The Acquisition of the Narrow-Range Rules for the Dative Alternation in English by Japanese and Chinese Adult Learners of English

Inagaki, Shunji

The Acquisition of the Narrow-Range Rules for the Dative Alternation in English by Japanese and Chinese Adult Learners of English

Files

Inagaki (1994)_WP13(1).pdf (8.05 MB)

Date

1994

Authors

Inagaki, Shunji

Advisor

Brown, James D.

Department

University of Hawaii at Manoa. Department of English as a Second Language.

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether adult Japanese and chinese learners of Engish have access to the narrow-range rules for the dative alternation in English Proposed by Pinker (1989). Speclfically, based on certain analyses of the dative constructions in Japanese and chinese and Bley-Vroman's Fundamental Difference Hypothesis. It was hypothesized that (a) adult Japanese learners of English would have access to the dative consequence of ballisticness, but not to the syntactic consequence of manner of speaking for the drtl-ve elternation in English and that (b) adult Chinese learners of English would have access to the latter, but not to the former. Thirty-two native speakerg of English, thirty-two adult Japanese learners of English and thirty-two adult Chinese learners of English served as subjects. A modified version of the questionnaire containing real and made-up verbs developed by Yoshinaga (1991) and Bley-Vroman and Yoshinaga (1992) was used. OnIy hypothesis (b) was supported by the results. Based on the results, the pobability of selective access to UG in second language acquisition is suggested.

URI

http://hdl.handle.net/10125/40757

Extent

32 pages

Related To

University of Hawai'i Working Papers in English as a Second Language 13(1)

Collections

Working Papers (1982-2000)

Full item page

Email libraryada-l@lists.hawaii.edu if you need this content in ADA-compliant format.