Interpretation of English multiple wh-questions by Japanese speakers: a                 missing uninterpretable feature account

Hawkins, Roger; Hattori, Hitoshi

doi:10.1191/0267658306sr269oa

Cited by 226 publications

(204 citation statements)

References 26 publications

(28 reference statements)

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“…L2 learners, by contrast, receive variable L2 input in type (instructed, naturalistic), amount (more or less frequent) and quality (native vs. non-native), and may not use the L2 as much as L1 learners. The notion that there is a biologically determined propitious time in early childhood during which being exposed to language is crucial for developing linguistic skills has figured prominently in explanations of why adult L2 learners rarely reach the level of linguistic ability of native speakers (see, among others, Bley-Vroman, 1990;Long, 1990;Schachter, 1990;Johnson and Newport, 1991;Meisel, 1997;DeKeyser, 2003;Hyltenstam and Abrahamsson, 2003;Paradis, 2004;Hawkins and Hattori, 2006;Tsimpli and Dimitrakopoulou, 2007). Other researchers downplay the effects of age, maintaining that access to Universal Grammar is not subject to a critical period (Epstein et al, 1996;White and Genesee, 1996).…”

Section: The Relevance Of Heritage Language Speakers/learners Formentioning

confidence: 99%

Review article: Second language acquisition welcomes the heritage language learner: opportunities of a new field

Montrul

2008

Second Language Research

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Section: The Relevance Of Heritage Language Speakers/learners Formentioning

confidence: 99%

Review article: Second language acquisition welcomes the heritage language learner: opportunities of a new field

Montrul

2008

Second Language Research

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“…Proposals claiming a deficit in knowledge for adult L2 learners have been formulated based on L2 learners' performance errors (e.g., Bley-Vroman, 1990;Clahsen & Muysken, 1986;Eubank, 1993Eubank, /1994Eubank, , 1994Hawkins & Chan, 1997;Hawkins & Hattori, 2006;Hawkins & Liszka, 2003;Tsimpli, 2003;Tsimpli & Dimitrakopoulou, 2007). This approach often links competence deficits with critical period effects reflecting learners' maturational changes, as, for instance, in a claim made by Beck (1999, p. 316): "The morphosyntactic features that require or prohibit thematic verb raising become impaired during the course of maturation."…”

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confidence: 99%

Unveiling linguistic competence by facilitating performance

Kim

2015

Language Acquisition

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This dissertation looks at the question of whether the source of language learners' poor performance is a deficit in knowledge or a performance problem. Two constructions are examined, both being cases in which learners have been reported to show deficits in linguistic competence: (1) Korean OSV (e.g., Elmo-lul Big Bird-ka anayo. 'Elmo, Big Bird is hugging.'), where knowledge of both scrambling and case markers is necessary for target performance; (2) the English tough construction (English TC; e.g., The doll i is easy to see e i ), where knowledge of tough movement is necessary for target performance (i.e., the object interpretation only). If poor performance (operationalized as chance performance or below) is due to a failure to apply knowledge rather than the absence of knowledge, good performance (i.e., significantly-above-chance performance) should emerge with the effective manipulation of non-grammatical factors to facilitate learners' application of knowledge. I experimentally tested this hypothesis in two studies, employing both (a) sentence-internal manipulations and (b) sentence-external manipulations. The Korean OSV study collected data from Korean Heritage children (KHC) (n = 31) as well as two groups of native Korean-speaking children, a younger group (n = 21) and an older group (n = 23). The English TC study collected data from native Korean-speaking adult L2ers of English (n = 49) and native Korean-speaking child L2ers of English (n = 30), along with adult native speaker controls (n = 10). Study 1:Knowledge of scrambling and case in Korean was assessed, first, via picture-selection comprehension tasks that (a) manipulated the prosodic salience of case markers and (b) manipulated context to make the direct object a natural scrambled topic, and, second, via a production task eliciting case markers. The results suggested three possible sources of poor performance. Many participants showed good performance only in the manipulation conditions (vs. the baseline condition), suggesting that their poor performance in the baseline condition could be due to a performance problem (e.g., perception failure or a heavy processing load). Some participants showed absence or errors of case in the production task, which suggests that their poor performance could come from a deficit in knowledge of case or from a mapping problem between a Case feature and case morphology. Comparisons between the Korean and the English TVJT results revealed a strong subject-interpretation bias in both languages for lower proficiency adult and child L2ers but only in Korean for higher proficiency adult L2ers, which suggests that L2ers do transfer their L1 subject interpretation but can subsequently unlearn it--despite an (ostensible) absence of negative evidence. However, (most of) the high proficiency adult L2ers still showed (below) chance performance in the error-inducing conditions, which suggests that non-grammatical factors can conceal knowledge of the English TC that some of them actually have.The two studies show that p...

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“…These include (i) the frequency of present perfect (resultative and existential) and simple past in both CG and SG, (ii) the age when the young learners differentiate between simple past and present perfect (existential vs. resultative) in their native languages (CG and SG), and (iii) the school curriculum in Cyprus and Greece, in private and government educational settings with the focus on the teaching of tenses (simple past and present perfect). Lastly, further research within the framework of the Interpretability Hypothesis (Tsimpli, 2003;Hawkins & Hattori, 2006), relevant to the syntax-semantics and syntax-discourse interfaces, is needed for a deeper understanding of whether we are dealing here with transfer from L1 or difficulties in interpretability in L2.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

L2 acquisition of English present perfect interpretations

Karpava

Agouraki

2013

Journal of Portuguese Linguistics

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Interpretation of English multiple wh-questions by Japanese speakers: a missing uninterpretable feature account

Abstract: To cite this version:Roger Hawkins, Hajime Hattori. Interpretation of English multiple wh-questions by Japanese speakers: a missing uninterpretable feature account.

Cited by 226 publications

References 26 publications

Review article: Second language acquisition welcomes the heritage language learner: opportunities of a new field

Review article: Second language acquisition welcomes the heritage language learner: opportunities of a new field

Unveiling linguistic competence by facilitating performance

L2 acquisition of English present perfect interpretations

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