Is there anything there when there is not there? Null expletives and second language data

2004 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 95-130 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hiroyuki Oshita
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Lexical Item ◽  
Psychological Reality ◽  
Language Data ◽  
Syntactic Properties ◽  
Linguistic Characterization ◽  
Large Corpus ◽  
Made In

This article explores the issue of the psychological reality of null expletives, i.e., the silent counterparts of the so-called dummy subjects such as English it and there. Following Jackendoff’s (1997; 2002) notion of `defective’ lexical item, I define null expletives as extremely `defective’ words with syntactic properties but no semantic or phonological content. By comparing native speakers of pro-drop languages and those of topic-drop languages in terms of their grammatical judgement of and productive use of English, I argue that null expletives are very likely psychologically real to speakers of pro-drop languages but not to those of topic-drop languages. This conclusion is based on observations made in previous second language (L2) studies and the analysis of data obtained from a large corpus of nonnative English. The question of the unaccusative-unergative distinction in L2 grammar and the linguistic characterization of so-called free subject-verb inversion in pro-drop languages are also discussed in relation to the issue of the psychological reality of null expletives.

scholarly journals Regular and Novel Metonymy: Can You Curl up with a Good Agatha Christie in Your Second Language?

2014 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 175-197 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roumyana Slabakova ◽  
Jennifer Cabrelli Amaro ◽  
Sang Kyun Kang
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Study ◽  
Second Language ◽  
English Learners ◽  
Teaching Practices ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Native Language ◽  
Stages Of Development ◽  
Psychological Reality ◽  
Experimental Support ◽  
Agatha Christie

Abstract This article presents results of two off-line comprehension tasks investigating the acceptability of unconventional and conventional metonymy by native speakers of Korean and Spanish who speak English as a second language. We are interested in discovering whether learners differentiate between conventional and unconventional metonymy, and whether the acceptability of metonymic expressions in the native language has an effect on learners’ judgments in the second language. The findings of this study constitute further experimental support for the psychological reality of the distinction between conventional and unconventional metonymy, but only in English. Learners of English at intermediate levels of proficiency exhibit transfer from the native language in comprehending metonymic shifts of meanings. Restructuring of the grammar is evident in later stages of development. Finally, complete success in acquiring L2 metonymic patterns is attested in our experimental study. Implications for L2A theories and teaching practices are discussed.

LEFT DISLOCATION IN NEAR-NATIVE FRENCH

2011 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 399-432 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bryan Donaldson
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Upper Limits ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Left Dislocation ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Discourse Organization ◽  
Syntactic Properties ◽  
Discourse Interface

The present study is concerned with the upper limits of SLA—specifically, mastery of the syntax-discourse interface in successful endstate learners of second-language (L2) French (near-native speakers). Left dislocation (LD) is a syntactic means of structuring spoken French discourse by marking topic. Its use requires speakers to coordinate syntactic and pragmatic or discursive knowledge, an interface at which L2 learners have been shown to encounter difficulties (e.g., Sorace, 1993; Sorace & Filiaci, 2006). The data come from (a) an 8.5-hr corpus that consists of recordings of 10 dyadic conversations between near-native and native speakers of French and (b) two contextualized paper and audio tasks that tested intuitions and preferences regarding LD. Analyses of the near-native speakers’ production of LDs, the syntactic properties of their LDs, and their use of LDs to promote different types of discourse referents to topic status suggest that their mastery of this aspect of discourse organization converges on that of native speakers.

An implicational Hierarchy of Morpheme Acquisition Order in second Language Learning

2003 ◽  
Vol 139-140 ◽  
pp. 77-100 ◽  
Author(s):  
Longxin Wei
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Second Language Learning ◽  
Mental Lexicon ◽  
Functional Level ◽  
Language Data ◽  
Acquisition Order ◽  
Descriptive Level

Unlike most early second language morpheme acquisition studies which remained at a surface descriptive level, this paper provides the reasons for the natural morpheme acquisition order by characterizing morphemes based on how they are projected from the mental lexicon. Three types of morphemes are identified based on how they are activated: Morphemes directly elected at the lemma level are content morphemes, morphemes indirectly elected together with content morpheme heads are early system morphemes, and morphemes structurally assigned at the functional level are late system morphemes. It argues that the levels of morpheme activation, whether at the lemma level or at the fimctional level, determines the acquisition order. Based on the characterization of morphemes and the natural second language data, an irnplicational hierarchy of morpheme acquisition order in second language learning is proposed: content morphemes are acquired before system morphemes, and early system morphemes are acquired before late system morphemes. Unlike early second language morpheme acquisition order studies, this study not only identifies or describes the morpheme order itself but also provides some reasons for this order.

scholarly journals An Experimental Study on the Learning of Arbitrary and Non-Arbitrary Gender of Pseudo Dutch Nouns by Nonnative and Native Speakers of Dutch

1995 ◽  
Vol 53 ◽  
pp. 121-136
Author(s):  
Ahmed Zekhnini ◽  
Jan H. Hulstijn
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Study ◽  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
English Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Nonnative Speakers ◽  
Inherent Feature ◽  
Gender Attribution ◽  
Made In

In this article we addres the question of whether, and to what exetent, noun gender attribution in languages such as French, German and Dutch can be formulated in terms of - semantic morphonological rules - competing semantic and morphonological cues - arbitrary idiosyncratic features In addressing this question we carried two learning experiments in which adult subjects, native speakers of Dutch and nonnative second language learners of Dutch, had to learn pseudo Dutch nouns. Our attempt was to provide some counter-evidence to falsify some claims Caroll (1989) made. In Caroll's view, L1 learners of French encode noun gender as an inherent feature of the noun in an obligatory fashion whereas English learners of French learn nouns as words distinct from their determiners. We argue, from the evidence we provide in our study, that the learning of gender values are equally difficult (or easy) for young native speakers, older native speakers, and nonnative speakers when these values are arbitrary. However, when learning the nonarbitrary gender values, it is easier for older native speakers to encode gender of nouns because they have already acquired many nouns from which cues or rules can be derived.

A CASE STUDY OF NL INFLUENCE IN UNIS FKIP ENGLISH DEPARTMENT STUDENTS' INTERLANGUAGE

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 46-54
Author(s):  
Irmala Sukendra ◽  
Agus Mulyana ◽  
Imam Sudarmaji
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Communicative Competence ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Universal Grammar ◽  
Similar System ◽  
The One ◽  
L1 Acquisition

Regardless to the facts that English is being taught to Indonesian students starting from early age, many Indonesian thrive in learning English. They find it quite troublesome for some to acquire the language especially to the level of communicative competence. Although Krashen (1982:10) states that “language acquirers are not usually aware of the fact that they are acquiring language, but are only aware of the fact that they are using the language for communication”, second language acquisition has several obstacles for learners to face and yet the successfulness of mastering the language never surmounts to the one of the native speakers. Learners have never been able to acquire the language as any native speakers do. Mistakes are made and inter-language is unavoidable. McNeili in Ellis (1985, p. 44) mentions that “the mentalist views of L1 acquisition hypothesizes the process of acquisition consists of hypothesis-testing, by which means the grammar of the learner’s mother tongue is related to the principles of the ‘universal grammar’.” Thus this study intends to find out whether the students go through the phase of interlanguage in their attempt to acquire second language and whether their interlanguage forms similar system as postulated by linguists (Krashen).

EVALD – a Pioneer Application for Automated Essay Scoring in Czech

2019 ◽  
Vol 113 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-30
Author(s):  
Kateřina Rysová ◽  
Magdaléna Rysová ◽  
Michal Novák ◽  
Jiří Mírovský ◽  
Eva Hajičová
Keyword(s):  
Czech Republic ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Threshold Level ◽  
Automated Essay Scoring ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
Linguistic Differences ◽  
Supervised Training ◽  
Language Data ◽  
Overall Performance ◽  
Essay Scoring

Abstract In the paper, we present EVALD applications (Evaluator of Discourse) for automated essay scoring. EVALD is the first tool of this type for Czech. It evaluates texts written by both native and non-native speakers of Czech. We describe first the history and the present in the automatic essay scoring, which is illustrated by examples of systems for other languages, mainly for English. Then we focus on the methodology of creating the EVALD applications and describe datasets used for testing as well as supervised training that EVALD builds on. Furthermore, we analyze in detail a sample of newly acquired language data – texts written by non-native speakers reaching the threshold level of the Czech language acquisition required e.g. for the permanent residence in the Czech Republic – and we focus on linguistic differences between the available text levels. We present the feature set used by EVALD and – based on the analysis – we extend it with new spelling features. Finally, we evaluate the overall performance of various variants of EVALD and provide the analysis of collected results.

The role of cross-linguistic stress pattern frequency and word similarity on the acquisition of English stress pattern by native speakers of Brazilian Portuguese

2012 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amanda Post Silveira
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
American English ◽  
Brazilian Portuguese ◽  
Stress Pattern ◽  
Target Language ◽  
English As Second Language ◽  
Word Similarity ◽  
L1 Transfer

This is a preliminary study in which we investigate the acquisition of English as second language (L2[1]) word stress by native speakers of Brazilian Portuguese (BP, L1[2]). In this paper, we show results of a multiple choice forced choice perception test in which native speakers of American English and native speakers of Dutch judged the production of English words bearing pre-final stress that were both cognates and non-cognates with BP words. The tokens were produced by native speakers of American English and by Brazilians that speak English as a second language. The results have shown that American and Dutch listeners were consistent in their judgments on native and non-native stress productions and both speakers' groups produced variation in stress in relation to the canonical pattern. However, the variability found in American English points to the prosodic patterns of English and the variability found in Brazilian English points to the stress patterns of Portuguese. It occurs especially in words whose forms activate neighboring similar words in the L1. Transfer from the L1 appears both at segmental and prosodic levels in BP English. [1] L2 stands for second language, foreign language, target language. [2] L1 stands for first language, mother tongue, source language.

Terminology in Interlanguage Pragmatics

2004 ◽  
Vol 143-144 ◽  
pp. 109-119
Author(s):  
Giao Quynh Tran
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Interlanguage Pragmatics ◽  
Pragmatic Transfer ◽  
Large Corpus

Abstract Inter language pragmatics research has spanned a number of different areas in second language acquisition and pragmatics. In the large corpus of interlanguage pragmatics studies, basic terms such as “interlanguage pragmatics”, “speech acts” and “pragmatic transfer” have been referred to more often than not. But rarely have we stopped to re-evaluate the applicability and appropriateness of these terms. This paper aims to properly interpret or redefine their meanings and to propose more appropriate terms where possible.

Bioactivity of Marine Natural Product Xyloketals

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Biswajit Panda ◽  
Amal Kumar Gooyee
Keyword(s):  
Natural Products ◽  
Marine Natural Product ◽  
Ischemic Brain Injury ◽  
Ischemic Brain ◽  
Activity Inhibition ◽  
Life Saving ◽  
Behavior Suppression ◽  
Major Emphasis ◽  
Made In

: Oceans can play a major role in supplying life-saving medicines in the world in future. Although considerable progress has been made in finding new medicines from marine sources, large efforts are still necessary to examine such molecules for clinical applications. Xyloketals are an important group of natural products with various powerful and prominent bioactivities such as inhibition of acetylcholine esterase, antioxidant activity, inhibition of L-calcium channels, radicalscavenging behavior, suppression of cell proliferation, reduction of neonatal hypoxic-ischemic brain injury, etc. This review describes the isolation and structural characterization of all xyloketal natural products giving major emphasis on their bioactivity.

Characterization of Auditory Disability and Its Relation to the Resilience

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 15
Author(s):  
Bibian Bibeca Bumbila García ◽  
Hernán Andrés Cedeño Cedeño ◽  
Tatiana Moreira Chica ◽  
Yaritza Rossana Parrales Ríos
Keyword(s):  
Social Integration ◽  
Conceptual Analysis ◽  
Disabled People ◽  
Disabled Students ◽  
Hearing Disability ◽  
Technical University ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Made In

The objective of the work is to establish the characterization of the auditory disability and its relationship with resilience at the Technical University of Manabí. The article shows a conceptual analysis related to the inclusion and social integration of disabled students. Based on the fact that the person with disabilities grows and develops in the same way as that of people without disabilities and what usually happens is that disabled people are rejected and discriminated against based on a prefabricated and erroneous conceptualization of these people. The results associated with the application of the SV-RES test prepared by the researchers are shown (Saavedra & Villalta, 2008b). Characterization of the auditory deficit is made in the students, and the limitations that derive from it are pointed out. We analyze the particularities related to communication with students who have a hearing disability and resilience in this type of student, where some personal highlights that in this sense constitute an example of resilience. Finally, the results related to the study of the relationship between students' hearing disability and the level of resilience dimensions are shown.

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