Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-gb8f7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T06:05:20.658Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

WH-TOPICALIZATION AT THE SYNTAX-DISCOURSE INTERFACE IN ENGLISH SPEAKERS’ L2 CHINESE GRAMMARS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 November 2012

Boping Yuan  and
Esuna Dugarova
Boping Yuan*
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
Esuna Dugarova
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
*
*Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Boping Yuan, Department of East Asian Studies, University of Cambridge, Sidgwick Avenue, Cambridge CB3 9DA, United Kingdom. E-mail: [email protected].
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Although wh-words generally stay in situ in Chinese wh-questions, they can be topicalized. However, the wh-topicalization is determined at the syntax-discourse interface and has to be governed by discourse conditions; only discourse-linked (D-linked) wh-words can be topicalized, but non-D-linked ones cannot. This article reports on an empirical study that investigated English speakers’ second language (L2) acquisition of Chinese wh-topicalization. The results of an acceptability judgment test indicate that advanced English speakers are sensitive to the discourse condition that governs the syntactic derivation of wh-topicalization in Chinese, as they were found to be able to make the distinction in their L2 Chinese by allowing D-linked, but not non-D-linked, wh-elements to topicalize. However, these results also indicate that wh-determiner phrases (DPs) and wh-noun phrases (NPs) differ in their sensitivity to presupposition background information in L2 Chinese wh-topicalization, and it is argued that the availability of the deictic feature in the wh-element involved is a variable affecting the D-linking properties of wh-elements in the development of L2 Chinese wh-topicalization, and this seems more likely to be a representational deficit than a processing problem.

Type
Articles
Information
Studies in Second Language Acquisition , Volume 34 , Issue 4 , December 2012 , pp. 533 - 560
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

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

Adger, D. (2003). Core syntax: A minimalist approach. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Belletti, A., Bennati, E., & Sorace, A. (2007). Theoretical and developmental issues in the syntax of subjects: Evidence from near-native Italian. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, 25, 657–689.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Belletti, A., & Leonini, C. (2004). Subject inversion in L2 Italian. In Foster-Cohen, S., Sharwood-Smith, M., Sorace, A., & Ota, M. (Eds.), Eurosla Yearbook 4 (pp. 95–118). Amsterdam: Benjamins.Google Scholar
Borgonovo, C., Bruhn de Garavito, J., Guijarro-Fuentes, P., Prévost, P., & Valenzuela, E. (2006). Specificity in Spanish: The syntax/semantics interface in SLA. In Foster-Cohen, S. & Krajnovic, M. (Eds.), Eurosla Yearbook 6 (pp. 57–78). Amsterdam: Benjamins.Google Scholar
Borgonovo, C., Bruhn de Garavito, J., & Prévost, P. (2005). Acquisition of mood distinctions in L2 Spanish. In Burgos, A., Clark-Cotton, M. R., & Ha, S. (Eds.), Proceedings of the 29th Boston University Conference on Language Development (pp. 97–108). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.Google Scholar
Chomsky, N. (1995). The Minimalist Program. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Dekydtspotter, L., Sprouse, R. A., & Thyre, R. (1999/2000). The interpretation of quantification at a distance in English-French interlanguage: Domain specificity and second language acquisition. Language Acquisition, 8, 265–320.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dugarova, E. (2010). Behaviours of wh-elements in English and Russian learners’ L2 Chinese wh-questions. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.Google Scholar
Dugarova, E. (2011). English speakers’ L2 Chinese wh-topicalization: Movement or base-generation? In Herschensohn, J. & Tanner, D. (Eds.), Proceedings of the 11th Generative Approaches to Second Language Acquisition Conference (pp. 45–53). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.Google Scholar
Hopp, H. (2004). Syntactic and interface knowledge in advanced and near-native interlanguage grammars. In Foster-Cohen, S., Sharwood-Smith, M., Sorace, A., & Ota, M. (Eds.), Eurosla Yearbook 4 (pp. 67–94). Amsterdam: Benjamins.Google Scholar
Huang, C.-T. J. (1984). On the distribution and reference of empty pronouns. Linguistic Inquiry, 15, 531–574.Google Scholar
Huang, C.-T. J. (1989). Pro-drop in Chinese: A generalized control theory. In Jaegglie, O. & Safir, K. (Eds.), The null subject parameter (pp. 185–214). Dordrecht: Kluwer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kim, J. (2003). L2 initial syntax: Wh-movement and the most economical syntactic derivation. In Beachley, B., Brown, A., & Conlin, F. (Eds.), Proceedings of the 27th Boston University Conference on Language Development (pp. 414–424). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.Google Scholar
Li, C., & Thompson, S. (1976). Subject and topic: A new typology. In Li, C. (Ed.), Subject and topic (pp. 457–489). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Li, C., & Thompson, S. (1981). Mandarin Chinese: A functional reference grammar. Berkeley: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Li, J.-I. J. (1996). Pre-verbal NP positions in Mandarin Chinese. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Arizona, Tucson.Google Scholar
Lozano, C., & Mendikoetxea, A. (2009). L2 syntax meets information structure: Word order at the interface. In Chandlee, J., Franchini, M., Lord, S., & Gudrun-Marion, R. (Eds.), Proceedings of the 33rd Boston University Conference on Language Development (pp. 313–324), Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.Google Scholar
Pan, V. J. (2006). Wh-topicalization and wh-in-situ in Mandarin Chinese. Paper presented at the 20th Paris Meeting on East Asian Linguistics, CRLAO, Ecole des Hauts Etudes en Sciences Sociale, Paris.Google Scholar
Pesetsky, D. (1987). Wh-in-situ: Movement and unselective binding. In. Reuland, E. J. & ter Meulen, A. G. (Eds.), The representation of (in)definiteness (pp. 98–129). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Shi, D. (1989). Topic chain as a syntactic category in Chinese. Journal of Chinese Linguistics, 17, 223–259.Google Scholar
Sorace, A. (2004). Native language attrition and developmental instabilities at the syntax-discourse interface: Data, interpretation and methods. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 7, 143–145.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sorace, A. (2005). Selective optionality in language development. In Cornips, L. & Corrigan, K. P. (Eds.), Syntax and variation: Reconciling the biological and the social (pp. 55–80). Amsterdam: Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sorace, A. (2006). Interfaces in L2 development. In Belletti, A., Bennati, E., Chesi, C., Di Domenico, E., & Ferrari, I. (Eds.), Language acquisition and development: Proceedings of GALA 2005 (pp. 505–521). Newcastle, UK: Cambridge Scholars Press.Google Scholar
Sorace, A. (2009). Theoretical and methodological interfaces in research on L2 ultimate attainment. Paper presented at GASLA 10 conference, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.Google Scholar
Sorace, A., & Filiaci, F. (2006). Anaphora resolution in near-native speakers of Italian. Second Language Research, 22, 339–368.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sorace, A., & Serratrice, L. (2009). Internal and external interfaces in bilingual language development: Beyond structural overlap. International Journal of Bilingualism, 13, 195–210.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tang, C.-C. J. (1988). Wh-topicalization in Chinese. Unpublished manuscript, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY.Google ScholarPubMed
Tsao, F.-F. (1977). A functional study of topic in Chinese: The first step towards discourse analysis. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY.Google Scholar
Tsimpli, I.-M., & Sorace, A. (2006). Differentiating interfaces: L2 performance in syntax-semantics and syntax-discourse phenomena. In Bamman, D., Magnitskaia, T., & Zaller, C. (Eds.), Proceedings of the 30th Boston University Conference on Language Development (pp. 653–664). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.Google Scholar
White, L. (2009). Grammatical theory: Interfaces and L2 knowledge. In Ritchie, W. C. & Bhatia, T. K. (Eds.), The new handbook of second language acquisition (pp. 49–68). Bingley, UK: Emerald.Google Scholar
Wu, J. (1999). Syntax and semantics of quantification in Chinese. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Maryland, College Park.Google Scholar
Xu, L., & Langendoen, D. T. (1985). Topic structures in Chinese. Language, 61, 1–27.Google Scholar
Yuan, B. (2007a). Behaviours of wh-words in English speakers’ L2 Chinese wh-questions: Evidence of no variability, temporary variability and persistent variability in L2 grammars. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 10, 277–298.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yuan, B. (2007b). Superficial native-likeness and fossilization in Japanese speakers’ L2 Chinese wh-questions: A lexical morphological feature deficit account. Second Language Research, 23, 329–357.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yuan, B. (2009). Non-permanent representational deficit and apparent target-likeness in second language: Evidence from wh-words used as universal quantifiers in English and Japanese speakers’ L2 Chinese. In Snape, N., Leung, Y.-K. I., & Sharwood-Smith, M. (Eds.), Representational deficits in SLA: In honour of Roger Hawkins (pp. 69–103). Amsterdam: Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yuan, B. (2010). Domain-wide or variable-dependent vulnerability of the semantics-syntax interface in L2 acquisition? Evidence from wh-words used as existential polarity words in L2 Chinese grammars. Second Language Research, 26, 219–260.CrossRefGoogle Scholar