The Roles of Explicit Information and Grammatical Sensitivity in Processing Instruction: Nominative-Accusative Case Marking and Word Order in German L2

AbstractTransfer-of-training effects with processing instruction have recently been reported in the literature. That is, L2 learners receive processing instruction on one particular linguistic item and, as a consequence of instruction, learners' performance improves not only on the particular linguistic item but on other linguistic items as well. The present study examines processing instruction on the Spanish passive, the word order of which places the patient in the grammatical role of subject in sentence initial position and the agent as the object of a preposition in sentence final position. The purpose of the study is to determine whether learners transfer the training they receive on processing the word order of passive sentences to their processing of sentences with anaphoric reference, specifically, accusative case pronouns for which the word order is O

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REEXAMINING THE ROLE OF EXPLICIT INFORMATION IN PROCESSING INSTRUCTION

Studies in Second Language Acquisition ◽

10.1017/s0272263108080467 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 30 (3) ◽

pp. 277-305 ◽

Cited By ~ 60

Author(s):

Claudia Fernández

Keyword(s):

Response Time ◽

Word Order ◽

Processing Instruction ◽

Processing Problem ◽

Structured Input ◽

Explicit Information ◽

Spanish Subjunctive

The present study sought to observe, through online treatments, whether explicit information assists acquisition in a way that has not been measured in previous processing instruction (PI) studies. Two experiments examined learners' behavior while they processed Spanish sentences with object-verb-subject (OVS) word order and Spanish subjunctive under two treatments: with explicit information (the PI group) and without explicit information (the structured input [SI] group). Participants in both groups worked individually with a computer and processed a series of 30 SI items. They received feedback right after each response, and both accuracy and response time were recorded. It was expected that learners in the PI group would start to process both of the linguistic targets sooner in the sequence of input items and would submit their responses faster than learners in the SI group, because explicit information in the PI treatment would help learners notice the target items early in the series. The results showed no difference between the SI group and the PI group when processing OVS sentences, but the PI group processed subjunctive forms sooner and faster than the SI group. The results suggest that the benefits of explicit information might depend on the nature of the task and the processing problem.

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APTITUDE AS GRAMMATICAL SENSITIVITY AND THE INITIAL STAGES OF LEARNING JAPANESE AS A L2

Studies in Second Language Acquisition ◽

10.1017/s0272263114000345 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 37 (1) ◽

pp. 135-165 ◽

Cited By ~ 14

Author(s):

Bill VanPatten ◽

Megan Smith

Keyword(s):

Word Order ◽

The Novel ◽

L2 Acquisition ◽

Language Aptitude ◽

Modern Language ◽

Case Marking ◽

Basic Word ◽

Grammatical Sensitivity ◽

Embedded Clauses ◽

Modern Language Aptitude Test

In this article, we challenge the notion that aptitude—operationalized as grammatical sensitivity as measured by the Words in Sentences section of the Modern Language Aptitude Test—is central to adult second language (L2) acquisition. We present the findings of a study on the acquisition of two properties of Japanese, head-final word order and case marking, by naïve learners of Japanese as a L2 who had no prior knowledge of this language or any other head-final, case-marking language. Participants underwent an input treatment in which they heard and saw basic subject-object-verb sentences in Japanese and were subsequently tested on these basic sentences and also on sentences to which they were not exposed during the treatment (i.e., polar questions and embedded clauses). Reading times on grammatical and ungrammatical sentences served as measures of underlying sensitivity to violations of grammatical word order for both the basic sentences and the novel sentences. Our results yielded three groups of learners: those who showed sensitivity to violations of basic word order, polar questions, and embedded clauses (parameter reset); those who showed sensitivity to violations of basic word order and polar questions only (partial parameter reset); and those who showed sensitivity to violations of basic word order only (no parameter reset). Because our measure of aptitude as grammatical sensitivity did not emerge as a factor distinguishing the three groups from one another, we argue that this component of aptitude is not a factor in whether learners are able to reset parameters. We also found that all participants, regardless of group, demonstrated sensitivity to case-marking violations, suggesting that aptitude as grammatical sensitivity plays no role in the acquisition of underlying features related to case or to the surface-level markings of case in Japanese.

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The Syntactic Status of Arabic Clauses Introduced by ʔinna A Minimalist Study

English Language and Literature Studies ◽

10.5539/ells.v9n1p70 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 9 (1) ◽

pp. 70

Author(s):

Mansour Qazan Alotaibi

Keyword(s):

Word Order ◽

Accusative Case ◽

Standard Arabic ◽

Case Marking ◽

Syntactic Status ◽

Case Feature

A Standard Arabic (SA) complementizer known as ʔinna poses a restriction on word orders in the clause it introduces and induces accusative Case-marking on the otherwise nominative preverbal NPs (Note1). Following Chomsky’s (2001) account of the morphosyntax of Case, this paper argues that ʔinna is a Case assigner and thus it carries an uninterpretable Case feature that determines the value which it assigns to an unvalued Case feature concerning accessible goal within A-bar projection. The paper shows that this argument captures the asymmetrical word order between clauses introduced by ʔinna and those headed by null CPs. 

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Shaping modern Indo-Aryan isoglosses

Poznan Studies in Contemporary Linguistics ◽

10.1515/psicl-2020-0017 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 56 (3) ◽

pp. 529-552

Author(s):

Krzysztof Stroński ◽

Saartje Verbeke

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

South Asia ◽

Case Studies ◽

Word Order ◽

Accusative Case ◽

Case Marking ◽

Language Groups ◽

Constituent Order

AbstractSince the pioneering paper by Emenau (1956) there have been many attempts (cf. Masica 1976, 2001; Ebert 2001; among many others) to select areal features which are shared among languages spoken in South Asia. However, there has been little consent on the number of such features and the possible direction of their spread.In this paper we are focusing on two selected isoglosses, namely alignment and constituent order. Both of them have been used to define the Indo-Aryan linguistic area: alignment is one of the key elements to distinguish western from eastern Indo-Aryan (Peterson 2017) and word order is one of the innovations which differentiates some of the “Outer” languages from “Inner” Indo-Aryan languages (Zoller 2017: 15).This article focuses on two languages which are said to determine these isoglosses: Awadhi and Kashmiri. Our study of Awadhi shows that the isogloss delineating ergative or accusative case marking zones is situated in the area where the so-called Eastern Hindi dialects (among them Awadhi) are spoken. As we will demonstrate, this specific isogloss is substantially supported by diachronic evidence. The second language under consideration, namely Kashmiri, is an example of an “Outer” language with a quite stable V2 feature. Both Awadhi and Kashmiri are compared with Pahari, a language branch which functions as a link between the two of them. Our comparison of Kashmiri with certain Western Pahari Himachali languages shows that there is no clear borderline between two language groups supported by word order. We conclude from these case studies that the study of isoglosses is by definition a study of fluid boundaries, and qualitative, historical studies of one language can prove or disprove hypotheses based on synchronic similarities between languages.

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The emergence of functional case marking in initial varieties of Polish L2

Language Interaction and Acquisition / Langage Interaction et Acquisition ◽

10.1075/lia.00007.sat ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

pp. 32-67 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Jacopo Saturno ◽

Marzena Watorek

Keyword(s):

Word Order ◽

Task Difficulty ◽

Target Sentence ◽

Inflectional Morphology ◽

Elicited Imitation ◽

Accusative Case ◽

Case Marking ◽

Comprehension Task ◽

The Subject ◽

Case Markings

Abstract This paper addresses the acquisition of L2 inflectional morphology after only a few hours of exposure. Eighty-nine participants with five different L1s and no experience of the L2 took part in a specially designed 14-hour L2 Polish course, during which they were tested on their developing morphosyntactic skills at various times. The present paper uses a Comprehension task and an Elicited Imitation task to probe learners’ ability to use nominative and accusative case markings to infer and express the subject and object. The study is designed to isolate variables such as the task employed to elicit L2 data, target sentence word order, time of exposure to the L2 input, and learners’ L1. The results show that while the majority of learners stick to a word order principle, some managed to identify and systematically apply the target-like use of inflectional morphology. Various intermediate strategies make it possible to identify a hierarchy of task difficulty. Both time of exposure and the learner’s L1 proved to be significant predictors of performance.

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Remarks on the Arabic complementizer 'inna / Observações sobre o complementizador 'inna em árabe

Revista de Estudos da Linguagem ◽

10.17851/2237-2083.27.3.1295-1312 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 27 (3) ◽

pp. 1295

Author(s):

Mansour Alotaibi

Keyword(s):

Word Order ◽

Accusative Case ◽

Standard Arabic ◽

Case Marking ◽

Case Feature

Abstract: A Standard Arabic (SA) complementizer known as 'inna poses a restriction on word order in the clause it introduces and induces accusative Case-marking on the otherwise nominative preverbal NPs. Following Chomsky’s (2001) account of the morphosyntax of Case, this paper argues that 'inna is a Case assigner and thus it carries an uninterpretable Case feature that determines the value which it assigns to an unvalued Case feature concerning accessible goal within A-bar projection. The paper shows that this argument captures the restriction imposed on 'inna-clauses.Keywords: Arabic; complementizer; Case marking; word order; minimalism.Resumo: Um complementizador no árabe padrão, conhecido como 'inna, impõe uma restrição na ordem das palavras da oração por ele introduzida e induz marcação de Caso acusativo nos SNs preverbais que em outras circunstâncias têm marcação de Caso nominativo. Seguindo o modelo de Chomsky (2001) para a morfossintaxe de Caso, este artigo argumenta que 'inna é um designador de Caso e que ele carrega um traço de Caso não interpretável que determina o valor que o mesmo designa para um traço de Caso até então não marcado de uma meta acessível na projeção de A-barra. O artigo mostra que esse argumento captura as cláusulas 'inna impostas pela restrição.Palavras-chave: Árabe; complementizador; marcação de Caso; ordem de palavras; minimalismo.

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Honorifics: A sociocultural verb agreement cue in Japanese sentence processing

Applied Psycholinguistics ◽

10.1017/s0142716410000111 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 31 (3) ◽

pp. 551-569 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

YUKI YOSHIMURA ◽

BRIAN MACWHINNEY

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Language Learners ◽

Sentence Processing ◽

Word Order ◽

Second Language Learners ◽

Native Speakers ◽

Role Assignment ◽

Verb Agreement ◽

Case Marking ◽

New Type

ABSTRACTCase marking is the major cue to sentence interpretation in Japanese, whereas animacy and word order are much weaker. However, when subjects and their cases markers are omitted, Japanese honorific and humble verbs can provide information that compensates for the missing case role markers. This study examined the usage of honorific and humble verbs as cues to case role assignment by Japanese native speakers and second-language learners of Japanese. The results for native speakers replicated earlier findings regarding the predominant strength of case marking. However, when case marking was missing, native speakers relied more on honorific marking than word order. In these sentences, the processing that relied on the honorific cue was delayed by about 100 ms in comparison to processing that relied on the case-marking cue. Learners made extensive use of the honorific agreement cue, but their use of the cue was much less accurate than that of native speakers. In particular, they failed to systematically invoke the agreement cue when case marking was missing. Overall, the findings support the predictions of the model and extend its coverage to a new type of culturally determined cue.

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