Cross-linguistic studies of directionality in first language acquisition: the Japanese data – a response to O'Grady, Suzuki-Wei & Cho 1986

Abstract

Elsewhere we have argued on the basis of cross linguistic studies of directionality effects on anaphora in child language, that there is no universal ‘forward directionality preference (FDP)’; rather such a preference is linked to languages with specific grammatical properties. Although such a preference has been attested in English acquisition, matched experimental designs in Japanese, Chinese and Sinhalese, for example, do not show this effect. In this paper we argue that current attempts to show that forward directionality effects can also be induced in Japanese acquisition do not succeed in supporting the FDP. Specifics of the design of stimulus sentences in these experiments vary previous cross-linguistic designs so as to favour forward directionality on independent grounds, and confound cross linguistic comparisons. They in fact support a universal structure dependence in children's hypotheses about directionality of anaphora’.

The word order of languages predicts native speakers’ working memory

“…A bias towards the branching of one’s native language emerges early in life 59,65 , and even young children generalize it when learning a second language 66 . Speakers seem to develop a “bias” toward the branching direction more common in their language, so that LB structures are harder to process for RB speakers (due to the higher working memory needed to retain the intermediate products of computation 67–69 ; see 70 for experimental evidence), but they are more accessible than RB structures for LB speakers 65,71,72 . Therefore, LB speakers might rely more on strategies other than word order to resolve ambiguity during sentence processing 59 .…”

On the acquisition of syntax in Tamil: a comment on Garman (1974)

“…More recent research has independently suggested that children are sensitive to the type of structural difference that characterizes statements (1) and (2) (see Gair, Lust, Sumangala & Rodrigo, (in press), for example, for Sinhalese; and Lust, Wakayama, Snyder, Mazuka & Oshima, 1986, for Japanese -both left-branching languages. (See also Lust & Mazuka, 1989. )…”

“…If children are, in fact, matching predicate order (subordinate, main) to noun order (Nj-N 2 ) in Tamil, they may be doing so because they are adapting strategy I to the basic structure of their language, where left-branching subordinate clauses precede main clauses in unmarked form, as in 5: (s) (°) cooru caappitta payyan rice eat-past-rp boy ('The boy who ate rice') (Asher, 1982: 28) (b) raaman varrappo avarukku panam kitukkareen Raman come-pres-rp-when he-dat money give-pres-is ('When Raman comes, I'll give him the money') (Asher, 1982: 39) Independent evidence for this interpretation arises from recent research, which has shown an early sensitivity to this grammatical property of language in language acquisition (Lust & Wakayama, 1979, 1981Lust, 1983;Lust, Mangione & Chien, 1984;Lust & Mazuka, 1989). (See Lust, in press for a review.…”

Anaphora and branching direction in Japanese

“…In their critique of OSC, Lust & Mazuka (1989) take issue with the syntactic structure that is assigned to the Japanese test sentences. As illustrated below, OSC assume that the antecedent NP in their forward structures is in the embedded clause and the (zero) pronoun in the main clause, as in the corresponding English sentence (see (2) above).…”

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This paper constitutes a response to Lust & Mazuka's (1989) defence of the Principal Branching Direction parameter and their critique of O'Grady, Suzuki-Wei & Cho's (1986) experiment, which purported to show that even children learning left-branching languages exhibit a preference for forward patterns of anaphora. Results of new experimental work with children learning Japanese are reported and shown to support the claim that there is a universal preference for forward patterns of anaphora in the early stages of language acquisition.

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