Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rdxmf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T20:32:36.607Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

NATIVELIKE BIASES IN GENERATION OF Wh-QUESTIONS BY NONNATIVE SPEAKERS OF JAPANESE

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 August 2006

Moti Lieberman ,
Sachiko Aoshima  and
Colin Phillips
Moti Lieberman
Affiliation:
McGill University
Sachiko Aoshima
Affiliation:
American University
Colin Phillips
Affiliation:
University of Maryland
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A number of studies of second language (L2) sentence processing have investigated whether ambiguity resolution biases in the native language (L1) transfer to superficially similar cognate structures in the L2. When transfer effects are found in such cases, it is difficult to determine whether they reflect surface parallels between the languages or the operation of more abstract processing mechanisms. Wh-questions in English and Japanese present a valuable test case for investigating the relation between L1 and L2 sentence processing. Native speakers (NSs) of English and Japanese both show strong locality biases in processing wh-questions, but these locality biases are realized in rather different ways in the two languages, due to differences in word order and scope marking. Results from a sentence generation study with NSs of Japanese and advanced English-speaking L2 learners of Japanese show that the L2 learners show a strongly nativelike locality bias in the resolution of scope ambiguities for in situ wh-phrases, despite the fact that the closest analogue of such an interpretation is impossible in English. This indicates that L2 learners are guided by abstract processing mechanisms and not just by superficial transfer from the L1.This research was supported in part by grants to Colin Phillips from the National Science Foundation (BCS-0196004) and the Human Frontier Science Program (RGY-0134). We are also grateful to Ellen Lau, Kaori Ozawa, Rozz Thornton, and Masaya Yoshida for valuable discussions of the study, to Deborah Eastman, Gretchen Jones, Eiko Miura, Yoshiko Mori, and Lindsay Yotsukura for assistance with recruiting the Japanese learners, and to John Matthews for assistance with the testing of the Japanese NS group.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Second Language Acquisition , Volume 28 , Issue 3 , September 2006 , pp. 423 - 448
Copyright
© 2006 Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Aoshima, S., Phillips, C., & Weinberg, A. (2004). Processing filler-gap dependencies in a head-final language. Journal of Memory and Language, 51, 23–54.Google Scholar
Baker, C.L. (1970). Notes on the description of English questions: The role of an abstract question morpheme. Foundations of Language, 6, 197–219.Google Scholar
Banno, E., Ohno, Y., Sakane, Y., Shinagawa, C., & Tokashiki, K. (1999). Genki I and II: An integrated course in elementary Japanese. Tokyo: The Japan Times.
Beck, M.-L. (1998). L2 acquisition and obligatory head movement: English-speaking learners of German and the local impairment hypothesis. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 20, 311–348.Google Scholar
Bley-Vroman, R. (1990). The logical problem of foreign language learning. Linguistic Analysis, 20, 3–49.Google Scholar
Boland, J. & Cutler, A. (1996). Interaction with autonomy: Multiple output models and the inadequacy of the Great Divide. Cognition, 58, 309–320.Google Scholar
Clahsen, H. (1988). Parameterized grammatical theory and language acquisition: A study of the acquisition of verb placement and inflection by children and adults. In S. Flynn & W. O'Neil (Eds.), Linguistic theory in second language acquisition (pp. 47–75). Dordrecht: Kluwer.
Clahsen, H. & Muysken, P. (1989). The UG paradox in L2 acquisition. Second Language Research, 5, 1–29.Google Scholar
Cook, V. & Newson, M. (1996). Chomsky's Universal Grammar: An introduction. Oxford: Blackwell.
Crain, S. & Fodor, J.D. (1985). How can grammars help parsers? In D. Dowty, D. Kartunnen, & A. M. Zwicky (Eds.), Natural language parsing: Psycholinguistic, computational, and theoretical perspectives (pp. 94–128). New York: Cambridge University Press.
de Vincenzi, M. (1991). Syntactic parsing strategies in Italian. Dordrecht: Kluwer.
Dussias, P. (2003). Syntactic ambiguity resolution in L2 learners. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 25, 529–557.Google Scholar
Epstein, S., Flynn, S., & Martohardjono, G. (1996). Second language acquisition: Theoretical and experimental issues in contemporary research. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 19, 677–758.Google Scholar
Eubank, L. (1993/1994). On the transfer of parametric values in L2 acquisition. Language Acquisition, 3, 183–208.Google Scholar
Felser, C., Roberts, L., & Marinis, T. (2003). The processing of ambiguous sentences by first and second language learners of English. Applied Psycholinguistics, 24, 453–489.Google Scholar
Fernández, E. (1999). Processing strategies in second language acquisition. In E. Klein & G. Martohardjono (Eds.), The development of second language grammars: A generative approach (pp. 217–239). Amsterdam: Benjamins.
Fodor, J.D. (1978). Parsing strategies and constraints on transformations. Linguistic Inquiry, 9, 427–473.Google Scholar
Franceschina, F. (2001). Morphological or syntactic deficits in near-native speakers? An assessment of current proposals. Second Language Research, 17, 213–247.Google Scholar
Frazier, L. (1987). Syntactic processing: Evidence from Dutch. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, 5, 519–560.Google Scholar
Frazier, L. & Clifton, C., Jr. (1989). Successive cyclicity in the grammar and the parser. Language and Cognitive Processes, 4, 93–126.Google Scholar
Frazier, L. & Flores d'Arcais, G.B. (1989). Filler-driven parsing: A study of gap filling in Dutch. Journal of Memory and Language, 28, 331–344.Google Scholar
Frenck-Mestre, C. (1997). Examining second language reading: An on-line look. In A. Sorace, C. Heycock, & R. Shillcock (Eds.), Language acquisition: Knowledge representation and processing—GALA 1997 (pp. 444–448). Edinburgh, Scotland: Human Communications Research Center.
Garnsey, S.M., Tanenhaus, M.K., & Chapman, R.M. (1989). Evoked potentials and the study of sentence comprehension. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 18, 51–60.Google Scholar
Hawkins, R. & Chan, C.Y.-H. (1997). The partial availability of Universal Grammar in second language acquisition: The ‘failed functional features hypothesis’. Second Language Research, 13, 187–226Google Scholar
Haznedar, B. & Schwartz, B.D. (1997). Are there optional infinitives in child L2 acquisition? In E. Hughes, M. Hughes, & A. Greenhill (Eds.), Proceedings of the 21st Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development (pp. 257–268). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.
Hoover, M.L. & Dwivedi, V.D. (1998). Syntactic processing by skilled bilinguals. Language Learning, 48, 1–29.Google Scholar
International Christian University. (1996). Japanese for college students I, II & III. Tokyo: Kodansha International.
Jorden, E.H. (1987). Japanese: The spoken language part I. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Jorden, E.H. (1988). Japanese: The spoken language part II. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Jorden, E.H. & Noda, M. (1990). Japanese: The spoken language part III. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Juffs, A. (1998). Main verb versus reduced relative clause ambiguity resolution in L2 sentence processing. Language Learning, 48, 107–147.Google Scholar
Juffs, A. & Harrington, M. (1995). Parsing effects in second language sentence processing: Subject and object asymmetries in wh-extraction. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 17, 483–516.Google Scholar
Juffs, A. & Harrington, M. (1996). Garden path sentences and error data in second language sentence processing. Language Learning, 46, 283–326.Google Scholar
Kaan, E. (1997). Processing subject-object ambiguities in Dutch. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Groningen, The Netherlands.
Kaan, E., Harris, A., Gibson, E., & Holcomb, P. (2000). The P600 as an index of syntactic integration difficulty. Language and Cognitive Processes, 15, 159–201.Google Scholar
Kanno, K. (1997). The acquisition of null and overt pronominals in Japanese by English speakers. Second Language Research, 13, 265–287.Google Scholar
Lardiere, D. (1998). Case and tense in the ‘fossilized’ steady state. Second Language Research, 13, 1–26.Google Scholar
Lee, M.-W. (2004). Another look at the role of empty categories in sentence processing (and grammar). Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 33, 51–73.Google Scholar
Liu, H., Bates, E., & Li, P. (1992). Sentence interpretation in bilingual speakers of English and Chinese. Applied Psycholinguistics, 13, 451–484.Google Scholar
MacWhinney, B. (1987). The competition model. In B. MacWhinney (Ed.), Mechanisms of language acquisition (pp. 249–308). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
MacWhinney, B. (2005). A unified model of language acquisition. In J. Kroll & A. de Groot (Eds.), Handbook of bilingualism: Psycholinguistic approaches. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Makino, S., Hasata, Y.A., & Hasata, K. (1998). Nakama I & II. New York: Houghton Mifflin.
Makino, S. & Tsutsui, M. (1986). A dictionary of basic Japanese grammar. Tokyo: The Japan Times.
Makino, S. & Tsutsui, M. (1995). A dictionary of intermediate Japanese grammar. Tokyo: The Japan Times.
McDonald, J.L. & Heilenman, K. (1991). Determinants of cue strength in adult first and second language speakers of French. Applied Psycholinguistics, 12, 313–348.Google Scholar
McKoon, G., Ratcliff, R., & Ward, G. (1994). Testing theories of language processing: An empirical investigation of the on-line lexical decision task. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 20, 1219–1228.Google Scholar
Miyamoto, E.T. (2002). Case markers as clause boundary inducers in Japanese. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 31, 307–347.Google Scholar
Miyamoto, E.T. & Takahashi, S. (2002). The processing of wh-phrases and interrogative complementizers in Japanese. In N. M. Akatsuka & S. Strauss (Eds.), Japanese/Korean linguistics 10 (pp. 62–75). Stanford: CSLI.
Miyara, S. (1982). Reordering in Japanese. Linguistic Analysis, 9, 307–340.Google Scholar
Nemoto, N. (1999). Scrambling. In N. Tsujimura. (Ed.), Handbook of Japanese linguistics (pp. 121–153). Oxford: Blackwell.
Nicol, J., Fodor, J.D., & Swinney, D. (1994). Using cross-modal lexical decision tasks to investigate sentence processing. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 20, 1229–1238.Google Scholar
Nicol, J.L. & Swinney, D. (1989). The role of structure in coreference assignment during sentence comprehension. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 18, 5–20.Google Scholar
Nishigauchi, T. (1990). Quantification in the theory of grammar. Dordrecht: Kluwer.
Papadopoulou, D. & Clahsen, H. (2003). Parsing strategies in L1 and L2 sentence processing: A study of relative clause attachment in Greek. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 25, 501–528.Google Scholar
Pérez-Leroux, A.T. & Glass, W. (1999). Null anaphora in Spanish SLA. Second Language Research, 15, 220–249.Google Scholar
Phillips, C., Kazanina, N., & Abada, S. (2005). ERP effects of the processing of syntactic long-distance dependencies. Cognitive Brain Research, 22, 407–428.Google Scholar
Pickering, M.J. & Barry, G.D. (1991). Sentence processing without empty categories. Language and Cognitive Processes, 6, 229–259.Google Scholar
Prévost, P. & White, L. (2000). Missing surface inflection or impairment in second language acquisition? Evidence from tense and agreement. Second Language Research, 16, 103–133.Google Scholar
Radó, J. (1999, March). Some effects of discourse salience on gap-filling. Poster presented at the 12th CUNY Conference on Human Sentence Processing, New York.
Sag, I.A. & Fodor, J.D. (1994). Extraction without traces. In R. Aranovich, W. Byrne, S. Preuss, & M. Senturia (Eds.), Proceedings of the 13th Meeting of the West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics (pp. 365–384). Stanford, CA: CSLI.
Saito, M. (1985). Some asymmetries in Japanese and their theoretical implications. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, MIT, Cambridge, MA.
Schachter, J. (1988). Second language acquisition and its relationship to Universal Grammar. Applied Linguistics, 9, 219–235.Google Scholar
Schlesewsky, M., Fanselow, G., Kliegl, R., & Krems, J. (2000). The subject preference in the processing of locally ambiguous wh-questions in German. In B. Hemforth & L. Konieczny (Eds.), German sentence processing (pp. 65–93). Dordrecht: Kluwer.
Schwartz, B.D. & Sprouse, R. (1994). L2 cognitive states and the full transfer/full access model. Second Language Research, 12, 40–72.Google Scholar
Schwartz, B.D. & Sprouse, R. (1996). Word order and nominative case in nonnative language acquisition: A longitudinal study of (L1 Turkish) German interlanguage. In T. Hoekstra & B. D. Schwartz (Eds.), Language acquisition studies in generative grammar (pp. 317–368). Amsterdam: Benjamins.
Sekerina, I.A. (2003). Scrambling and processing: Dependencies, complexity, and constraints. In S. Karimi (Ed.), Word order and scrambling (pp. 301–324). Oxford: Blackwell.
Stowe, L.A. (1986). Parsing WH-constructions: Evidence for on-line gap location. Language and Cognitive Processes, 1, 227–245.Google Scholar
Sussman, R.S. & Sedivy, J.C. (2003). The time-course of processing syntactic dependencies: Evidence from eye-movements. Language and Cognitive Processes, 18, 143–163.Google Scholar
Takezawa, K. (1989). A configurational approach to case-marking in Japanese. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Washington, Seattle.
Tohsaku, Y. (1995). Yookoso! Continuing with contemporary Japanese 1 and 2. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Traxler, M. & Pickering, M. (1996). Plausibility and the processing of unbounded dependencies: An eye-tracking study. Journal of Memory and Language, 35, 454–475.Google Scholar
White, L. (1989). Universal Grammar and second language acquisition. Amsterdam: Benjamins.
White, L. (1996). Universal Grammar and second language acquisition: Current trends and new directions. In W. Ritchie & T. Bhatia (Eds.), Handbook of second language acquisition (pp. 85–120). San Diego: Academic Press.
White, L. (2000). Second language acquisition: From initial to final state. In J. Archibald (Ed.), Second language acquisition and linguistic theory (pp. 130–155). Oxford: Blackwell.