12-pt
12-pt
12-pt
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THE ACQUISITION OF WH-ISLANDS IN JAPANESE: A PRELIMINARY STUDY *
12-pt
12-pt
Koji Sugisaki and Keiko Murasugi
Mie University and Nanzan University
12-pt
12-pt
12-pt
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1. Introduction
12-pt/LQJXLVWLF WKHRU\ ZLWKLQ WKH JHQHUDWLYH IUDPHZRUN DWWHPSWV WR DQVZHU ³WKH ORJLFDO
SUREOHP RI ODQJXDJH DFTXLVLWLRQ´ %DNHU  0F&DUWK\  +RUQVWHLQ  /LJKWIRRW  
which refers to the problem of why children are able to acquire the knowledge of their nativeODQJXDJHVXQGHUWKH³SRYHUW\RIWKHVWLPXOXV´VLWXDWLRQ7KHSURSRVHGVROXWLRQSRVWXODWHVWKDW
a human child is innately equipped with Universal Grammar (UG), which narrowly
constrains the space of hypotheses about the target language. In contrast, the theory of
ODQJXDJH DFTXLVLWLRQ DLPV WR DQVZHU ³WKH GHYHORSPHQWDO SUREOHP RI ODQJXDJH DFTXLVLWLRQ´which refers to a broader question of how language is acquired in the actual time course.
One of the principal issues in constructing the theory of language acquisition has been to
specify when and how the innate principles of UG start constraining the course of acquisition.
A number of experimental studies indicated that children conform to these principles as soon
as they become able to use relevant lexical items and structures (e.g. Otsu 1981, Crain 1991).
3URPLQHQW DPRQJ WKHVH DUH WKH VWXGLHV ZKLFK GHPRQVWUDWHG FKLOGUHQ¶V HDUO\ PDVWHU\ RI WKHUG principles regulating overt wh-movement. For example, Otsu (1981) argued that Englishspeaking children are sensitive to the Complex NP Constraint (Ross 1967), by showing thatthese children exclude overt wh-movement from within a relative clause as in (1).
12-pt
(1) * What1 is Jane drawing a monkey [that is drinking milk with t1] ?
12-pt
In contrast to the acquisition of overt wh-movement and its restrictions, few studies have
ORRNHGDWFKLOGUHQ¶VNQRZOHGJHRIWKHLQ-situ wh-phrases and its UG constraints, despite thefact that theoretical investigations into these properties have been playing a significant role in* This paper is based on the poster we presented at BUCLD 39 (November, 2014). We would liketo thank Tomohiro Fujii, Collin Philips, Thomas Roeper, Mamoru Saito, William Snyder, and theaudience at the BUCLD 39 Poster Session for valuable comments and suggestions. A revised
experiment, which reflects some of these suggestions, is in preparation. We are also grateful toFeleisha Reiter for her editorial contributions. The usual disclaimers apply. The research reported here
was supported in part by a NINJAL Collaborative Research Project (Linguistic Variations within the
Confines of the Language Faculty: A Study in Japanese First Language Acquisition and Parametric
Syntax, PI: Keiko Murasugi), a JSPS Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C) (Sugisaki: #25370550,
Murasugi: #26370515), and a Nanzan University Pache Research Grant (I-A 2014-2015; Murasugi).
Nanzan Linguistics 10, 43±53©2015 Koji Sugisaki & Keiko Murasugi

Nanzan Linguistics 10: Research Results and Activities 2013 ~ 2015

formulating the overall architecture of UG.1 In light of this background, this study builds on
a previous study by Otsu (2007) and addresses the question of whether Japanese-speaking
preschool children exhibit the same sensitivity to the Wh-island Condition (Chomsky 1964)
as adults. The results of our experiment, even though preliminary, provides a new piece ofevidence from the acquisition of wh-in-situ for the early emergence of innate principles.
12-pt
12-pt
2. Wh-island Condition in English and Japanese
12-pt
It has been observed at least since Chomsky (1964) that in English, overt wh-extraction
out of an embedded interrogative clause is not permitted, as illustrated by the contrast in (2).
The constraint that lies behind the degraded status of (2a) is called the Wh-island Condition.
12-pt(2) a. * What1 does John know [ whether Mary bought t1 ] ?
b. What1 does John know [ that Mary bought t1 ] ?
12-pt
Watanabe (1992) argues that the corresponding wh-island effects can also be detected inJapanese, which is a wh-in-situ language.2 Thus, a wh-phrase in an interrogative complement
clause as in (3a) is prevented from taking scope in the matrix clause, and hence the sentence
is degraded as a wh-question. In contrast, a wh-phrase in a declarative complement clause asin (3b) can (and must) take scope in the matrix clause, and the sentence is interpreted as a whquestion.
12-pt(3) a. * John-wa [ Mary-ga
nani-okatta
ka dooka ] iimasitaka ?
John-TOP Mary-NOM
what-ACC bought
whether
said
Q
8-pt

µWhat did John say whether Mary bought?¶
12-pt
b. John-wa [ Mary-ga
nani-okatta
John-TOP Mary-NOM
what-ACC bought

8-pt

to ]
that

iimasita
said

ka ?
Q

µWhat did John say that Mary bought"¶
12-pt
In an example like (4), the Wh-island Condition has an effect not on its grammaticalstatus but on its available interpretation: The wh-phrase is necessarily associated with theembedded question marker (the underlined ka) and has to take scope in the embedded clause,
which forces the sentence to be interpreted not as a wh-question but as a yes/no question.
(4) John-wa [ Mary-ga
John-TOP Mary-NOM

8-pt

nani-okatta
what-ACC boughtka ]Qiimasita
said

ka ?
Q

*µWhat did John say whether Mary bought?¶ / OKµ'LG-RKQVD\ZKDW0DU\ERXJKW"¶

1

See Richards (2008) and Watanabe (2003) for an overview of the wh-island effects in Japanese.

2

See also Nishigauchi (1990) and Lasnik & Saito (1992).

- 44 -44-

The Acquisition of WH-Islands in Japanese: A Preliminary Study (K.Sugisaki & K. Murasugi)

Even though the exact nature of the Wh-island Condition (as well as the nature of theviolation in the Japanese examples) is still under detailed investigation, the existing parallel
paradigm of wh-questions in English and Japanese suggests that this constraint reflects some
innate principles of UG.3 Then, we can expect that children conform to this condition fromthe earliest observable stages. In the next section, we briefly review two studies that evaluatedthe validity of this prediction.
12-pt
12-pt
3. Wh-island Condition in Child Languages: Previous Studies
12-pt
3.1. Wh-island Condition in Child English
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In order to evaluate the early emergence of the Wh-island Condition in child English, deVilliers, Roeper & Vainikka (1990) conducted an experiment with 25 English-speaking
children, ranging in age from 3;07 to 6;11. The task for children was Question-after-Story:
Each child was told a story accompanied by a series of pictures, and at the end of the story,
the experimenter asked a question about that story. The experiment consisted of the following
six types of questions, each of which had two trials (except for (5c) and (6b), which had four
trials).
12-pt(5) Argument wh-questions
a. No medial wh:
Who did the girl ask t [ to help t ] ?
b. Argument-wh medial: Who did the girl ask t [ what to throw *t ] ?
c. Adjunct-wh medial:
Who did Big Bird ask t [ how to paint *t ] ?
(6) Adjunct wh-questions
a. No medial wh:
When did the boy say t [ he hurt himself t ] ?
b. Argument-wh medial: How did Kermit ask t [ who to help *t ] ?
c. Adjunct-wh medial:
When did the boy know t [ how he hurt himself *t ] ?
12-pt
These questions were potentially ambiguous, in that the sentence-initial wh-phrase could
originate either in the matrix clause or in the embedded clause (as indicated by the two trace
positions in these sentences). Yet, in adult grammar, the interpretation in which the wh-phrase
has been extracted from the complement clause is ruled out for (5b,c) and (6b,c), since thatinterpretation should stem from moving the wh-phrase out of an interrogative clause andhence should induce a violation of the Wh-island Condition. Thus, if children have adult-likeknowledge of this constraint, they should associate the sentence-initial wh-phrase only withthe matrix clause, in the case of (5b,c) and (6b,c).

3

See Richards (2008) for a summary of various approaches to the Wh-island Condition.

- 45 -45-

Nanzan Linguistics 10: Research Results and Activities 2013 ~ 2015

The results of their experiment are summarized in Table 1.4
Question
Types

Argument wh-questions (5)matrixembeddedinterpretationinterpretation

Adjunct wh-questions (6)matrixEmbeddedinterpretationinterpretation

No medial wh

68% (34)

32% (16)

50% (25)

44% (22)

Argument-wh
medial70% (35)

2% (1)

23% (23)

8% (8)

Adjunct-wh
63% (63)30% (30)
48% (24)
6% (3)
medialTable 1: Summary of the Results of GH9LOOLHUV5RHSHU 9DLQLNND¶V  ([SHULPHQW
12-pt&KLOGUHQ SUHIHUUHG WR DVVLJQ µVKRUW-GLVWDQFH¶ LQWHUSUHWDWLRQ RI WKH VHQWHQFH-initial whphrase (which corresponds to the matrix interpretation of the wh-phrase) even when there was
no intervening wh-phrase as in (5a) and (6a). Still, a sharp contrast was found in the case of(5b) and (6c): In the case of argument wh-questions such as (5b), in which the complement
clause is introduced by an argument wh-SKUDVH  RI FKLOGUHQ¶V DQVZHUV ZHUH µVKRUWGLVWDQFH¶ DQVZHUV ZKLOH RQO\  RI WKHLU DQVZHUV ZHUH µORQJ-GLVWDQFH¶ DQVZHUV ZKLFKshould stem from the embedded interpretation of the sentence-initial wh-phrase). Similarly, inthe case of adjunct wh-questions such as (6c), in which the complement clause is introduced
by an adjunct wh-phrase, children provided µshort-GLVWDQFH¶DQVZHUVRIWKHWLPHZKLOHWKH\ SURYLGHG µORQJ-GLVWDQFH¶ DQVZHUV RQO\  RI WKH WLPH *LYHQ WKDW WKH µORQJ-GLVWDQFH¶
answers to these questions should involve a violation of the Wh-island Condition, the scarcity
RI WKH µORQJ-GLVWDQFH¶ DQVZHUV LV FRQVLVWHQW ZLWK WKH YLHZ WKDW (QJOLVK-speaking preschool
children have knowledge of the Wh-island Condition.5
16-pt
3.2. Wh-island Condition in Child Japanese
12-pt
The promising findings from child English naturally led to the question of whether
Japanese-speaking preschool children also exhibit the wh-island effects. In order to answer
this question, Otsu (2007) conducted an experiment with 40 children (20 three-year-olds and
20 four-year-olds). This experiment employed a Truth-Value Judgment Task (Crain &Thornton 1998). In this task, children listened to a story with a puppet named John
(manipulated by another experimenter). After the story, the experimenter asked a series ofquestions to the puppet, and the puppet answered each of these questions. The task for
4

Errors were observed with sufficient frequency in which children answered the medial wh-phrases(the underlined wh-phrases in (5) and (6)). See de Villiers, Roeper & Vainikka (1990) for the
discussion as to why this type of errors could have happened.
5

An important question remains as to why the contrast was less sharp in the case of (5c) and (6b). Seede Villiers, Roeper & Vainikka (1990) for the relevant discussion.

- 46 -46-

The Acquisition of WH-Islands in Japanese: A Preliminary Study (K.Sugisaki & K. Murasugi)children was to evaluate whether the responses from the puppet were appropriate or not. A
sample story and the questions that followed this story were given in (7) and (8).
12-pt
(7) Sample Story:
Taro and Hanako were watching TV together in the living room. Their mother came
KRPHDQGEURXJKWWKHPVRPHVQDFNV$QGVKHDVNHG7DUR³7DURZKR¶V yourIDYRULWH"´ 7DUR UHSOLHG ³2I FRXUVH , OLNH 'oraemRQ´ 0RWKHU DVNHG +DQDNR ³$QG
\RX"´+DQDNROLNHV1RELWDbut felt a bit shy and replied ³7KDW¶VDVHFUHW´(8) 4XHVWLRQVWR-RKQDQG-RKQ¶V5HSOLHV6
a. Okaasan-wa
Hanako-ni [ dare-ga
suki
mother-TOP
Hanako-DAT who-NOM like

8-ptµ'LG0RWKHUDVN+DQDNRZKRVKHOLNHV"

8-pt

b. Okaasan-wa
mother-TOP

8-pt
8-pt

c. Hanako-wa [ dare-ga
suki
Hanako-TOP who-NOM like

ka ]
Q

ka ]
Q

-RKQ¶V5HSO\iimasita
saidkikimasita ka ?
asked
QHai. µ<HV¶
kikimasita ka ?
asked
QHai. µ<HV¶ka ?
Q" µ:KRGLG+DQDNRVD\ZKHWKHUVKHOLNHV"¶OK µ'LG+DQDNRVD\ZKRVKHOLNHV"¶-RKQ¶V5HSO\

8-pt-RKQ¶V5HSO\Taro-ni-mo [ dare-ga
suki
Taro-DAT-also who-NOM likeµ'LG0RWKHUDOVRDVN7DURZKRKH likes?¶ka ]Q

d. Taro-wa
Taro-TOP

Hai.

µ<HV¶

[ dare-ga
suki
who-NOM like

to ]
that

µ:KRGLG7DURVD\KHOLNHV"¶

iimasita
said

ka ?
Q

-RKQ¶V5HSO\Hai. µ<HV¶:KHQSUHVHQWHGZLWKWKHTXHVWLRQVLOOXVWUDWHGLQ  WKHSXSSHWDOZD\VUHVSRQGHGµ<HV¶This answer is appropriate for the questions in (8a-b), but not for the questions in (8c-d). In
the case of (8c), a wh-phrase is contained within an embedded interrogative clause introducedby the question marker ka. Thus, in this sentence, the wh-phrase only takes scope in theembedded clause, and the entire sentence receives an interpretation as a yes/no question.
7KHQWKHSXSSHW¶Vyes answer is simply false, because Hanako did not tell her mother who
she likes. In the case of (8d), a wh-phrase appears within a declarative complement clause andhence takes scope in the matrix clause. Thus, the sentence can only be interpreted as a whTXHVWLRQ ZKLFK PDNHV WKH SXSSHW¶V µ<es¶ response an inappropriate answer to (8d). If
children were not able to distinguish between the interrogative complementizer ka and thedeclarative complementizer to, they should misinterpret the question in (8d) as a yes/no6

dare-ga µZKR-120¶LQWKHVHVHQWHQFHVLVDQRPLQDWLYHREMHFW- 47 -47-

Nanzan Linguistics 10: Research Results and Activities 2013 ~ 2015

TXHVWLRQ7KHQWKRVHFKLOGUHQVKRXOGMXGJHWKHSXSSHW¶Vµ<es¶ answer as appropriate, since inthe story Taro actually told his mother who he likes (i.e. Doraemon).
Otsu (2007) reasoned that, if Japanese-speaking preschool children have knowledge ofthe Wh-island Condition, they shoulG EH DEOH WR MXGJH WKH SXSSHW¶V µ<es¶ response as
inappropriate both for questions like (8c) and for questions like (8d), despite the fact thatthese sentences contain embedded clauses introduced by different types of complementizers(interrogative ka in (8c) and declarative to in (8d)).
7KHPDLQUHVXOWVRI2WVX¶V  H[SHULPHQWDUHVXPPDUL]HGLQ7DEOH&KLOGUHQ¶V-XGJPHQWVRQWKH3XSSHW¶V<(65HVSRQVH
Judged as Appropriate

Judged as Inappropriate>ZK«4@«4"as in (8c)

0% (0/80)

100% (0/80)>ZK«WKDW@«4"as in (8d)

8% (6/80)

92% (74/80)

7DEOH6XPPDU\RIWKH5HVXOWVRI2WVX¶V  ([SHULPHQW$VZHFDQVHHLQ7DEOHFKLOGUHQUHMHFWHGWKHSXSSHW¶Vµ<es¶ response to questions suchas (8c) 100% of the time, and also they rejected the µ<es¶ response to questions such as (8d)more than 90% of the time. Otsu interpreted these results as indicating that Japanese-speaking
preschool children have the knowledge that (8c) should be interpreted as a yes/no question, as
well as the knowledge that (8d) can only be interpreted as a wh-question. Since theinterpretation for (8c) a yes/no question has its basis on the wh-island effects, Otsu (2007)
concluded that children as young as three years old can be shown to obey the Wh-island
Condition in Japanese.
12-pt
12-pt
4. Wh-island Condition in Child Japanese: A New Experiment12-pt
4.1. /LPLWDWLRQRI2WVX¶V  ([SHULPHQW
12-pt
The experiment by Otsu (2007), if successful, would have large theoretical significance,in that it was the very first attempt to show that the wh-island effects can be observed even in
the acquisition of a wh-in-situ language. However, the experiment has an obvious limitationin its design, and fails to demonstrate Japanese-VSHDNLQJ FKLOGUHQ¶V NQRZOHGJH RI WKH Whisland Condition. Let us recall the wh-island effects in Japanese, illustrated in (3a) and (4)(and repeated here in (9)).
12-pt
ka ?
(9) a. * John-wa [ Mary-ga
nani-okatta
ka dooka ] iimasita
John-TOP Mary-NOM
what-ACC bought
whether
said
Q

8-pt

µWhat did John say whether Mary bought?¶2-pt- 48 -48-

The Acquisition of WH-Islands in Japanese: A Preliminary Study (K.Sugisaki & K. Murasugi)

8-pt

b. John-wa [ Mary-ga
John-TOP Mary-NOM

nani-okatta
what-ACC boughtka ]Qiimasita
said

ka ?
Q

µWhat did John say whether Mary bought?¶OKµ'LG-RKQVD\ZKDW0DU\ERXJKW"¶As these examples suggest, the Wh-island Condition does not permit a wh-phrase
contained within an interrogative complement clause to take scope in the matrix clause. In
other words, what this condition dictates is that these sentences are degraded as a whquestion: In (9a), the sentence becomes ill-formed since it only has an interpretation as a whquestion, while in (9b), the sentence itself is still grammatical because the sentence has analternative interpretation as a yes/no question.
,QOLJKWRIWKLVGLVFXVVLRQOHWXVQRZJREDFNWRWKHFUXFLDOWHVWVHQWHQFHXVHGLQ2WVX¶V
(2007) experiment.
(10)
8-pt
8-pt

Hanako-wa [ dare-ga
suki
Hanako-TOP who-NOM likeka ]Qiimasita
said

ka ?
Q

(= (8c))" µ:KRGLG+DQDNRVD\ZKHWKHUVKHOLNHV"¶OK µ'LG+DQDNRVD\ZKRVKHOLNHV"¶-RKQ¶V5HSO\Hai. µ<HV¶As in the case of (9b), the Wh-island Condition rules out from this sentence aninterpretation as a wh-question. Then, if we are to determine that Japanese-speaking children
have knowledge of the wh-island effects, we have to demonstrate that children disallow thesentence in (10) as a wh-question. In order to achieve this, the design of the experiment has toundergo a small but quite significant modification in which the puppet incorrectly interprets
the question in (10) as a wh-question and provides an answer like Nobita. If wh-island effects
are indeed in the grammar of Japanese-speaking children, they should judge this type of
response as inappropriate.
In order to provide a more convincing piece of evidence for the early emergence of whisland effects, we incorporated this modification and conducted a new experiment, which is
discussed below.
16-pt
4.2. Subjects and Method
12-pt
The subjects of our experiment were 28 Japanese-speaking preschool children, ranging inage from 3;09 to 5;05 (mean age 4;07). The task for the children was a combination of (i)Question-after-Story and (ii) an Appropriateness Judgment Task. In this task, each child wastold a story, which was accompanied by a series of pictures presented on a laptop computer.
At the end of each story, an experimenter asked the child two questions about the story. Afterthe child responded to these questions, the same questions were posed to a puppet, and the
FKLOG ZDV DVNHG WR MXGJH ZKHWKHU HDFK RI WKH SXSSHW¶V UHVSRQVH WR WKH TXHVWLRQV ZDVappropriate or not.

- 49 -49-

Nanzan Linguistics 10: Research Results and Activities 2013 ~ 2015

This combination of two tasks is necessitated by the design of our experiment, in which
the puppet incorrectly interprets questions like (10) as a wh-question: Even though this typeof questions is clearly a yes/no question in the adult grammar, typical discourse contexts
allow these questions to be answered in a way such as µYes, Nobita¶, in which µYes¶ answer
is immediately followed by the information that corresponds to the answer to the wh-phrase
contained within an interrogative embedded clause. Then, if the task were limited to eliciting
children¶s judgments, their responses suggesting that they judged answers like µNobita¶ asappropriate allow at least two interpretations: In one interpretation, children lack knowledgeof wh-island effects and hence allow questions like (10) to be interpreted as a wh-question,
while in the other interpretation, children have adult-like knowledge of wh-island effects but
still judge answers like µNobita¶ as appropriate, based on the availability of answers like µYes,
Nobita¶. In order to discriminate between these two possibilities, we combined two tasks andposed questions like (10) to children before posing them to the puppet, so that we can see
more clearly whether these children interpret this type of question correctly as yes/noquestion or incorrectly as a wh-question.
A sample story and the sample test sentences that follow this story are given in (11) and(12), respectively.
(11) Sample Story:
7RGD\ 0RQNH\ LV YLVLWLQJ (OHSKDQW¶V KRXVH 2Q WKH WDEOH WKH\ KDG D FKRLFH RI
pancakes and fruits, and they decided to have some fruits. Elephant asked Monkey,³:KDW LV \RXU PRVW IDYRULWH IUXLW"´ DQG 0RQNH\ UHSOLHG ³6WUDZEHUULHV´ Then,(OHSKDQW¶VIDWKHU came back home from work, and DVNHG(OHSKDQW³:KDWLV \RXUPRVW
favorite frXLW"´(OHSKDQWIHOWDELWVK\and hesitated to answer it. However, Elephant got
a toy train from Father, so KHUHSOLHG³*UDSHV´- 50 -50-

The Acquisition of WH-Islands in Japanese: A Preliminary Study (K.Sugisaki & K. Murasugi)(12) Sample Test Sentences:a. Osarusan-wa[ nani-ga
ichiban suki
monkey-TOP
what-NOM best
like

8-pt
8-pt

Zousan-ni itta
elephant-to saidkana ?
Qµ:KDWGLG0RQNH\VD\WR(OHSKDQW>WKDWKHOLNHVt best ] ?

3XSSHW¶V$QVZHUIchigo ! µ6WUDZEHUULHV¶
12-pt
b. Zousan-wa[ nani-ga
ichiban suki
elephant-TOP
what-NOM best
like

8-pt
8-pt

to ]
that

ka ]
Q

Otoosan-ni itta
father-to
saidkana ?
Qµ'LG(OHSKDQWVD\WRKLVIDWKHU>ZKDWKHOLNHVt EHVW@"¶
3XSSHW¶V$QVZHU Budou ! µ*UDSHV¶The test sentence in (12a) contains a declarative complement clause and hence thesentence should be interpreted as a wh-question. In contrast, the test sentence in (12b)
involves an interrogative complement clause, which should induce wh-island effects andhence should disallow the sentence to have an interpretation as a wh-question. Notice that in
our experiment, the puppet interpreted both of the questions in (12) as a wh-question andprovided an answer like Ichigo! µ6WUDZEHUULHV¶ or Budou! µGrapes!¶ to these wh-questions,
thereby confirming that we are indeed testing wh-island HIIHFWVLQFKLOGUHQ¶VJUDPPDUThe experiment consisted of two target stories and two filler stories. The order ofpresentation of these stories was pseudo-randomized.
4.3. Results and Discussion
12-pt
The number and percentages of correct responses for each type of questions are
summarized in Table 3.
>ZK«WKDW@«4? as in (12a)>ZK«4@«4"as in (12b)&KLOGUHQ¶VAnswer&KLOGUHQ¶VJudgment&KLOGUHQ¶VAnswer&KLOGUHQ¶VJudgment#correct

54/56

54/56

47/56

46/56

%correct

96.4

96.4

83.9

82.1

Table 3: Summary of the Experimental Results
12-pt
When presented with a question such as in (12a), children interpreted the question as awh-question, and provided an answer like µStrawberries¶ more than 96% of the time. TheseFKLOGUHQDOVRMXGJHGWKHSXSSHW¶VUHVSRQVHRIµStrawberries¶ as appropriate more than 96% of
the time. In sharp contrast, when presented with a question such as in (12b), childreninterpreted the question as a yes/no question, and provided the µ<es¶ response more than 83%
RI WKH WLPH ,Q DGGLWLRQ WKHVH FKLOGUHQ MXGJHG WKH SXSSHW¶V UHVSRQVH RI µGrapes¶ as- 51 -51-

Nanzan Linguistics 10: Research Results and Activities 2013 ~ 2015

inappropriate more than 82% of the time. These results suggest that Japanese-speaking
children have the knowledge that sentences such as in (12b), in which a wh-phrase appears
within an embedded interrogative clause, does not have an interpretation as a wh-question.
These findings argue for the view that the UG principle which is responsible for the wh-islandeffects is indeed in the grammar of Japanese-speaking preschool children.
12-pt
12-pt
5. Conclusion
12-pt
In this study, we addressed the question of whether Japanese-speaking preschool children
already have knowledge of the UG principle responsible for the wh-island effects.
&RQVLGHULQJ2WVX¶V  OLPLWDWLRQZLWKWKHGHVLJQRIKLVH[SHULPHQWZHFRQGXFWHGDQHZ
experiment which circumvented this problem. Results obtained, though preliminary, areconsistent with the view that the relevant principle is indeed in the grammar of Japanesespeaking children. Since Japanese is a wh-in-situ language and the wh-island effects are
typically reflected only on the available interpretation for a question with an embedded
interrogative clause, it would be reasonable to suspect that the input for children would
contain little relevant information WR ³OHDUQ´ WKH FRQVWUDLQW LQGXFLQJ WKH wh-island effects.
Thus, the findings reported in this study lend further support from the acquisition of wh-insitu in Japanese for the view that the principle behind the wh-island effects constitutes part ofthe innate language faculty.

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