Accounting for English article interpretation by L2 speakers

Abstract

Ionin, Ko and Wexler (2004a) have shown that L2 speakers of English whose L1’s lack articles (Russian and Korean) appear to fluctuate in their interpretation of the and a, allowing them to encode either definiteness or specificity. They argue that these are two options of an Article Choice Parameter offered by Universal Grammar, and that the Russian and Korean speakers fluctuate between them when they are acquiring English. In the present study it is shown that a similar pattern can be observed in L2 speakers of English whose L1 is Japanese (also a language that lacks articles) but not in speakers whose L1 is Greek, a language with articles that encode definiteness like English. It is also shown that while group results for the Japanese speakers suggest fluctuation, individual results do not. It is argued that an account can be given of both cases which does not require appeal either to an Article Choice Parameter or to the concept of ‘fluctuation’. The alternative proposal made here is consistent with Universal Grammar, and follows from an organisation of the grammar where phonological exponents are separated from the lexical items manipulated by syntactic computations, as in Distributed Morphology. It is suggested that a descriptively adequate account which avoids a construction-specific parameter like the Article Choice Parameter and departure from the normal assumptions of UG represented by fluctuation should be preferred.

The acquisition of articles in child second language English: fluctuation, transfer or both?

“…The FH is formulated as an account of article misuse, not omission; however a feature-assembly based approach like that of Hawkins et al (2006), or a Full Transfer/Full Access-(FT/FA) based account of functional structure and features (e.g. Schwartz and Sprouse, 1996) hold promise for incorporating both misuse and zero articles.…”

“…L2 learners of English often have persistent difficulty in the use of determiners until very late stages of acquisition, or do not ever reach native-like levels of performance. Studies that include comparisons of L2 learners from first-language (L1) backgrounds with and without article systems suggest that L1 transfer most likely plays a role in L2 learners' acquisition of English articles (Master, 1987;Murphy, 1997;Wakabayashi, 1997;Trademan, 2002;Hawkins et al, 2006;Snape et al, 2006;Ionin et al, in press). A recent and influential proposal put forward by Ionin and colleagues -the Fluctuation Hypothesis -makes specific predictions for the development of the English article system, and its most recent formulation takes L1 background into account (Ionin and Wexler, 2003;Ionin et al, 2004;Ionin et al, in press).…”

Third language acquisition: why it is interesting to generative linguists

“…Hawkins and colleagues (e.g. Hawkins and Chan, 1997;Franceschina, 2001;Hawkins and Liszka, 2003;Hawkins et al, 2006), with their Failed Functional Features Hypothesis (recently known as the Representational Deficit Hypothesis), have also argued for persistent L1 influence owing to critical period effects to explain certain Youhanaee and Dawwari (2005) on the acquisition of psych verbs in L3 English by Arabic-Persian bilinguals; Na Ranong and Leung (2005) on L1 Thai-L2 English-L3 Mandarin Chinese null subjects and null objects as well as Jaensch (in progress) on the acquisition of German DPs by Japanese-English bilinguals with differing L2 and L3 proficiency levels.…”

The use of articles in L2 English: A phraseological perspective

“…Among the various research findings pertaining to article use by learners of English as a second language, perhaps the most robust finding is that article use strongly depends on crosslinguistic factors: Speakers of article-less languages find them much more problematic (e.g., Hawkins et al, 2006;Ionin, Zabizarreta, & Maldonado, 2008;Snape, 2008;Zdorenko & Paradis, 2008). Many studies focus on the problems with articles which learners face in the early stages of L2 acquisition.…”