The Role of L1 Transfer in the Interpretation of Articles with Definite Plurals in L2 English

Abstract

This study examines second language (L2) acquisition of the interpretation of plural noun phrases. Languages with articles differ in whether they use bare plurals (English) or definite plurals (Spanish) to express generic interpretation (Chierchia, 1998;Dayal, 2004; among others). It is hypothesized that Spanish-speaking learners of English transfer the interpretation of definite plurals from their native language. Results of a truth-value judgment task provide support for this hypothesis: Spanish speakers (N = 24) overaccepted the generic interpretation of English definite plurals to a greater extent than proficiency-matched speakers of Korean (N = 29), an articleless language. Results of a follow-up study further show that with advanced proficiency and increased immersion in the target language, Spanish-speaking learners of English (N = 11) were as targetlike as Korean-speaking learners of English (N = 9) on the interpretation of definite plurals, which suggests that recovery from first language transfer is possible. Implications of these findings for theories of L2 acquisition are discussed. portions of this work were presented, for their comments and suggestions. We are also grateful to several anonymous Language Learning reviewers for their comments. IntroductionThe role of the first language (L1) in the acquisition of the second language (L2) has been much debated and discussed in the field of second language acquisition (SLA). Most L2 researchers today agree that at least some aspects of SLA are influenced by the learners' native language, a process known as L1

L1 transfer in article selection for generic reference by Spanish, Turkish and Japanese L2 learners

“…The generic interpretation is available to plural and mass (bare) NPs in the L2 for the Spanish learners and they are able to reassemble features in the L1. Our findings are similar to those of Ionin and Montrul (2010) as learners are able to move from a superset grammar to a subset grammar and are consistent with Slabakova's (2006) findings where learners can correctly move from one type of grammar to another.…”

“…It should lead them to conclude that the definite article is compatible with definiteness but not with generic reference. But, positive L2 input alone is unlikely to inform the Spanish learners that definite plurals lack generic readings (see Ionin & Montrul, 2010). Spanish learners, even at advanced levels of proficiency, would be expected to incorrectly select the definite article for English bare plurals and mass generics, but would also allow/add to their interlanguage grammar the L2 form (bare NPs) and use bare plurals and definite plurals together until definite plurals are eliminated from their grammars.…”

“…This phenomenon has also been observed in White (1992) in the acquisition of L2 English adverb placement. If input alone is not enough then indirect negative evidence (i.e., the nonoccurrence of a structure in the input) may guide the Spanish learners' learning as definite plurals do not occur in the input to refer to kinds (see Ionin & Montrul, 2010 for further discussion). One explanation for the Spanish learners' selection of no article for bare plurals and mass generics on the task is Chierchia's (1998) Avoid Structure principle (part of the Nominal Mapping Parameter), which prevents the use of a determiner for generic interpretation when the same interpretation is available to a bare NP.…”

“…They found that for Spanish speakers, the move from a superset grammar (definite plurals have both generic and specific readings) to a subset grammar like English (bare NPs have generic readings only) is particularly difficult, but at advanced levels of proficiency Spanish speakers recover from L1 transfer as they were able to interpret both definite and bare plurals in a target-like manner. Ionin and Montrul (2010) suggest that, in the case of the Korean speakers, it is easier to select the feature [+definite] than trying to reassemble features for the definite determiner, which the Spanish speakers have to do.…”

Are Lions Green?: Child L2 Learners’ Interpretation of English Generics and Definite Determiners

“…They found that the English-Italian bilinguals who were living in a mostly English environment (i.e., England) were more likely to show cross-linguistic influence than those who were living in a mostly Italian environment (i.e., Italy). Evidence that variations in the input play a role in the interpretation of NPs has also been reported for Spanish heritage speakers [16,17]. Heritage speakers tend to exhibit transfer from their dominant language (e.g., English) to their heritage language (e.g., Spanish).…”