1,651 research outputs found

    A Look into the Acquisition of English Motion Event Conflation by Native Speakers of Chinese and Japanese

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    L1 transfer in the acquisition of manner and path in Spanish by native speakers of English

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    In this article the authors argue that L1 transfer from English is not only important in the early stages of L2 acquisition of Spanish, but remains influential in later stages if there is not enough positive evidence for the learners to progress in their development (Lefebvre, White, & Jourdan, 2006). The findings are based on analyses of path and manner of movement in stories told by British students of Spanish (N = 68) of three different proficiency levels. Verbs that conflate motion and path, on the one hand, are mastered early, possibly because the existence of Latinate path verbs, such as enter and ascend in English, facilitate their early acquisition by British learners of Spanish. Contrary to the findings of Cadierno (2004) and Cadierno and Ruiz (2006), the encoding of manner, in particular in boundary crossing contexts, seems to pose enormous difficulties, even among students who had been abroad on a placement in a Spanish-speaking country prior to the data collection. An analysis of the frequency of manner verbs in Spanish corpora shows that one of the key reasons why students struggle with manner is that manner verbs are so infrequent in Spanish. The authors claim that scarce positive evidence in the language exposed to and little or no negative evidence are responsible for the long-lasting effect of transfer on the expression of manner

    Chinese Causative Resultative V-Vs and Their Acquisition by L1 European Portuguese Learners

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    The Chinese Causative Resultative V-Vs (CR V-Vs) express caused-result events, with the component denoting the Manner (causing eventuality) and the one encoding the Result in adjacency. They constitute an interesting construction since they exhibit both lexical and syntactic properties, show thematic flexibility, and sometimes are semantically ambiguous. In previous studies, authors generally fell into one of the following two groups: some claim that CR V-Vs are formed on the lexical level, while others claim that CR V-Vs are formed on the syntactic level. In this study, within the framework of the Minimalist Program and under the assumptions of Distributed Morphology, we attempt to provide an account that can explain CR V-Vs’ properties holistically, including lexical properties such as V-V integrity and the “small size” constraint, and syntactic properties such as productivity and semantic compositionality, as well as other observed constraints such as the semantic constraint on V2 and the constraints related to causative alternation. More importantly, the syntactic structure we propose can account for the thematic flexibility and the semantic ambiguity of some CR V-Vs, which have attracted a lot of attention and imposed difficulty for explanation in the literature. In particular, we propose that Chinese CR V-Vs involve the head vCAUSE. The Mannerdenoting root conflates to it as an adjunct, and the Result-denoting root is incorporated to it as its Complement. Contrastingly, Portuguese does not allow either Manner Conflation or rootselecting vCAUSE. Therefore, for L1 Portuguese learners to acquire L2 Chinese CR V-Vs, parameter resetting will be required. To find out the accessibility of Universal Grammar (UG), the role of L1, and the attainability of parameter resetting in L2 acquisition, we conducted an experiment with 27 L1 Portuguese speakers learning Chinese as L2 (intermediate to advanced level) and 27 Chinese native speakers. The experiment includes three tasks: a semi-elicited production task (SPT), a grammaticality judgment task (GJT), and a comprehension task (CT). Results show a general positive developmental trend in CR V-Vs’ production and comprehension and successful acquisition of some CR V-V constraints, which is a strong argument for UG access. Nativelike performance is observed in some L2 learners’ responses in the SPT and CT, showing the attainability of parameter resetting. L1 transfer of both lexical properties and functional categories has been detected. However, some apparent evidence of L1 transfer of functional category properties is ambiguous because they can also be interpreted as evidence of UG access (similar to L1 acquisition). In general, the results of our study support an argument in favor of the Full Transfer Full Access hypothesis (Schwartz & Sprouse, 1994, 1996) of L2 acquisition. Nevertheless, the results of our study are not exclusively successful. We find that different aspects of the L2 grammars form a hierarchy of acquisition difficulty. While the L2 learners were successful in acquiring properties such as the V2 constraint, the V-V integrity, and the causative alternation constraints, they did not show sensitivity to constraints such as the V-V adjacency, and proficiency effect was not detected. It seems that parameter resetting does not guarantee successful acquisition. We attribute the L2 grammar variations to factors such as the Feature Reassembly (Lardiere, 2005, 2008, 2009a, b), processing difficulties, and the input quality. The L2 acquisition process is more complicated than selecting the correct values for parameters. The learners should also learn how the bundles of features are realized in L2, namely, the Feature Reassembly. Moreover, since frequency plays an important role in efficient acquisition (see Yang, 2010), the processing difficulty and the ambiguous input may complicate the acquisition process and decrease the acquisition efficiency. When the natural input quality is poor, explicit instruction may be needed to help. Furthermore, we hypothesize that the Bottleneck Hypothesis (Slabakova, 2009, 2014, 2016, 2019) and the distinction between macroparameters and microparameters (Baker, 2008; Slabakova, 2019; Tsimpli, 2014) may also provide an explanation: the acquisition of microparameters is more difficult than that of the macroparameters; the core syntax and semantics come easily, but the functional morphology imposes the most difficulties.As sequências de verbos Causativos Resultativos V-V em Chinês (CR V-Vs) expressam eventos resultado-causado, com o componente que denota a Maneira (que causa eventualidade) e aquele que codifica o Resultado a ocorrem em adjacência. É uma construção interessante, uma vez que exibe propriedades lexicais e sintáticas particulares, mostra flexibilidade temática e às vezes é semanticamente ambígua. Em estudos anteriores, os autores dividiram-se geralmente em dois grupos: alguns afirmam que os CR V-Vs são formados no léxico, enquanto outros defendem que os CR V-Vs são formados na sintaxe. Neste estudo, dentro do quadro teórico do Programa Minimalista e sob os pressupostos da Morfologia Distribuída, tentamos fornecer uma abordagem que pode explicar as propriedades CR V-Vs de forma holística, incluindo propriedades lexicais, como a integridade e a restrição de “tamanho”, e propriedades sintáticas, como a produtividade e a composicionalidade semântica, bem como outras restrições observadas, tal como a restrição semântica sobre V2 e as restrições relacionadas com a alternância causativa. Além disso, a nossa proposta pode explicar a flexibilidade temática e a ambiguidade semântica de alguns CR V-Vs, que sido objeto de amplo debate na literatura. Em particular, propomos que os CR V-Vs chineses envolvem o núcleo vCAUSE. A raiz (root) que denota Maneira funde-se (Conflate) com vCAUSE como um adjunto e a raiz que denota Resultado é incorporada (Incorporate) em vCAUSE como seu Complemento. Em contraste, o português não permite Manner Conflation nem a opção root-selecting de vCAUSE. Portanto, para que os alunos de L1 português e L2 chinês adquiram os CR V-Vs, será necessário refixar os parâmetros. Para explorar as questões de acessibilidade à Gramática Universal (GU), o papel da L1 e a possibilidade de refixação de parâmetros na aquisição de L2, levámos a cabo um experiência com 27 falantes de L1 português aprendentes de chinês como L2 (nível intermédio a avançado) e 27 falantes nativos de chinês. A experiência inclui três tarefas: uma Tarefa de Produção Semi- Induzida (SPT), uma Tarefa de Julgamento de Grammaticidade (GJT) e uma Tarefa de Compreensão (CT). Os resultados mostram, na generalidade, uma tendência de desenvolvimento positivo na produção e compreensão dos CR V-Vs e a aquisição de algumas restrições das construções CR V-Vs, o que é um forte argumento a favor da acessibilidade à UG. Observa-se um desempenho semelhante ao dos nativos nas respostas dos aprendentes L2 na SPT e na CT, o que favorece a hipótese de refixação de parâmetros. A transferência das propriedades lexicais e das categorias funcionais da L1 foi detectada. No entanto, algumas evidências aparentes de transferência L1 de propriedades das categorias funcionais são ambíguas porque também podem ser interpretadas como evidências de acesso à UG (semelhante à aquisição de L1). Em geral, os resultados do nosso estudo constituem um argumento a favor da hipótese Full Transfer Full Access (Schwartz & Sprouse, 1994, 1996) da aquisição de L2. Contudo, os resultados do nosso estudo não apontam todos para uma aquisição com sucesso. Descobrimos que diferentes aspectos da gramática da L2 formam uma hierarquia de dificuldade de aquisição. Enquanto os aprendentes da L2 foram bem sucedidos na aquisição de propriedades como a restrição V2, a integridade V-V e as restrições de alternância causativas, não mostraram sensibilidade a restrições como a adjacência V-V, e nao foi detectado qualquer efeito de proficiência (entre o nível intermédio e o avançado). É possível que a refixação de parâmetros não garanta uma aquisição bem sucedida. Atribuímos as variações da gramática L2 a fatores como a reconfiguração de traços (Feature Reassembly Hypothesis, Lardiere, 2005, 2008, 2009a, b), dificuldades de processamento e a qualidade do input. O processo de aquisição da L2 é mais complicado do que apenas selecionar os valores corretos para os parâmetros. Os aprendentes também devem aprender como são configurados os traços na L2, nomeadamente, tendo em conta a Feature Reassembly Hypothesis. Além disso, uma vez que a frequência desempenha um papel importante na aquisição (veja-se Yang, 2010), a dificuldade de processamento e o input ambíguo podem tornar complexo o processo e diminuir a eficácia da aquisição. Quando a qualidade do input natural é deficiente, as instruções explícitas podem ajudar. Além disso, a Bottleneck Hypothesis (Slabakova, 2009, 2014, 2016, 2019) e a distinção entre macroparâmetros e microparâmetros (Baker, 2008; Slabakova, 2019; Tsimpli, 2014) também podem fornecer uma explicação: a aquisição de microparâmetros é mais difícil que a de macroparâmetros; a sintaxe e a semântica essenciais adquirem-se facilmente, mas a morfologia funcional impõe maiores dificuldades

    The role of force dynamics and intentionality in the reconstruction of L2 verb meanings:A Danish-Spanish bidirectional study

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    This paper examines the role of force dynamics and intentionality in the description of placement events by two groups of native speakers of typologically and genetically different languages, Danish and Spanish, and by two groups of intermediate adult learners, Danish learners of L2 Spanish and Spanish learners of L2 Danish. The results of the study showed that (a) force dynamics and intentionality are important semantic components in both languages, but their distribution and relative focus differed crosslinguistically, and (b) the two learner groups had difficulties in reconstructing the meanings of the L2 verbs involving these two semantic components. Learning difficulties were observed when moving from a less to a more complex L2 system, when moving in the opposite direction, i.e., from a more to a less complex L2 system and when moving to an L2 system that is as complex as the learners native one

    The Influence of Language-Specific and Universal Factors on Acquisition of Motion Verbs

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    This study explores children’s encoding of novel verbs referring to motion events, and finds influence of both language-specific and universal constraints on meaning. Motion verbs fall into two categories—manner verbs encode how a movement happens (run, swim), and path verbs encode the starting and ending point of a motion (enter, fall). Some languages express path more frequently in the verb (Spanish, Hebrew), and others manner more frequently (English, German). Our study expands on this previous work demonstrating sensitivity to these language-specific distributions, as well as expanding to test environmental factors representing a predictable universal distribution. We find that children are sensitive to both the language-specific factors as well as the universal factors in motion verb acquisition

    Lexicon-Syntax interface in second language acquisition: evidence from L2 Japanese

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