Pair-list readings in Korean-Japanese, Chinese-Japanese and English-Japanese interlanguage

TY - JOUR

T1 - Pair-list readings in Korean-Japanese, Chinese-Japanese and English-Japanese interlanguage

AU - Marsden, Heather

PY - 2008/4

Y1 - 2008/4

N2 - In English and Chinese, questions with a wh-object and a universally quantified subject (e.g. What did everyone buy?) allow an individual answer (Everyone bought apples.) and a pair-list answer (Sam bought apples, Jo bought bananas, Sally bought...). By contrast, the pair-list answer is reportedly unavailable in Japanese and Korean. This article documents an experimental investigation of the interpretation of such questions in non-native Japanese by learners whose first languages (L1s) are Korean, Chinese or English. The results show that, regardless of L1, only a minority of advanced second language (L2) Japanese learners demonstrate knowledge of the absence of pair-list readings in Japanese. In English-Japanese and Chinese-Japanese interlanguage, L1 transfer readily accounts for this finding: the L1 grammar, which allows pair-list readings, may obstruct acquisition of the more restrictive Japanese grammar. But in Korean-Japanese interlanguage, L1 transfer predicts rejection of pair-list answers. However, in a Korean version of the experimental task, a native Korean control group robustly accepts pair-list readings, contra expectations. A proposal to account for this finding is put forward, under which the Korean-Japanese interlanguage data become compatible with an L1-transfer-based model of L2 acquisition. Moreover, the native-like rejection of pair-list readings by some advanced learners of all three L1 backgrounds is argued to imply that UG constraints operate at the L2 syntax-semantics interface.

AB - In English and Chinese, questions with a wh-object and a universally quantified subject (e.g. What did everyone buy?) allow an individual answer (Everyone bought apples.) and a pair-list answer (Sam bought apples, Jo bought bananas, Sally bought...). By contrast, the pair-list answer is reportedly unavailable in Japanese and Korean. This article documents an experimental investigation of the interpretation of such questions in non-native Japanese by learners whose first languages (L1s) are Korean, Chinese or English. The results show that, regardless of L1, only a minority of advanced second language (L2) Japanese learners demonstrate knowledge of the absence of pair-list readings in Japanese. In English-Japanese and Chinese-Japanese interlanguage, L1 transfer readily accounts for this finding: the L1 grammar, which allows pair-list readings, may obstruct acquisition of the more restrictive Japanese grammar. But in Korean-Japanese interlanguage, L1 transfer predicts rejection of pair-list answers. However, in a Korean version of the experimental task, a native Korean control group robustly accepts pair-list readings, contra expectations. A proposal to account for this finding is put forward, under which the Korean-Japanese interlanguage data become compatible with an L1-transfer-based model of L2 acquisition. Moreover, the native-like rejection of pair-list readings by some advanced learners of all three L1 backgrounds is argued to imply that UG constraints operate at the L2 syntax-semantics interface.

KW - L2 Japanese

KW - pair-list readings

KW - wh-questions

KW - quantifier interpretation

KW - L2 poverty of the stimulus

KW - syntax - semantics interface

KW - Korean

KW - Chinese

KW - QUANTIFIER SCOPE

KW - WH

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=54349104903&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1177/0267658307086301

DO - 10.1177/0267658307086301

M3 - Article

VL - 24

SP - 189

EP - 226

JO - Second Language Research

JF - Second Language Research

IS - 2

ER -