accuracy development of both forms, but their effects were not equal: recasts were more effective for the object RCs than the honorific S-V agreement. In addition, the results showed that LAA had a positive effect on the extent to which the learners benefited from recasts.

Pronominal resumption in Spanish direct object relative clauses

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 265-301
Author(s):  
Álvaro Cerrón-Palomino
Keyword(s):  
Social Factors ◽  
Regression Models ◽  
Semantic Processing ◽  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Direct Object ◽  
Logistic Regression Models ◽  
Resumptive Pronouns ◽  
Number Of Factors ◽  
The Social ◽  
Object Relative

Abstract This variationist study analyzes the linguistic and social factors constraining the alternation of resumptive pronouns (RPs) and gaps in direct object (DO) relative clauses (RCs) in the Peruvian Limeño variety. Using a number of mixed-effects (logistic regression) models in Rbrul, results reveal that the set of linguistic constraints favoring pronominal DO resumption does not coincide with those reported to promote subject and oblique RP presence in previous studies. Furthermore, when compared to their subject and oblique counterparts, DO RPs are constrained by a higher number of factors of syntactic, semantic, processing and pragmatic nature. I suggest that this sensitivity to a broader set of constraints is crucial in explaining why DO RPs are more frequent in RCs than subject and oblique RPs. With respect to the social factors analyzed, this study shows a lack of effect of gender, age and education on the speaker’s choice for the resumptive variant.

Asymmetries in children's production of relative clauses: data from English and Korean

2015 ◽  
Vol 43 (5) ◽  
pp. 1038-1071 ◽  
Author(s):  
CHAE-EUN KIM ◽  
WILLIAM O'GRADY
Keyword(s):  
Relative Clause ◽  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Head Noun ◽  
Direct Object ◽  
Indirect Object ◽  
Object Relative

ABSTRACTWe report here on a series of elicited production experiments that investigate the production of indirect object and oblique relative clauses by monolingual child learners of English and Korean. Taken together, the results from the two languages point toward a pair of robust asymmetries: children manifest a preference for subject relative clauses over indirect object relative clauses, and for direct object relative clauses over oblique relative clauses. We consider various possible explanations for these preferences, of which the most promising seems to involve the requirement that the referent of the head noun be easily construed as what the relative clause is about.

scholarly journals Mandarin–English speaking bilingual and Mandarin speaking monolingual children’s comprehension of relative clauses

2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
pp. 933-964 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elaine Yee Ling Tsoi ◽  
Wenchun Yang ◽  
Angel Chan ◽  
Evan Kidd
Keyword(s):  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Head Noun ◽  
Vocabulary Knowledge ◽  
Standardized Assessments ◽  
Referent Selection ◽  
Subject And Object ◽  
Distributional Information ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Object Relative

AbstractThe current study investigated the comprehension of subject and object relative clauses (RCs) in bilingual Mandarin–English children (N = 55, Mage = 7 years, 5 months [7;5], SD = 1;8) and language-matched monolingual Mandarin-speaking children (N = 59, Mage = 5;4, SD = 0;7). The children completed a picture-referent selection task that tested their comprehension of subject and object RCs, and standardized assessments of vocabulary knowledge. Results showed a very similar pattern of responding in both groups. In comparison to past studies of Cantonese, the bilingual and monolingual children both showed a significant subject-over-object RC advantage. An error analysis suggested that the children’s difficulty with object RCs reflected the tendency to interpret the sentential subject as the head noun. A subsequent corpus analysis suggested that children’s difficulty with object RCs may be in part due to distributional information favoring subject RC analyses. Individual differences analyses suggested crosslinguistic transfer from English to Mandarin in the bilingual children at the individual but not the group level, with the results indicating that comparative English dominance makes children vulnerable to error.

scholarly journals Object relative clauses in Dutch-speaking children with High-Functioning Autism (HFA)

2016 ◽  
Vol 33 ◽  
pp. 135-151
Author(s):  
Jeannette Schaeffer ◽  
Bart Siekman
Keyword(s):  
Relative Clauses ◽  
High Functioning Autism ◽  
Direct Object ◽  
Verbal Reasoning ◽  
High Functioning ◽  
Shed Light ◽  
Object Relative

Abstract Previous studies show that Direct Object Scrambling (DOS) is impaired in Dutch-speaking children with High-Functioning Autism (HFA). However, as DOS can be considered a syntax-pragmatics interface phenomenon, it is unclear whether DOS errors are due to impaired syntax or impaired pragmatics. In order to shed light on this question, the current study investigates Object Relative Clauses (ORC), assumed to involve syntactic object placement (as in DOS), but not pragmatics, in children with HFA. We examine the elicited production, comprehension and judgment of ORCs in 25 Dutch-speaking children with HFA (age 6–14) and 25 TD matches with comparable non-verbal reasoning scores. Results reveal no differences between groups, but show that, similar to TD children (and adults), children with HFA use passives and animacy to disambiguate ORCs. The TD-HFA similarity indicates that the syntactic part of DOS is unimpaired in children with HFA and suggests problems with the pragmatic part.

scholarly journals Relativas cortadoras: mover e cortar? Ou cortar antes de mover?

2020 ◽  
pp. 151-175
Author(s):  
Ana Espírito Santo
Keyword(s):  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Judgment Task ◽  
Direct Object ◽  
European Portuguese ◽  
Null Element ◽  
Syntactic Derivation ◽  
Acceptability Judgment ◽  
Object Relative

With this article, we aim at providing an answer to two main theoretical questions: what is the syntactic derivation of European Portuguese P-chopping relative clauses? And what is the nature of the phonetically and semantically null element that integrates them? We also attempt to identify constants that allow us to predict other lexical contexts for the occurrence of P-chopping relative clauses other than the ones already described in the literature. We support our conclusions with the data collected in an acceptability judgment task that included 76 native speakers. Our proposal is a derivation for P-chopping relative clauses similar to the existing one for direct object relative clauses, assuming that the null element that integrates them has the properties of a variable.

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