Optionality in non-native grammars: L2 acquisition of German constructions with absent expletives

2005 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 177-193 ◽  
Author(s):  
ALDONA SOPATA
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
First Language ◽  
Production Task ◽  
Null Subjects ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
Written Production ◽  
Grammaticality Judgment ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
High Level

This paper investigates the knowledge of constructions with absent expletives by advanced and high-proficiency non-native speakers of German whose first language is Polish. German grammar is known to license null subjects due to the strength of AGRP but not to identify them. Therefore only expletive subjects can be absent in German, except for Topic-drop and, crucially, the expletive subjects have to be absent in certain cases due to the Projection Principle. The knowledge of this phenomenon by second language (L2) learners has been investigated by two methods, elicited written production task and grammaticality judgment tests. High-level non-native speakers of German differ significantly from native speakers in both types of tasks. The differences are clearly not the result of transfer. The results reported here reveal permanent optionality in L2 grammars suggesting a deficit in the grammatical representations of L2 learners.

Verb movement in French L2 acquisition

1999 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 103-125 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dalila Ayoun
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Judgment Task ◽  
Production Task ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
Verb Movement ◽  
Grammaticality Judgment ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Theoretical Predictions ◽  
Parameter Resetting

This study investigates the acquisition of verb movement phenomena in the interlanguage of English native speakers learning French as a second language. Participants (n=83), who were enrolled in three different classes, were given a grammaticality judgment task and a production task. The French native speakers' results (n=85) go against certain theoretical predictions for negation and adverb placement in nonfinite contexts, as well as for quantification at a distance. The production task results, but not the grammaticality judgment results, support the hypothesis that the effects of parameter resetting successfully appear in the interlanguage of adult L2 learners.

Reassembly of plural and human features in the L2 acquisition of Chinese by adult Korean speakers

2018 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 529-555
Author(s):  
Jiajia Su
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Judgment Task ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
Proficiency Levels ◽  
Grammaticality Judgment ◽  
Feature Reassembly ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Korean Speakers

This article reports on a study investigating the second language (L2) acquisition of the plural and human features in Mandarin Chinese by adult Korean speakers. Both plural and human features are represented in Korean and Chinese, but assembled in different ways. Forty-eight L2 learners at beginner, intermediate, and advanced Chinese proficiency levels and twenty-three native speakers of Chinese were tested using a grammaticality judgment task. The results show that L2 learners can successfully reassemble the two features, though L2 specific contexts and restrictions on feature realization are difficult. The advanced group has achieved native-like performance. The findings provide empirical evidence for the Feature Reassembly Hypothesis (Lardiere, 2009).

Delayed grammatical acquisition in first language development

2011 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 347-390 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jürgen M. Meisel ◽  
Martin Elsig ◽  
Matthias Bonnesen
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Age Of Onset ◽  
First Language ◽  
Early Years ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
Grammaticality Judgment ◽  
Age Related ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Successive Acquisition ◽  
Age Related Changes

Recent research comparing simultaneous and successive acquisition of bilingualism suggests that successive acquisition is affected by age-related changes possibly as early as age (of onset of acquisition) 3–4. Since children are typically exposed to colloquial varieties, the primary linguistic data can lack properties of formal varieties during early years. If, however, the acquisition of a given property is delayed until age 5 or later, the acquired knowledge may rather resemble that of L2 learners. This happens in the acquisition of French interrogatives where certain inversion constructions do not occur in Colloquial French. Native speakers acquire them after the age of 5, and they behave like L2 learners in using or judging them. A grammaticality judgment test reveals a broad range of variability in their ratings of constructions which are ungrammatical in Standard French. Their grammar is afflicted by the kind of persistent optionality familiar from L2 acquisition.

Verb movement in the L2 acquisition of English by adult native speakers of French

2005 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 35-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dalila Ayoun
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Judgment Task ◽  
Production Task ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
Verb Movement ◽  
School Students ◽  
Grammaticality Judgment ◽  
Performance Effects ◽  
Adverb Placement ◽  
Syntactic Properties

This study investigates the acquisition of English verb movement phenomena by two groups of adult French native speakers: a group of secondary school students and a group of university students. A group of English native speakers served as controls. Participants were administered a written questionnaire composed of a controlled production task, a grammaticality judgment task, and a preference/grammaticality judgment task, to test acquisition of the syntactic properties associated with the verb movement parameter (Pollock 1989, 1997). Instead of substantiating the anecdotal evidence that suggests that adverb placement errors persist into very advanced stages of English L2 acquisition, the present data support the successful acquisition of English adverb placement by French native speakers. It is argued that the advanced group has acquired the appropriate L2 parametric value as measured by the controlled production task; while results on the other two tasks are explained by performance effects.

Acquiring phenomena at the syntax/semantics interface in L2 Spanish

2007 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 67-88 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pedro Guijarro-Fuentes ◽  
Theodoros Marinis
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
Advanced Learners ◽  
Proficiency Levels ◽  
Verb Semantics ◽  
Syntactic Features ◽  
Interface Phenomena ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
The Subject

Recent second language (L2) acquisition research has proposed that purely syntactic features are easier to acquire and less vulnerable than ones involving the interfaces (Sorace, 2004; Serratrice et al. 2004). The present paper addresses this issue by investigating the acquisition of the Spanish personal preposition a in English L2 learners of Spanish. The distribution of a in direct object NPs relates to the specificity/definiteness of the NP, the animacy/agentivity of the subject, and verb semantics (Torrego 1998; Zagona 2002). 33 English L2 learners of Spanish of different proficiency levels, and 14 Spanish controls participated in an acceptability judgement task. The results showed significant differences between native speakers and L2 learners of all proficiency levels, who performed at chance, and support the claim that L2 learners have difficulties acquiring structures involving the syntax/semantics interface. However, the advanced learners showed sensitivity to the least complex condition providing evidence that interface phenomena may be acquirable.

scholarly journals The Bottleneck Hypothesis in L2 acquisition: L1 Norwegian learners’ knowledge of syntax and morphology in L2 English

2019 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-29
Author(s):  
Isabel Nadine Jensen ◽  
Roumyana Slabakova ◽  
Marit Westergaard ◽  
Björn Lundquist
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Functional Morphology ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
First Language ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
Verb Second

The Bottleneck Hypothesis (Slabakova, 2008, 2013) proposes that acquiring properties of the functional morphology is the most challenging part of learning a second language. In the experiment presented here, the predictions of this hypothesis are tested in the second language (L2) English of Norwegian native speakers. Two constructions are investigated that do not match in English and Norwegian: One involving functional morphology, subject–verb (SV) agreement, which is obligatory in the L2 but non-existent in the first language (L1), and one involving syntax, verb-second (V2) word order, which is obligatory in the L1, but restricted to specific contexts in the L2. The results of an acceptability judgement task indicate that the participants struggled more with identifying ungrammatical SV agreement than ungrammatical word order. We conclude that the findings lend tentative support to the Bottleneck Hypothesis.

scholarly journals Second language attainment and first language attrition: The case of VOT in immersed Dutch–German late bilinguals

2017 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 483-518 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antje Stoehr ◽  
Titia Benders ◽  
Janet G van Hell ◽  
Paula Fikkert
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Voice Onset Time ◽  
First Language ◽  
Onset Time ◽  
The Other ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
L1 Attrition ◽  
At Home ◽  
Late Bilinguals

Speech of late bilinguals has frequently been described in terms of cross-linguistic influence (CLI) from the native language (L1) to the second language (L2), but CLI from the L2 to the L1 has received relatively little attention. This article addresses L2 attainment and L1 attrition in voicing systems through measures of voice onset time (VOT) in two groups of Dutch–German late bilinguals in the Netherlands. One group comprises native speakers of Dutch and the other group comprises native speakers of German, and the two groups further differ in their degree of L2 immersion. The L1-German–L2-Dutch bilinguals ( N = 23) are exposed to their L2 at home and outside the home, and the L1-Dutch–L2-German bilinguals ( N = 18) are only exposed to their L2 at home. We tested L2 attainment by comparing the bilinguals’ L2 to the other bilinguals’ L1, and L1 attrition by comparing the bilinguals’ L1 to Dutch monolinguals ( N = 29) and German monolinguals ( N = 27). Our findings indicate that complete L2 immersion may be advantageous in L2 acquisition, but at the same time it may cause L1 phonetic attrition. We discuss how the results match the predictions made by Flege’s Speech Learning Model and explore how far bilinguals’ success in acquiring L2 VOT and maintaining L1 VOT depends on the immersion context, articulatory constraints and the risk of sounding foreign accented.

scholarly journals Comprehension of grammatically modified and nonmodified sentences by second language learners

1992 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 147-171 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diana C. Issidorides ◽  
Jan H. Hulstijn
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Nonnative Speakers ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Grammatical Structure ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
State Of Affairs

ABSTRACTAt issue in the present research is whether native speakers' “simplified” or modified utterances, as in foreigner-talk (FT), actually facilitate comprehension for nonnative speakers hearing such utterances. It was hypothesized that (grammatical) Dutch inversion sentences (AdvVSO) that have proven to be problematic in studies on Dutch second language (L2) acquisition - as reflected both in the (ungrammatical) output of L2 learners and in the (ungrammatical) FT input to L2 learners - would not be problematic in terms of comprehension, when compared with modified, ungrammatical AdvSVO and AdvSOV sentences, as long as such sentences do not express an implausible state of affairs. Three subject groups participated in the experiment: 20 English and 22 Turkish L2 learners of Dutch and 30 Dutch native speakers (control group). Subjects heard and interpreted declarative Dutch sentences, in which word order (NVN, VNN, NNV) and animacy configurations (Al [i.e., animate/inanimate], AA, LA) were systematically manipulated. Subjects had to name the noun (first or second) that functions as actor/subject of the sentence. Positive evidence was found for the hypotheses. It is concluded from the present study, as well as from a previous study (Issidorides, 1988), that linguistically more complex input will not necessarily impede comprehension. The fact that normative speakers have difficulties in producing a certain grammatical structure (e.g., the AdvVSO structure) does not imply that such a structure is also more difficult to understand in the speech of others.

Cross-linguistic influence in the interpretation of boundary crossing events in L2 acquisition

2016 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 161-182 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosa Alonso Alonso
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
First Language ◽  
Horizontal Axis ◽  
Boundary Crossing ◽  
Motion Events ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Bounded Space

This paper analyses the interpretation of boundary-crossing events in second language acquisition (SLA) to determine whether L2 learners are able to select the target-like option for the interpretation of motion events or whether, on the contrary, their choice reflects cross-linguistic influence (CLI) of their L1. The two groups participating in the study – thirty Spanish learners of L2 English and sixteen English first language (L1) speakers – were subjected to an experiment involving an interpretation task with L2 boundary-crossing events pictures. Findings indicate that Spanish L2 learners selected three possible constructions (manner verb + path satellite, path in verb + manner in satellite and a combination of both) in clear contrast to English L1 speakers who only selected one construction (manner verb + path satellite). CLI has also been found to regulate the type of boundary-crossing event selected, primarily in cases of motion INTO a bounded space in the horizontal axis.

The shallow structure hypothesis of second language sentence processing: What is restricted and why?

2006 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-52
Author(s):  
Margaret Gillon Dowens ◽  
Manuel Carreiras
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Processing Speed ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
First Language ◽  
Direct Form ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Shallow Structure Hypothesis ◽  
On Line ◽  
Shallow Structure

Clahsen and Felser (CF) analyze the performance of monolingual children and adult second language (L2) learners in off-line and on-line tasks and compare their performance with that of adult monolinguals. They conclude that child first language (L1) processing is basically the same as adult L1 processing (the contiguity assumption), with differences in performance being due to cognitive developmental limitations. They argue that differences in L2 performance, however, are more qualitative and not explained by shortage of working memory (WM) resources, differences in processing speed, transfer of L1 processing routines, or incomplete acquisition of the target grammar. They propose a shallow structure hypothesis (SSH) to explain the differences reported in sentence processing. According to this, the syntactic representations computed by L2 learners during comprehension are shallower and less detailed than those computed by native speakers and involve more direct form-function mappings.

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