ne Proces ofttde Acquisition byJapmese
LettneFS Of Eェ リ i8h tt a Foreign Language:
A Lo馴 醇如dlnal lnvestigation

Shoji Takamo

成城 イ ング リ ッシュ モ ノグラフ
第 36号

抜刷

2003年 9月

ne Process ofArtide Acquisition byJapttlese
Learners of English̀鴻 a Foreign Language:
A Longitudinal lnvestigation l
Shtti Taka10
Hokusei Gakuen University

1. Introductio五
It is quite well― k■ 0輌 that the article system is one of thetoughest aspects of English gralnmar for non‐native speakers tO

acquire and tends tO remain problematic even among advanced―

level leaners(Mi― o,20∞ ).踊 直
Sleming problem with En」 isharticles appears to colllfront lea‐ ers like Japanese,who do nOt
possess an equivalent systeln lII thett native language even mOre

seriously(01ler&Redding,1971;蹴 sen― Freeman,1975;Master,1988).The comple対 ty of a system cOnstr」 ned not Only by thelexical prOperties of the mOdified nOun(e.g・ ,count/non― cOunt
disuncuOns)but alSO by the seIIlandc/informa■ Onal status of thenoun in discourse(e.g.,speciicity,hetter's/reader'sk■ Owledge)
makes it alll■ Ost impOssible fOr nOIl― llatiVe learllers to consciously

disunguish the right rule among a varieヶof Operational rules at

every rnoment of use. Ⅳloreover,fo.二 .alョ ies described in grammarbooks Often fail tO account for native speakers'actual usage ofarticles in namral discOllrse. Decisions on the apprOp五 ate chOice ofarticles in cOntext are likely tO be unstable even among native―‑105‑―

■争speakers due to their variable perteptions of̀context'itself andexalllines the validity of P五

intlliivejud8111ent on noun countあ iliサ (Kim I)on,1993).
The overa1l obecaVe of tlle present stlldy is to account for the

A reviewv of past studies of ESL F
eals lha[i=量researcll in generd)reヽ ・gradual prOcess of acquisition of the article system by Japanese

not tend to explicitly di∬ erenL̲■ I=L=ョ

o■ 1■

=二

一

herea■ e⇒ and fOreign― language c lttli可hOW Japanese students studying EFL only in Japan tackle thiscomplicated system and come to manipulate it rnore efficiently(focused on English IL co■ sII■
predonlinantly on ESL lear■ i二 ぎ =tllrOuま tl■ e COurse oflettning.2 Thetel‐ IIl■ prOCess"here presupposesproЫ ematicわ sinlpけ exPeCt ie ESL三the validity of the so― called lnterlanguage Hypothesis(Selinker,

what is happening in the EFL le3‐ ‐:college st■ ldents of English as a foreigll lan3■ lage(EFL hereafte⇒1972),whiCh argues as one of its core properties that the secOnd

二esdぎ a■ 三1985).SeriOus empi五 cal in、 ―lalltta3e leal■ ■ers l袖 辟 電 eOe,illterlanttage「 L herea■ e」 )eVOIVes

extent the ESL― based theO五 es Eこ ■ し嗜or apprOxilnates to、 vard the naive speaker's no■ 11lS nOt randoll■ ly

idendcal phenomena in the EFL l=■ ■=or less in a systematic,unifollll fashiOn. It has been

Second,theories on the prOcess Iゴ

empirically proved in a number of stlldies thatthe prOcess ofsecond

justificatiOns based on diachro■ iこ =language acquisition(Sn hereafter)conSiStS of certain dilnensions

literatllre suggests tllat a yeat ml[ニbut lll■ oreァglage(and eVen

article acquisition are cross― sectic■ 三 二

by second lan3■ lage lettners of different tttget lal■ 3■ lages in genera⇒

おw lontttlldinal stlldies ha、「e been dI

as well as those that belong to the learners of a specific native

In the former approach,the proc=ss IIthat are shared by the learners of a single targetlal■langllage(i.e。 ,Ll廿 ansfer).The process of SLA is also characte五

zedneeds to be deciphered fron■comF二crealiveas a relatively homogeneous internal process of
COnS"uction"(BrOWn,1994:65),in WhiCh IL dynamicau)evol、 「esfrom grOups of learners at di■ er=■ 1

based on the outcome ofthe learner's consistent h)「pothesis testing

SLA that are likely to be vanable du=■and remains perlllleable to subsequent amendments throughout

mdividual lettners,and even poinl[■learning(Ellis,1985).

ofSLへ mり be a metllodoloJcd=‐

researchers,how、 ア
ever,are cautious■ [111[

The present lon」 tlldinal il■ vestigaion be3■ s、 ith re ex笛 自madon

any case,in the ESL environmenI■ ・Ofthese clailns about IL development by takng a closer 100k at thetttget lan騨 電 e(TL hereaftel iS narrio■ vth of EFL learners over an extensi、 e pe五 od of tilne.
「
There are two beneits fl・ om doing this. First,the present stlldy」 Ouping the learners based on thett F
purposes llllay be a convenient reserI:l■actual〔―‑106‑―‑1・ble perこ eptiOns Of̀cOntext'itself andexamines the validity of priOr theories frOm an EFL perspective.

co■ lntabihサA review of PaSt Studies of ESL article acquisition(and ESL(Kim Yoon,199助.

the present stlldy is tO account for the

resettch in generd)reveals that the framewOrk Ofinvesigauon dOes

ion of the article system byJapanese

not tend to explicitly differentiate bet、

veen second‑langllage(ESL―

hereafter)and forei騨 ‑lanttage contexts of learning.SLA theories

dying EFL only in」 apan tackle this(fOCused on English IL)cOnstructed thus far are based
predonlinantly on ESL learning environments. It is quitels a forei3■ l language(EFL hereafte⇒)Ine to manipulate it FnOre efficiently
2 Thete.111
3・

PrOCess''here presupposes

problematic to silllply expect the ESL― based tlleO五 es to account fori lnterlanguage Hypothesis(Selinker,

what is happening in the EFL learlling environment as well(Ellis,of its cOre properties that the second1985).Serious empi五 cal illvesigation is required to yasp to whati.eっinterlalltta8e「 L here・ aftel)evolves,native speaker's nOrms not randonlly).nauc,unifornl fashiOn. It has been

extent the ESL― based theo五 es lnay be valid and generalizable fOr

identical phenomena in the EFL learlling environment.

SecOnd,theO五 es on the prOcess of SIノ ゝrequire rnore empiricalber Of sttldies that the prOcess of secOndjustificatiOns based on diachrOnic investigation. A reviewv ofereafter)consists of certZdin dimensiOns

literatllre suggests that a geat mtto五

rs ofa singe tttgetlan3uage(and even

サ of past studies Of ESL/EFL
article acquisition are cross― sectional in research desi〔 ■饗 ,and Only aof different tttget lal18■ lttes in generd)

feW 10n3itudin・ al stlldies ha、 re been dOne(Gass&Selinker,1994).

g to the learners Of a specific native

In the fOrlller aPprOach,tlle prOcess of article acquisidon typically

Le process of SLA is alsO characte五 zed

needs tO be deciphered frOm comparlsons of̀8TOup data'collling

3ous internal process offrom groups of learners at different proiciency levels. Somecreative65),in which IL dynaIIllcally evolves

researchers,hOwever,are cautiOus not to overgeneralize the patl■

3 1ettner's consistent h)Tothesis― tesung

SIノゝthat are likely to be va五 able due tO the learning backttound Of

subsequent amendments throughOut

hdi宙 dual lettners,alld even POht Out a POSSibiliサs Ofthat uniformiサ

ofSIA mり be a method010ぎ Cal artifact(e.g"Huebner,1985).In
血vestigauon beglns、 ith re― exar̲adOn〜

any case,in the ESL enviroFllllent、 vhere leal■ ■ers'exPosure tO theelopment by taking a c10ser loOk atthetarget lal■ gllage(TL hereaftett iS nattal al■ers over an extensive peHod of tilne.

youping the learners based On their proflciency levels for researchn dOing this. First,the present stlldy

purposes lllllay be a conveniellt research technique whOse empirical―‑106‑―‑107‑―

d tllus relaively uniform,techniqueャ vhen it is applied to such restticted leaming env■ ronments

Labov,1969),whiCh has also b==二component ofthe develoPmen&述 Pr二
Lanttage(and IL)as a heterogen=]■s ofslructured,rule― governed va五 ations‐tlleir exposure to「 FL input and interaction both inside and outside

linguistic and extra― linguistic e g.sE]

the classrOom andャ vhere the process of teaching is also likely to1989).G市 en a paricular gamma=[[vtty among teachers(Spada,1986).

being vttiable in lang■ age use e g¨ =foundation has long been sutteCt tO scrutiny in SLA research ingenerd.But l strondy suSpect the vdidiヶ of thiS crOss― secional
as EFL,wvhere individual learners differ significantly in terl■Thus,I believe that a productive approach would be to be」 n.Ivttiable in tl■ is stlldガ ,tl■ e SyStemと I

the inters=[1

the present invesigadon by questioning thèuniforlllity'principle

variability stemS fron■of IL development in the EFL context and focusing inore on thenumber of potential constraints i=.

PotheSiZe、 vould takesilnultaneously affect the variable Fi

quite different forrlls across individual learners. The present

variable. lVhile prior studies of ESl

10n3it■ldinal stlldy of EFL articlc acquisidon is designed to test thisconcemed only wvith one to― one coΠ =L:

llypothesis and re― exanline tlle principles ofEndish IL de、 eloPment

some potendal factor that is〔 、sll「 子三dilnension of̀creative construcuOn'that l h)「fl‐om tl■ e EFL perspective. I believe that this research o五 entaliOn

三h皿 ctions of arucles in discourse su正timate theoHes

present sttld)「 sheds fair light on the i二of SL2牡 sensitive to the gaps bet、 veen the distincti、 e lealningof potential factors that may silnuli[

environments.

va五 able prOduction,as wvas first art==

will eventually conttibute to constructing more le」

Other lnttor thrusts of the present study lie in its anal}IiCalinterfactor relations in terms of ef=二s on thearticles and their diachrOnic chan[=ilearner's perforllllance data in naturalistic contexl for EFL
communication. As the analytical framework, the present sコ ■dy

the key to understanding the process I

applies the fundamental principle of variatiOnist ling■ lstics Labov,the underlying mechanism of obs=「

1972)to the COntext of EFL,as explored by a number of stlldies
done exclusively in al■ ESL context(Dickerson,19ア 5i Odlin.1978;

speaker's namral linguistic pelfolllia二 [モframework of variationist linguistics and its strOng focl■

Tal・ one,

blfraln, 1985;ヱ 牡damson, 1988i■ bung,
1982, 1983, 1985;や ヽ

1988;Preston,1989;Bayley退 ヒPreston,1996).Lan3■ age inherently
involves systemaic variabiliサ(マ

Vbinreich,Labo、 卜&Herzog,1968;―‑108‑―

A variationist linguistics apprOaこ 三&Sal■ ko氏 197→ .A re宙 ew ofP益 I SIithe data elicitation tasks adopted i■are quite controlled or recepti、

e s==

have extensively analyzed perfo「 1=
‑1「

コ

ー

lltteCt tO Scrutiny in SLA resettch inLabov, 1969),whiCh has also been found tO be an essential

pect the validiり of thiS crOss― sectional

component of the developmental process of IL(Ellis,1985,1994).

LO Suごh rest五 cted leanling env■ rolln■ ents

Lan3■ltte(alld IL)as a heterogeneous system Of rules consists ofearllers di∬ er si〔 】lificantly in terms Of

structured,rule― govemed varlations under the influence of various

md interaction both inside and outside

linguisic and extta― linaliSiC(e.gっ SOCial,stttisuC)faCtOrs(Pl・ eStOn,

le process of teaching is als0 1ikely tO1989).G市 en a ptticular yalll■ mttical feature that is observed as.198o.
「oductive approach vvould be to be」 nques■ 。
ning thèunifO.1■ liり 'p五 nciple

being varittle in lanttage use(e.gっ.FL cOntext and fOcusing more on tlle

number Of potential constraints(i.e.,independent variables)that

ruction'that l hypOthesize、 νould takesilllultaneously affect the vaHable prOduction of the dependent

ss individual learners. The present
通cle acquisition is designed tO test thisvariable.WVhile p五 or stu(五 es Of ESl′ /EFL article acquisition are

le p五 ncゎ les Of En」 ish IL deve10pment

some potenial factOr th飩l believe that this reseTch orientation

incuOns Of Ticles m dscOllrse sutt as allapho五 c,generic,etcう ,the)constructing more legitilnate theOries

present study sheds fa士 L8ht on ie htersecing effects of a number

IPs betwveen the distinctive learningof potential factors that lna)silnllltaneously affect the learner'svari・able in this study),the S}「

al‐ticle usage as the dependent

stemauciサ underlying that observed

variability stems froIIi the intersecting relationships amOng a

concemed onヶ 17ith Oneto― One corelation betteen al・ ticle usa3e alld

ふa̲tstttled tO iniuence the usage(e.g。

,

vari7able prOducion,ぁ 、a̲R Fllst atempted in Young(1996).Such
the present study lie in its analyticalinterfactor relations in te■ ■■■s of effectiveness on variable uses ofinguistics and its strOng fOcus on thearicles and their diachl・ o面 c ch〔遺ges th‐ ou〔 井out lettning become

tta in naturalistic context for EFL[alyticd fl・ amework,the present stlldy

the key to understalldhg the process of atticle acquisition.

■
ciple of varia■ onist lin8■ liStiCs(LabOv,

the underlying lnechanisln of obsenred varia■ ons based on the.,益 exPlored by a number Of stlldies

speaker'snam」 linpsic PerfOrIIlance tt and"cd data(CederJen&Sanko氏 1974).A re宙 e、 ゞof Pぉ t Smdies,hOwever,indicates that

A variationist lingulstics apprOach also enables us to account forcontext(Dickerson,1975;Odlin,1978;fblfranl,1985;Adamson,1988;Young,the data elicitation tasL adopted in a Feat m苺

&Pl‐ eston,1996)。 Lal■ ttage inherently

釘e quite conttolled Or recepdヽ e isee Section 2).ヽ そry few studies,(恥binreich,Labov,&Herzog,1968;

have extensively anal)zed Perfolll■ ance data fl‐ om namralistic IL―‑108‑――‑109‑―o五 サ Of EFL sttldies

production,ャvhile IL perforlnance has been found to be full oflatter is a discourse lllu■ ersal.下 l痴 dェ Fstrate3ies the learner alltonomously creates(Brown,1994).As thewriter indicates whether the refttu饉

prilne source for directly observing such strategic aspects,the

Il]OI面
known(十 HK[hetter̲kllo■ 、present study closely exanlines the lettner's actllal perfOrmance inreader in the context of chsco嗅 . 111

naturdisuc en宙 rOnments.The lon」 tlldinal natllre of this stlldy has

猫―‑1
illg l ol可 丁Patterns of ttucles in English i̲e̲̲赳

made it possible tO elicit a large volume of natllralistic data frOm

deterlnined by the follo、

the sal■le individuals even in such a restricted learning situation as

un市 ersal feratures(Ъ ble l):

the EFL context.

T̲3LElιtt α
だ ろμ∫り轟グπ
α乃zγ ―ωの 動πι

2. Past Studies of Acquisition of Articles in English

Jθ

lnterlanguage

CombinatiOns勁 摯螢ー・ Generlc==面

ln this section,I will review the relevant literature of article
acquisi■ on in En」 ish IL witll● vo speci■ c fOci:1)the tu..iversal'

route or process Of development Ofthe ancle systerll h En」

sh IL

and 2)the outCOme of Pぉ t EFL based smttes Of ancle acqllisition,
mttnly by」 apallese leamers Of EFL.The ttst focus of the review―SIこ +HK

範

Unique referent;
Referent physically presellti

Referent previously
mentloned in the discourse:
・ Speciflc referent assumed

stems exclusively frOm the sa■ dies cOnducted in the ESL lean■ ing

knO、 n to the hearer/reader

environment. The second focus w■ 1l then discuss both shared andFirst rnentlon in a discourse

discrepant aspects of PriOr research outcome in the t、 vO learning
situations.

〜

not kllown to tl■ e healeノ reader

・First menion of ll SRl卜One of the rObust findings of the universal process of article

P

υ
′or
follo、 ving existenllal力 ι

acqllisiuon in En」 ish IL is hl■ ked to the nOuOns ofsemandc reference

力´″ tsた″ and assumed not

and Participant knoャ vledgei specificity Of referents and the hetter's

knOM7n to the hearer/reader(Or reader's)levels Of knOwledge in discourse(Bickerton, 1981).
The former properサ stemS fl‐ Om aun市 ersal nouon of noun phrase
reference.Any noun phrase(NP)refers to either a speci■[SpeCi■ C reirend)Or a nOn speci■c(+SRc(SRl endサ in discourse.The

‑110‑

aE ,

Of[+SRI NP which is ttsumed

Equative NPs;a==

NPs in tlle scope of negatloni
NPs in tlle scope ofinterrogaい ′e;・NPsin il■ e・alis sco‑111‑

mance has been found to be full ofnOusly creates(BrOWn,1994).As thebserving such strategic aspects,thelatter is a discollrse universal,which Presupposes that the speaker/

es the lemer's actual perfo・・1lance inreader in the context of discollrse. It follows that the distributionalle lonが tudind nature ofthis study has

pattems of arucles in English(i.e.,

writer indicates whether the referent of an NP is assumed to be
known l■ HK[hearer̲knownl)Or unk■ own← HKl to the hearer/■rge volume of namralistic data froma/n,"zero markina areWay
combinationsof these
deterlnined by the follov√ ing four―

such a restricted learning situation as

un市 ersal feamres(Table l):the,"

TABLE llo■ of乃Artides in English"γ‐
力富 araJ助 い ゲ′rttJ″ 働 解 πS"π 滋〃 EttJisん″の Oπ ιttα ι"″―SR+HK―′iew the relevant literature of article

th two specinc foci:1)thèuniversJ'+SR,+HKcLs

扇

駆・ Genenc

Uique referenti

響

ゴ n.住 ■

The/A lion is a beau● ful anirnal

0

単ル OnS are beauiflll animals

the

The Pope

Referent physicaly Preserlti

Ask tl■ c guy over there

lent of the aricle system in En31iSh IL

Relerent pre宙 ously

A:So lle lllanled a、

FL― based smdies Of al・ ticle acquisition,

mentloned in the dttcoursel

B:Yes,the woman'S iOm London

Of EFL.The■ Ist focus of tl■ e review

Specillc referent asstuled

He went oVer to the book store

tudies conducted in the ESL lean■ ing)cus Ⅵ ll then discuss both shared andknown to the hearer/reader
十SR,一 HKe(NPl refers to either a speci■ c(+SR〕peciic(― SRl enity in discourse.The″亀 φ

Dad gave me a Car

Rrst menion of卜 SRl卜 P

Otr house has a garage

fo1lowing e対 stendalん 露′or

Ъ ere is a lake called Shikotsu″and asstlIFled IIot
″′
ノク
″′

ked to the nOtions of semalltic referenceroⅡ l a universal notion of noun phraseo崚■ot kllowm lo dr hearer′ 藁

lgs of the universal process of article′
ledge in discourse(BiCkerton, 1981).

First menton in a diκ

Of卜 SRI NP whichヽ 小mmed「
esearch outcome in the two learning

specinciり of referents and the hearer's

ゅ 脚 1缶師 Bttmd

known to ule hearer′ reader

―
HK
SIヽ 一

ν n9 0Equajve NPsi

He's a nlce man

NPs in the scope oF negaさ oni

l don'tsee a penci

NPs h tte scope of

Do you see a penCil?

interrogatlve:

IIhad a dLon doは rd bul abgVaCht

NPs ln ll■ ett scope(adapted iOm Tarone&Pamsh,1988:27)‑110‑―‑111‑―

Prior studies of spoken data in ESL have shom711 that the prOcessof English article acquisition is systematic in terms of the types of額ticles lnastered al■ d inv01ves a more or less uniform path acrossnamely,[+SR,一 H■ NP・ ■ 製 h噸
the phenOmena in Ll こ[1=コ 'I皿

1learners ofdifferent native lan3ua3e bacttOunds.It has consistendy

children's egocen壼

been found in a number of ESL― based studies that the definite
aricle(DA herea■ er)iS more likely to be prOduced correcdy thal■

Lan3■ lage

either tlle indeinite ttucle(IA hereafter)Or zero marking,and thus
is considered to be acquired irst of tlle three(Hakuta,1976;P鉗五sh,

1987;Master,1987;Thomas,1989).
incanら 7v彎
Interpretations of tl■ is general indins however,si3■ ■among researchers. Above all,which of the universal categories―[+SRl or卜 HKl― would Operate in the earlier acqllisi■ on of DA issull highly debatable.On One hand,tl■ e earlier acqllisition of̀tlle'
is associated wil■ the[十 HKl feattlre on the basis ofreseal‐ cll e宙 denceコ

learners tended to o■ erこ [■ =…

‐
Ci■

=5‐

C― En

Biopro3‑H}PI■ 灘盤 殿

an innate sensitiviヽ‐to珀 ●■=二 =・

ヽ亀riable uses of IL‐

aniこ 11■耐,輌 J

afore― Inentioned uni、 er涎とさここ揃

tlle noun l■ odifled b、 翻■c̲姜 醐 こ狐―、
vith the wiable vet s、 sie二 薫‑1

酪(198η found SOme correla■ 二=』一
reference discussed abo、 託 三‑1―
as● LIs質 ЪIE劇
concerned. WVhile it、 、

witll卜 S氏 十HKl alld I SR,十 HKl remainedthat zero mttking、「Pic=■ l二 〔l=理嘔
the suttect pOSiuOn alld DA枷 圭 血

intact throughout a l― year long observation of an adult I― IInong

predicate position,this s)■ Iだt距 』

speaker Of ESL(Huebner,19841.Master(198η

acquisidon proceeded.T二 =l==こ コ巴Jthat the use of̀tll♂

,a crOSS― SeCdOnal

FIF暉

study of 20 ESL students of five different native languages,also

particularサ pes of NPs e g¨argues for that particular association becausèthe'tended to bephrases,etc.)with alticl=5■ 、=‐ ―「er・ =・ ■■■狐画
these results as the 、

overproduced in tl■ e category(卜 SR,+HKl),whiCh iS found evenmore salient in the production of learllers、 vhose naive language has
no al‐ ticle system.(Dther researchers attribute the etther acq■ lsitlon

constrllction'of her IL sviこ ■ 'n― 到耐.K■ ■ Y10[■ 脳internal consistenc、 「of DA to the primacy of[十 /― SRI distinction over i■ /.一 HKl,

hnk betwveen the indei■ iI=・ I 皿

providing universalistic accounts.In Parrish's(1987)4‑Inonth longcountabiliり Based On 2「 」

study of a 19‑year old」 apanese ESL learner,for exall■ ple,the claim

Of the countabilitv of■ oll￢ si■ i輛・is based on the lettner's overgeneralization of̀the'in[+SミーHKl(but・ Ot in[― SR,一HKl).A similar inding was obtained in Thomas(1989),WhO Stlldied 30 adult learners Of ESL cross――H2‑

seciondly:the

arコ

￨・

‐
that countttiliり iS dttecd]・ 証I.輌
countabiliけ with ZerO mttL=■ ̲■The outcome of thes=i‐ 議 馴lata in ESL have shOwn that the prOcesslearners tended to o、・ergeneralize DA in flrst― mention contexts,

n is systematic in terms of the types of、es a more or less unifOrm path acrossnamely,[+SR,一 HK]NPs.This latter interpretauOn is parallel tO
the phenomena in Ll acquisition of Enghsh articles based on

nguage backyOunds. It has cOnsistently

children's egocenttciO「 le.g,CZiko,1986)and cOincides with theof ESL― based studies that the definite

Lan3Utte BiOprogam H)PotheSiS IBiCke■ on,1981),which prOposes

ire likely tO be prOduced cOrrectly thanan innate sensitivitv to specinci与‐and non― specificity of reference.

IA herea■ er)or zero marking,and thus

ヽLriable uses of IL articles cannot fully be accounted for by theirst Of tlle three(Halcuta,1976;Parrish,

afOre― Inentioned universalistic feau■res a10ne. C)ther attributes ofs.1989).

the noun l■ odifled b)articles also appear to have something tO dO

neral flnding,ho■ vever,si3■ liflcantly vav

ャvith the variable yet s)‐ stematic uses of English IL articles. Parrish

all,、 vhich Of the univers・ al categories一(1987)found some correlations bet、 、een the types of semantic)erate in the earlier acquisition Of DA isreference discussed abo、 e and the s)・ntaCtiC POSitions of the noun

ne hand,the earlier acquisition Of(the'〕―as obsen ed at the initial stage of acquisition
concerned. ンVhile it、 、featllre on the basis Of resettch e、 ■dence「
that zerO markingサ Picall} OCCurred、 、
ith[+SRl卜 HKl nounS in
the suttect pOSi■ on and DA、 、
lth the identical type of nouns in the―
SR,+HKl and卜 SR,+HKl remained

long observatiOn of an adult HmOng
1980,Master(1987),a cross sectional

predicate position,this s)ntactic differentiation disappeared as

Of flve different native lang■ ages, also

pttucularサ pes Of NPs● g… proper nollns、 compounds,prefab五 cated■SSOClatiOn becausèthe'tended tO be

PhraSes,etc.)、 vith articles、 、ere also observed.Parrish interprets

)r)「

([―

SR,十 HKl),whiCh is fOund evenacquisition proceeded. The leamer・ s idiosyncratic associations ofthese results as the、 ‐er、 e、 idence of the learner's̀creative

Dn Oflearnersャ vhOse native language has

construction'of her IL s)steln and its ongoing revisions for achieving

searchers atttibute the earlier acquisitioninternral cOnsistency.Km 10on 19931 alsO investigates a possible[十 /―SR]distinction o、「er[十 /― HKl,s zero article chOice and noun
Based On 2ア 」apanese ESL leamerゞ intlliuve jud3ment

link betャ veen the indefinite、

ounts.In Parrish's(1987)4‑montln‑longcountabilitμ、ese ESL learner,fOr example,the clailll

Of the cOuntabiliい ′of nouns and cloze― test answers,she concludes

ergeneralizatiOn of lhe'in卜 SR,一 HKl―
that cOuntability is directl)assoCiated、 、
ith the use of IAL and nOn―

silnilar finding ltras obtained in Thomascountabiliけ with Zero marklng cf..■bung,1996;Lee,1997).

lt learners of ESL cross sectionally:the―

H2‑

The OutcOme of these studies suggests the necessity of a―‑113‑―

mulidimensiOnal apprOach tO variatiOns in the use Of English IL
articles. ヽ
Lriable chOice Of particular articles appears tO be affectedsilnultaneOusly by a number Of crOsscutting factOrs besides theuniversal categories Of the article system. The rnOst cOmprehensive

invesugation done thus far frOm this perspecuve is YOung's(1996)

mark informatiOn slnhlミ b▼ ̲
was a tendency for rheln〔 s i‐ 1

end Of the clause to c0 0̲dsuccess in IL perfo....獅 Ce■日■in that the learllers ll■

cross― sectional study. Based On intenrie、

νdata frOmれ vO proflciency

groups of 6 ESL adult learners with no articles in their native

languages(3 Czech and 3 S10vak speakers),Young investigatedvariability in article usage as resulting frOm the relative ettcts Of fOur

independent factOrs that were hypOthesized tO affect article usage

simultaneOusly:1)the leamer's leve1 0f prOAciency,2)NP types ins Of[+/― SRl and卜 /一 HKl,助 cOuntability and number Of thenoun,and→ Arst language ttansた r ofthe mttch/mismatch bemeen
te■ ■
1■

informatiOn■ Ow and word Order(cl,ChaudrOn&Parker,199o).
The results first demonstrate that accuracy in article llsage is
POSitiVely cOrrelated with the learners'Overall prOflciellcI SecOnd,

the learners'uses Of bOth IA and]DA becOme increasingly sensitive
to discOurse cOntext as IL deve10ps after an earlier stage of acquisidOn

when the nOnsystematic f100ding of DA is ObseⅣ

ed. Silnilar tO

what is fOund in Parrish(1987),there is alsO a strOng telldency to
associate a single fOrm with a single funcuOn(e.g.,using not̀the'but zerO marking Or̀a/n'with generic nOuns).The leamers appear
to creatively cOnstruct the rules Of an IL grammar that differ iOm
the nauve speaker's. Third,the learners at bOth prOflciency levels
can distinguish bet、 veen singular and Plural nOuns by using IA andzero marking accOrdingly. Fourth,the learners'Ll Patterns Of

marking new(rheme)and old← heme)informatiOn by wOrd Orderweakly affect their chOice Of articles. Given that the learners'Lls

ight be―the site fOr new infO.u■ at10n h由Young's multi dimensiOnttl￢
F
・「complexiサ Ofthe IL lea珈 壼

sO嘔usage. It demOnstrates lhn,IL「silnultaneOusly by a vane,ご 田

ilnplies that IL deve10Pmm L J

norms in which the lealer J.eっ target― lika combinat10藤 ごc←
As cOmpared wlth the O̲

on a naturalistic learllllg―

that are conducted in s五 0饉 】
ロロ『

other insights int0 0ur llnd―■rst twO examples ded雨 ぬ h響of EFL.Adnliniste五 ng t■ O ld■

response to questions and̲
students,Shirahata(1989嘔
EFL Inorphelnes tO test■ dx」 Lョ̀̀natural order''that pHOr ESL J

197η .Shirttatゴ s re釧も 鹸
凸in the acquisitiOn order Of…
orden Shirahata atibutes hL日
POSSeSSiVe⇒

distorts the nand￢■Om the learners'nadve lm̲

‑114‑
―

‑11

l tO vttiations in the use Of En」 ish IL

mttk informa■ On statlls b)、 vOrd orderわ r Clause position),tllere

PartiCular arucles appetts to be affected

was a tendency for rhemes i,e.i ne、 v informatiOn)preSented at the

ber Of crosscutting factors besides the「ith zero marking. This particular
end of the clause to co― oCCurヽ 、lrticle system. The most cOmprehensive

success in IL perfollllance、 、a̲q interIPreted as flrst language tral■

iom this perspecuve is Young's(1996)‐
in that the learners IIlight be a、 、are that the clause― inal position issfer,l on inten/iew data fl・ om ivO proflciency

the site for new infonmatiOn in their Lls thus lnarking is redundant.

arners、 vith no articles in their native

Young's lnulti― dil■ ensional apprOach succeeds in revealing the,Slovak speakers),YOung investigatedcomplexiサ oftlle IL leamer・ s cOpition ofthe consttaints on ttticle

i resulting frolll■

the relatlve effec、 Of fOur

usage. It demonstrates that IL production is variable being affected

ere hypothesized tO affect artlcle usage

silnultaneously by a、 ,a五 e■ ―Of COnstrainも ias in Ll prOduction),al・ dler's leve1 0f prOiciency,2)NPサ pes in

irnplies that IL developmen[is the aPPrOXilnation process to TL

HKl,3)countttiliサ and number Ofthe

norms in■ vhich the leamer yaduall}comes to■ 8■lre out propertransir of the lnatch/1nismatch be● veen.e.,target― like)combinations Of constraints.
←

order(cl,ChaudrOn&Pttker,199o)

As compared with the Outcome ofthese stlldies based prilnarily

lstrate that accuracy in article usage ison a natur」 isic learning en、 i■ onment i.e.,ESL),several stlldies

le learners'overdl proiciency Second,that are conducted in st五 ctl}EFL lean■ ing envirOnments provide

ヽand DA become increasingl)'sensitive

Otller insights into our understandlng ofthe process of SLA. These、e10ps after an eal‐ lier s● ge of acqdsition

irst twO examples deal、 、
ith bettnning intermediate― level lettners

ooding of]Dノヽ is Observed. Sill■ ilar to

Of EFL.Administeringい 、o kinds of oral production tasks(i.e.,987),tl■ ere is also a sttOng tendency toresponse to quesuOns and sto号 ―telling to 31 Japanese high schoolh a sin」 e fllnCtiOn(e.g"using not̀tlle'

students,Shirahata(1989 in、

ith generic nouns).The leamers appear

EFL morphellles to test、 、
hether the obtained order lllatches theOmnatural order"that p五 〇r ESL stlldles ha、 e suggested(e.g.,IGashen,rtlles Of an IL grallllinar that differ fl・

estigated their acquisition order of 9l,the learners at botll prOiciency levels

1977).Shir山 江a's results shO、 、that there are drasuc discrepancieslε

r and plural nOuns by using Iい L andin the acquisidon order of articles and PoSSessives)ヽ Vith the natural

Fourth,the learners'Ll patterns Of

order.Shirahata attributes his indlng that the usage of articles(and01d(theme)information by word Order

POSSeSSiVeO dlstOl‐ tS the nattlral acq■ sition order tO negaive ttallsir)f articles.Given that the learners'Lls

iolll the learners'nati、 e language that has nO article systen■ ,and

3■

‑114‑

‑115‑

stresses ttat the acquisi伍 On Ofthe article system in English IL cOnsisヽ

of a rnixture Of both the universal dilnensiOn and the definitiveeffects Of the learner's Ll that cannOt be neglected.

true only On the all…

Noguchi's(1997)study of 36 technical cOnege studenぉ'EFL usage

in ttO different types Of tasks(percepuve task:muldPle―

chOiCe test

productive task:translatiOn test)produces results that are rather

discrepant with p五 〇r studies.3 The results shOw that there is nO
salient gap in accllracy rates beれ

veen DA and IA,which dralnaticallycontradicts the generalizatiOn that DA is likely tO be acquired earlien
ヽ10reOver,OvergeneralizatiOns

Of DA were nOt Observed,agm m

discOrd with priOr studies. Instead,his results demOnstrated that
OverprOductiOn Of zero marking in the cOntexts Of lA and DA was

PredOnlinant. NOguchi interprets this as the cOnsequence Of theleamers'avOidance Of the articles whOse OperatiOnalコ

wlth a number Of PnOr―
DA tO be used mOre O―」es lnay bewith flrst― mentioned

…
NIゝ
,こ

=J
with ThOmas 11989],fOr―
whether the OverP]騨 凸D● 饉。■由the卜 /― SR1 0r tO the卜 ′疑 El■
the univers」 featreヽ bOth馴

NPに gっ anaphO五 → as G」日h‐「discOurse cohes市 en(sa週 』"￨
difficult.The fo..mer m F曲
(Master,198η .PerhaPs ofF由is the 10ngltudinal dim… ごfelt difficult as well as transfer frOm their Ll that has nO article

usage in the currellt cOttEP嘔 ■■■system(Master,1987).ErrOrs made by the beginning level learners

written by 57 ofthe 141「■出in this study were alsO illustrative Of a typical perfO.11lanCe Strategy

hvdving prefab五 ctted Pattems orown,199o.The fact血載IA wasused even mOre frequently than DA is attHbuted tO the learners'
active uses Of the e対 stential structure and idiOmatic exPreSSiOns uth

many occurrences of̀a(n).'(cl,ThOmas,1989).
There are alsO sOΠ le Sttdies thtt deal wi■

arucle accuracy over the岬
this wOuld cOntinue to be dF̲
on article usage.

Yamada and Matsullmis iロ

article usage in dOzer̲…

inte...lediate/advanced―of 35 seniOr high(intemoL L

th ESI」 ―based studies in te.11ls Of the learners'levels Of prOflciency.

(advanced level grOuPI of urLlevel learners Of EFL. These studies seem to be mOre cOmparablevv■

中

His analysis,hOwever,一KubOta's(1994)study of 141 Japanese cOllege students'EFL fromtwo data elicitatiOn tasks仁 5‑minute■

minute composition tesり11‑in― the―blank test and a 20‐

Produces rather m破 ed results regarding

the general principles Of article acquisitiOn in English IL. In accOrd

increase in correct tt cf a■ ■dAmong the three types of讀 劇 hzero lnarking lnOst inco‑ 1
based inding that DA is a円■e nOn̲targe卜 1よ è■ ∞ 山
―

戸団●
ィ ごn
1

H6‑

― ■

1

l

ofthe ttucle system in Engish IL cOnsists

universal dilnensiOn and the definitive
hat cannOt be neglected.

「
as observed a tendency forハ、/ith a number of P五 or stlldies,there、 、
ras found to be
DいL to be used lllore correctlv than IA,but this、 〜廿ue only on the flll― in the― blank test. Dノ 牡 v√ as also overproduced

SkS(perceptive task:rnultiple― choice test;with irst mendoned NPs i.e,the l+SR,一 HK]iature)(in accord
with Thomas 119891,for examplel,thOugh it is let ullanswered〕n test)produces results that are rather

whether the oveTrOduction stems fl・ om the letters'sensiti宙 サ tolies.= The results shOw that there is■ 0

the[+/― SRl orto the[. HK]feattlres As for the combinations Of

s beぃ/een DA andIA,which dramaicallythe universal iatllres,both■ pes of tests show tllat tl■

Dn that DA is likely to be acquired earlie■NP(e.gっ al.aphoricl was easiest br the leamers to acqllire due toions of DA were not observed,ag7ain indiscourse cohesiveness and the[SL・ Htt NP← .g"generic)moSt

lnstead,his results demOnstrated thatdifficult. The foriner in ParliCular coincides、 vith prior studies

lrkng in the cOntexts ofIA and DA was(MaSter,1987).PerhapS Of particular relevance to the present study

Df 36 technical c011ege sttldents'EFL usage

lterprets this as the consequence of thee卜 SR,十 HKl

artlcles whOse operational rules lllay be

ぎtlldinal dimension of this stlld)「 ,which compared aricle
usage in the current composition testヽ vith that in compositions

tnsfer frOn■ their Ll that has nO article

written by 57 of the 141 PartiCiPantS a)‐ ear before the experilnent.

ors rnade by the be」 nning level learners

I―straive of aり pical perfo...lanCe Sttate〔article accuracy over the pe五 od of one)― e ar. Kllbota suggests thatγ

is tl■ e lo■「■s no improvementin
Iis analysis,ho、 vever,indicated that there、 、ЮmS(Brown,199→ .The f・actthatIA wasi[hout explicit foll.lal inslruction
thisャ vould continue to be the case、 、、than DA is attributed tO the learners'

on article usage.

l structllre alld idiOmatic expressions with

Yalnada and ⅣIatsuura・ s 1982 cross― sectional study comparedo proflciency『 oups
ticle usage in cloze― test productlon be3、 een i、「'lCl,Thomas,1989).

al‐ies tllat deJ、 宙tl■ intennediate/adval■ ced―

Of 35 senior hi311(intelllledlale le、

3se studies seern to be more comparable(adVanced level groupi Of EFL in」 apan.They found a steadyelllls of tl■ e lettners'levels Of proflciency.

increase in correct usage of anicles as PrOflCiency becomes higher.

el Foupl and 35 college st■ ldents―

EFL iOm

as used most col‐ rectly,andAmong tlle tl■ ree ttTes of articles.DA、 、

5‑lllinute f11l in― the― blank test and a 20‑

zero rnarking lnost incorrectl) ThiS result coincides、 vith the ESL―〕
roduces ratl■ er lnixed results regarding

based flnding that D=ヽ is acqlllred etther than the others. In additlon,

ticle acquisition in En」 ish IL.In accOrd

the non― target― like(flooding・

41 Japal・ ese college stlldentゞ

‑116‑of I)二 ヽin―‑117‑―

both contexts of zero lllarking

and IA was alsO identi■ ed in accord with pre宙 Ous studies(Huё bneF;

high rate of

1985;MasteF,1987;PaF五 Sh,1987,ThOmaS,1989;Young,1996).

advanced level lea‑1田 L

However,based on their ob.seⅣ ation that this floOding of̀thё 'was

JapmeSe leatters ofihaFdly ttmended even atthe advanced level,1鷺 Inada and LIatsuura

zero marking9 wbi■

(1982:58‑5鋤 argue thtt bOth inrlnediate and advancedJapaneselearners Of EFL tend tò̀fossilize''the incOrrect patterns while士onic』 y the ove■ speciflcation strate8y"resulted in thett high scoFe
in the cOrrect usage Of DA‐ . Given the fact that both grOups ofSu匈 eCtS face the same difficulty of using IA and zero marking
appropriately,they further point out the importance Of leaming
how tO mttk the nOnispeci■ city"of nouns inJa.pmese lettners'

hadaand Ma―
In contrast toa stronger reSeaFCh fO―

in aricle usage is ab0
acquisitiOn Of a五 CIE innOun co― occu― g、 ぼ量htypically made by¨qulsiuOn ofEFL lp.61).
PerhaPs the largest scde errOr analysis study of EFL aFtiCle

clause― final positio■ ̲acqulsitionbyJapaneselearneFSiSIMizllno 0000,WhiCh administeredclause initial positioL

a varlety of both jud♂ nental le.g"multiPle chOice c10ze testl alld

av01ded when OCCWing
verbsに 1,Yamadち 199n4
BOth Yamadゴ s(1990

Productive(e.g.,controlled compOsition tesり testS t0 9 prcDEciellcy
groups oflearllers mde up of353 senior high sch001 alld university
OVerall,the resul色 意
how ittthere are symmatic」apanese c01lege stl■ dm

correlations between the learner's proFlciency levels a■ ld 5 types ofstudy ofけ o teSt rentSいarticle errors.At relatively inidal stages of acquiduo■,artide e‐ orschoice article inse血 om

are characteristic of ungramlnatical cOncurrence with other
determiners(e.3・ ,a my book)(p.51)and Wrong word orderinvO市 ing aFtiCles(e.g:,new a bookl(P.59).The rema― g ttee
types一 oΠlission eFrOrs,seleCtion errOrs,and Overproduction
errors― ―tend to remain consistent throughOut the prOcess offocused on intemal

students inJapan・

Yamada follnd■ at theelements as prepositiOd

maFked by DA(e.g̲,壁arning. After the beginning level,olnission errors begin tO

stump οπωλJ励 カタ,π ロロ
Other hand,fomd dlat hdecrease in frequency as proficiency levels go upo Selection errors

accurately When the ll―le‐show a similar,thou〔 井 leSS pronollnced,tendency.A consistendy‑118‑―

‐一'ith previOus stlldies(Huebner,■[cord、 、

high rate of overproduction errors in both intermediate and、1'8み ThOmas,1989;取 bung,1996).
‐
sき ぃation that this f100ding Of̀the'wasadvanced level learners' IL performance especially indicates that

id、 anced

level,Yamada and A/1atsuura

i interlllediate and advancedJapaneseiPssilize"the incOrrect patterns while

Japanese learners ofEFL coninue to have di■ culty in dealing withzero lnarking,which inherently accords with the cl〔 通lll put forth by

挽皿 ada and Matsuura(1982).
In conttast to ESL― based stlldies of ttticle acquisition in general,二n strategy"resulted in tlleir high scOre

a stronger research focus on surface― level consttaints on variationsC)iven the fact that bOth grOups Of

in article usage is alsO characteristic of past studies ofJapanese

icult)Of using IハL and zerO marking

acquisition of articles in EFL.Mizuno(2000),fOr example,

POint Out the importance Of learninginvestigated systematic correlatiOns with syntactic PositiOns of thelicit)‐ ''/ith articles. He found that w、 ″ord order errors
noun co― occurring、 ハOf nouns inJapanese learners'

サPiCally made by beぎ nning― level learners tended to occur at the=error analysis study of EFL article

clause― final positiOn. Ornission errors tended to decrease at thersis MizunO p000),、vhich administered/hereas overproduction errors tended to beclause initial position,、 へ

le.gっ mulaple choice c10ze tes→ alld
iomposition tes→ tests to 9 pro■ ciency

hen Occur五 ng、 vith complement nouns right after thèbe'
avoided、 νverbs(cl,■ hada,1996).1

f353 seniOr hi3h SChOOl al■ d universiサBoth Yanlada's(1996)16‑month‑long study of EFL writing by 5

e results shOャ v that tllere are systematic

apanese c。 llege students and Takahashi's(1997)crOsS― Sectional」ll er's proficiency levels and 5 types ofstudy oft、vO test results(a lnuliple choice cloze test and a lnultiple

itial stages of acquisition,article errOrs

choice article insertion test)fl・ Om lol JapaneSe c。 llege students

llnrnatical cOncurrence with Other

fOcused on internal structures of the noun phrase involving articles.

)Ok)(p.51)and wrong word Order

Yall■ ada found tl■ at

l book)(p.59).The remaining tl■ reeelements as prepositional Phrases or relative clauses tended to belection errOrs,and OverprOductiOnnsistent thrOughout the prOcess ofηルηιι」
吻 〃;themttked by DA(e.g"tlle clock towerグ 滋ι動ごψιthe noun Or noun Phrase post modifled by such

π7tlん グ
説 J/1ι zttθ πごqgん αごstllmp θ"′..)(p.120).■ よallashi,on tlle

ing level,olllission errors begin tO

Other hal■ d,bund thtt his stteCtS tended to produce ttucles moreliciency levels gO up. SelectiOn errors

accuratelyャ vhen the nOun was lnodified by a relative clause rather)ronounced,tendencァ

thall by a prepositional phrase. In addidon,he found that regardless― H8‑

2生 COnsistently‑119‑

ofwhether they are rdative dauses or prepositional phrases,the post―

vanability fOm

mOdifyitt elements tended to prOmote an inaCCllrate overproduciOncontexts ofE団 コ

of DA in accord with Yamad″ s(1990 results.

Finally,Mizuno(2000)investigated systematic Patterns‐ ofconcurrence beれ veen the artides and Other pre― modiflers,and fOund●

How does■ E
time, Dothe process ofthtt the use Of atteCtiVes as the modi■ er Of the nolln was likely todifferences ln l■ ●hampeF the COrrect usage of aricles e,pecially by begimin31eVel

who carl belearners.Though the suttectS are Korean EFL learners,Lee(1997)of lear― g?

dso found thⅢ tl■ e ttquence of lariё le+鋤 eCtiVe+nounl inhibited● Are there a■ y蠣

their prOducion of articles mOFe heavlly than the sequence宙 thout

could exPloit in鋤 eCtiVes.

constructed at a

The present smdy will adopt a lnulti― dilnensional persPectiVe ofanalysis that takes intO accOunt the variety Of Potenial containts

3.2.Longitudinal aJB

that simultaneously affect IL lettners'variable prOductiOn Of English

While a predom―aricles.It wil pardcularly investigate diathr6nic change in thethe ESL contextl」h血matrix Of the cOnstrainお thatJapaneSe learners Of EFL pduallyconcerned With sPoken

construct over time.

written data. I haveas analyucal data for ttE

3, The PresentlStudyis the priinary

3.1.ResettК h questions

communlcation for
ESL,context where ttEof everyday

The pFeSent longitudinal study aims to answer the fouowing

194

specific questiOns On the process of acquisition of deflnite and(Lee,199■ No斜 屯

indefinite aFtiCles based On naturalistic IL perfo....3mCe in thein past studies seeIEIS"

context ofEFL:o五 entation to the ESL● DO IILs acquired exdusively in the context Of EFL inv01ve
Systematic vaFlability at all with respect to article usattP● Ifso,hOw similar Or dissimilaris i cOmpared wi■ the systematic‑120‑

the teaching and le叫
have increaslngly bem
these days,it is stin d■ elauses or prepositional phrases,the pOs♭

variability found in ILs acquired in the more naturalisticモo promOte all inaccurate oveTroduCtiOn

contexts of ESL?

t‐

●How does the system of aricles in Engish ILs evolve overlda's(1996)results.

[l investigated systematic Patterns oftimeP Do different ILs fo1lo、 v lnore or less uniforrll paths in

面cles and Other pre― rnOdiners,and foundthe process of approxll■ ations to TL? メピe there any si〔 ,liflCantt̲b the trllodifier Of the nOun was likely todifferences in the paths of acquisition among EFL learners,of articles especially by beぎ nning level

who cal■ be asstttled tO h鵠 7e qllite heterogeneous backgrOllnds∋
cts are KOreal■ EFL learners,Lee(1997)

oflearning?

e Of[article+atteCtiVe+noun]inhibited● Are tllere any sipicant pel・ fo.1.lance strtte」 eS EFL learners

more heavily than the sequence without

could exploit in Order to make their IL system of rules
ven stage of acquisiuon mOre efficient?
consttucted at a〔 昇adopt a rnulti― dillllensional perspective of:ount tlle vttieけ Of potendal cOnstraints

3.2.Longitudinal data and suttects

L learners'varhble prOducuon of En31iSh

While a predominant m句 o五 り'Of Past stlldies(mainly tl■ ose in
the ESL contex→ whiCh bCus on natllralisic Producuon of IL areconcerned、vith spoken data for analysis,the present study analyzesl)r investigate diachrOnic change in thehat」 apanese learners Of EFL gradually

wvritten data. I have selected this PartiCular lllode of communication
ing reasons. First,the written llllode
as analytical data for the follo、 、is the prilnary productive lneans of internationa1/interculturalcommunication for」 apanese leamers of EFL,as comptted with the
ESL context lvhere tl■ e sPoken l■ ode is the indispensable llledium
lal study aiIIls to answer the f0110、

ring
へ

PrOCeSS Of acquisition of definite andЭn naturalistic IL performance in the

Of everyday communicatlon as、 vell as that of classroom insttuction(Lee,1997;No8■ lChi,1997)Exclusive focus on the sPoken modethe prevalentin past studies seems to be a bias stellllning fron■orientaion to the ESL contextin Slノ ゝresearch in general. Though

31usively in the cOntext of EFL involve

the teaching al■ d learning of the sPoken mode of communication

at all with respect to article usage?

hⅣ e increasin」 y been ttessed in school Endish education inJapan

issIIniltt is it colnpared wν

―‑120‑―■th the systematic

rritten lnode of TL production
these days,it is still the case that the、 、‑121‑

in witing thall in speaking after a minimllm of six years ofintenslve

earned on the follo̲
be」 nning of theilr…
■eshman year oanw9

eXPOSure to the written code(i.e.,reading and w二 ungl in junioF

year Oanllary,2∞ 2)̲

is natura1 0r unmarked for a gFeat maority OfJap〔 mese college
sttdents.They are much more accustomed to expressing themselves

and seniOr high schools.Second,the misuse ofthe article system ismore likely tO cause Ⅱlisunderstandings in the w五 tten mode ofcommtlmcatiOn thtt in the sPoken(Noguchi,1997),which suggeststhat mOre宙 goFOuS FeSearch On learners'written product shOuld bevital fOr diagnOstic and pedagogical purPOses e‐ Specially in EFL
contextt such as inJaPan,

To investigate each individual leaFner'S prOcess of artiこ leData was collectedacquisiuOn over ime,EFL composidons wFiien byけ 0」 apanese
femde conegc ttdentt have been m」 yzed.The sI筍 eCtS,Akik0

April through mi機、and Nttsuko,are both EnJish maJorS WhO have particlptted in theyear(mid̲september

idendcal EFL curricula tt tlle salne un市

いvo― Inonth sulnlnerはersity.PriOrゎ this smdy,

Of obsewation:1)theboth suttectS had studied EngliSh as a sch001 sutteCt fOr 6 yetts of

their sOpholnore year

JuniOr and senior high sch061 without any extens市 e exPOsure tonatural TL input and inteFaclon in Englお h― speaking countries.The

mteⅣening;and→ the l狙

cOmpOsitiOns fOr the present analysis were w五 tten and― ed in as

the Flrst drtt of■ eir

the OccasiOnal hoFneWOFk oflWO semester‐ long English compOdiOnof yallnmttcd eEo爵 りclasses they were trdking as part Of degree Feqlllrements.When they

SutteCtt more or lessbecame juniors,I asked them tO cOntribute the cOmposi● Ons they

the composltions were

had kept to this suses of articles,otherdy as datat Thatis,neither was aware that the士use Of aruё les as well徳 thett cOmposiuons per se would be anttzed

agaln with aい vo― molnd■ ina"e speaker of呻

when they were恥 咀ting them=
AkikO and Natsuko can be considered to be10ng tO a group ofintermeditte learners with rOughly the same level of English

3.3.IThe va五 ables

pro■ ciency,judging frOm the sequences of the TOEFL scOres theylearllers'usage of artidG

一‑122‑一恥 hile the pnm町―Dr a geat mttOrity ofJapanese college

earned on the follo、 ving three occasions(see Table 2):at thelore accustomed to expressing themselves

be」nning Of their freshman)「 ear iApril,2000),at the end of theiraher a nlinilnum of six years Ofintensive

ieshmal■ yett Ualluaり ,20011,and at the end of their sophomore

Ode(i.e.,reading and wriung)in juniorye訂 Oallutty,200劾

econd,the lnisuse ofthe arucle system isunderstandings in the written mode Of〕spoken(Nogllchi,1997),which suggests
h On learners'written product shOuld be

edagO」 cal purposes especially in EFL

り
″ 」
Akiko

S″

.

TtBLE 2
D電 &θ ′
′
∫
S〃 ″
Frボ θ
「

Ap五 1,2000

Janua今 =,2001

423

417

̀̀ι

Natsuko

447

January,2002
493

ndividual learner's process of article

Data was collected flolll four speciflc PeriOdS during two years

̲compositions writen byれ vO Japanese、e been analyzed.The suttectS,患 ik0

of observation:1)tlle SPI・ ng Semester Of their fl‐ eshman ye釘 (mid―April throu8れ mid」 ul)・ 、2000 1 2 the fall semester of their fl・

lish mttors WhO have parucipated in theye冨 (mid― September through mid― December,2000),Witll about athe salne universityl Pl‐ ior tO tllis smdy,

師 o― month summer break inter、 ening:3)the spring semester ofEngish as a sch001 sutteCt fOr 6 years oftlleir sOphomore year P0011ヽ Vith about a three mOnth spring breよloOl withOut any extensive exposure tointervening;and 4)theね ll Semester oftheir sOphomOre ye額 (2001),

tction in Engish speaking counmes.The

again、 vith a t、 vo― rnonth inten― al.「 Fhe compositions collected■ verent analysis were written and turned in aslllch had not received any correction
tlle irst drafts of tl■ eir、 Tithg:、 、)ftwO semester‑10ng Engish compOsitionof grammatical errors b)i nati｀ e speakers of English,though the

ンVhen they

SutteCtS more or less cOnsulted dictionaries when necessary.All

erll to contribute tl■ e cOmpositions they

the composiaons、 vere prooiead and correctedャ vith respect to thelta. That is,neither was avvare that theiruses of articles,otller pre― norllinal lnodifiers,and noun forms by ai compositions per se wvould be all・ alyzed

native speaker of English、 ho holds a ⅣIaster's deyeein TESOL.

Part Of deyee requirements.

eshman―「lll.

l be cOnsidered to belong tO a youp ofth rOughly the same leve1 0f English
he sequences ofthe TOEFL scores they―‑122‑―

3.3.‐ e variables examined and analytical procedures
While tl■ e prilllary target of analysis in this study concerns thelearners'usage of articles(deflnitètheメ―‑123‑―

indefinitèa/nメ and ZerO

markinり ,tl・ e scope of analysis is extended to accommodate othervariable manifestations of pre― nolninal environments,based on the

三 = IL]「 皿r臓 [回 過ご.1、
、ith respect to th=‐ ,■ ■■証十ヤ■
of potential indeF=■ 三 1 五 虚' 1finding of prior studies that other pre― nolninal lnodi■ ers Ere likelys、

to perfornl silnilar funcuons tO articles in internally consistent IL

柵耐
tO the universalis11,こ ここ1=[:「 1■ ELttt=‖掛

grammar(Parrish,1987;■ loung,1996).SpeCiiC pre nominal

section,tl■ e att五 buモ

modiners to be al■ alyzed include qual■ diersに gっ SOme,ally,several,

are also included

each,etc.),demonstrat市 es(e.gっ tllis,those,etc.),PosSessives,and"==■・stematic e∬ ecL=二

主

=三

= f二

耐
Ⅲ
μ 冊J椰 鰤口枷二ぎ■ =■ il∬ 脚』 1穆 蝋

■ 質:二 L〕 :[= ￨I T当

三′
ed in l■been revle、 ハ=[I=1÷

・面型

・rw rLI剛 馴dnumerals(e.g"One,輛 /o,etc.).All tlleseた atures in pre nominal
environments are considered to be dependent variables.: Uses of

FG‐ l Rψ ″′″置ff ffj「 ¨‐'I町 '… 聘 湘諷 醐ぼarticles and other pre― noFl■ inal modifiers in prefabricated patternsιJι ∫ α71ど θ/方 F,f‐ r「
αγιグ

… ヽこ
削喘1
.lM脚冊‖￨ マ‖(i.e.,unanalyzed chunks)haVe been excluded fl・ olll anal),sis
2牡 s reviewed earlier,no systemauc analysis of the relative effects

Tarone&Pa‐ ish.lllヽ
‐:可① the[一 SR,一 HK 3T■ 一 ■■Ⅲof intersecting factors on val■ ation in English IL has been conducted②・

except for k〕 ung(1996).A predominant mttority Of Past stlldies

the卜 Sヽ 一 HK:r.T■ 一 訓 旧 肺 ld
1 動:Ш ‖
mentioned in ti= il、 li■ ■■(bOtll ESL― based and EFL― based)have dealt only with one to― one

known to the r=こ 三=r

relationships bet、 veen article usage and its functions

But in fact,∫somesome of the past studies have clearly showvn that there 」③ the[+SR,一 HK:・ 丁=一 i獅 ‐徹ぼ直assumed nol kill・ ■ 1: I障 ￢ユ刷

correlation bet、 veen article usage and other types of[「 ammatical

inl ti==.二 」1■ ■剛
nouns follo、 、features. The present al■ alysis adopts a llluli― dilnensional approach,nOt kno■ vn to lh=I=■ i==in tl■ at eveF)「

OCCurrence of val■ able usage of arucles is similtaneously・
affected by lin3uistic factors of various kinds,、

vhiぬ are considered to

be independent variables. The results to be obtained regardlng eacll｀
エ翌④ tl■ e[― SR,一 HK:■ 丁=一・・」t酬・●of negationi nc■ ■二i二== ■￨■ Ⅲlin the irreahs sc[I=‐Of the learnersャ vill provide a holistic PiCture of ho、 、s)「 Stematically1
Every occurrence こf■ [ゴ ̲1 三 楓「(Or nOn̲syStemaically)varittiOns in EFL article usage are governed

l illL l
into the 10 differel‐ 1丁 ■=: :‐ ■(i.e.,Variable IL gralllllnar),and any diachronic change in IL

tO rebrto ph)‐ sicalll'F==■ ■:1電 1獅 珈

gallllnar、 vill reveal the developmental process of article acquisition

because of difflcultles li 二:by」 apanese learners of EFL.

data.

The follo、ving list represents an initial hypothesis l consttuctedJ■
FG‐ 2 Cθ γηr/2θ η― ■■rf[ftt L…・●∬柵
̀ο

‑124‑

二 FLビ 上Llヽ‐
Sis is extended to accOInlnodate Other

pre― nolllinal

envirOnments,based On the、vith respect to the vaHable IL『 ammar Of artlcle usage. It consists
a五 ables that are assumed to have someof Potential independent、 ――tt other pre― norllinal modifiers are likely

systemauc effects on the、 a五 able productlon of articles. In addition

ns to articles in internally cOnsistent IL

tO the universalistic categoHes discussed in detail in the previous

Young, 1996).SpeCific Pre― nOnlinal

face― level constraints
eral su■・
section,the att五 butes ofthe noun and se、 ・「 hde quallu■ ers c.gっ SOms al■ ル severd,
l e.g"tllis,thOse,etc.),possessives,andare also included. ExPlanadOns of relevant literamre that has nOt
been revie、 ved in the preceding sectlons are also added.

etc.).All these features in pre nominal
ied to be dependent variables.5 useS Of
linal modifiers in prefabricated Patternsa、ttι ごωグ
乃ごん々ιグι
ん
ιη
θ
Zη π
α
Jα ι
∫
ι
α
′蒟′
α
r̀rル θ
FG‑l Rψ γιηιどだ(Table l)(Huebner,1984;
ι
ん
ι
γ夕′
η
θ
π′
η
α
′″θ
α
γ
ι
力燃 α
π
ごθ
ノ′

‐
e been excluded fronl analysis.

Tarone&Parrish,1988｀

Stemauc analysis Of the relative effects① the卜 SR,+H珂

S}・:

dation in En」 ish IL has been cOnducted

reた ren愧 ,referents previously② the卜 SR+HK ttPe̲genenc
1与 Pe― ―Ш饉quenouns;

A predominant mttoriけ Of past studies

mentioned in the discollrse,and speciflc referents assumed

based)have dealt only witl■

known to the readeri「

One to one

31e usage al■ d its functions. But in fact,

have clearly shOャvn that there な sOme

③ tlle lttSR,一 HKl● pe一 irst mendoned[+SRl nounS that tte「
n to[he reader,irst― mentioned l■ SRlassumed■ ot kno、 、〕usage and otherサ pes Of gammaical―sis adopts a lnulti― dilnensional apprOach,nouns follo■ ν■ng the e対 stential̀have'or̀there is/釘 e'assumed

・、
a五able usage of al・ ticles is silll■ ultaneously

pe― equative nouns,nouns in the scope④ the卜 SR,一 HKl与「of negation,nouns in the scope of interrogative,and■ ouns

i of vanOus kinds,■ vhitt are cOnsidered to

The results tO be obtained regttding eachnot kno、 vn to the readeri

ln tlle lrredis sc ope.

3 a holistic Picture of hoャ v systematically

Every occurrence of nouns in the leamers' essays is classified

tations in EFL article usage are governed

into the 10 different,PeS Of nouns in the list.Nouns that seelllar),and any diachronic change in IL・elopmental process of article acquisition、

to refer to physically present entities are excluded fl・ onl analysis

L.

data.

3sents an initial hypothesis l cOnstructed

―
γ
た
ι
ごのJ厖
グ
πみ
ι
rグ 励θ
π
θηπα
η
zπ ι
あι
グ
だθ ″
ノη
FG‑2の η力θθθ

because of difficulties in coding such tokens reliably frOlllヾ nttenr」"α―‑124‑一―‑125‑

α
γ
′ι
∫α
π
グθ
ttι r夕 留
π
θ
π″
η
α
ι
ttθ ご ι′宵(Kim Yoon,1993;Young,thatthe use of

1996;Lee,1997):

negatively by―J̀ι

non― count nouns,singular nouns,plur・ al nouns.

Inay elther

Countability of the noun marked and distinctiOns between

lemer choose

singularity and Plurality of the nOun as co― Occurring w、 ■th theFG¨ 6シ Ⅲル

zed.Lee's(1997)study of EFL
compositions、 vritten by 49 freshmen at a SOuth Korean

pre nominal elements are analy‐

universiサ shOWed that their Omissions of both DA and IA arèthis is,'̀that可marked widl

sensitive to the types of■ ouns. When■ Ouns fo1lowing theFG¨ 7助 励 ″articles are nOn― count■ ouns,the articles are inore likely tO be(MiZun。 ,2圃 〉

ornittedo WVhen they are count nouns,the articles are lnore

corresPond―

likely to be used.

most imP…

FG‑3秒 ηttα κ夕 筋θηグ 励ιπθαηπαrbd 励 απ ιι∫αηごθttι γ 留―
′
η
zJπ α
ι
ttθ ご ιθ∬′ (ParriSh,1987;Yamada,1996;h/1izuno,2000):Jθ

the suttect a顧The present smけ

SutteCt pOSiuon,predicate posiuOn,and the ottect of thehowll as VARBRUL

preposition.

suitable for halldling」

L

FG¨ 42″ 協 αι∫ι
γzα%″ グ 励ιηθZπ ′ん留∫ιづπυθんグ
電 夕 夕πθttαSグ

h naturd lhguistic L

滋ιπθ η πα戒 ″ (Yamada,1996;Young,1996;Takahashi,1997):

the nOun in silnPle NP,the head nOun Ofthe pos● modifled

as ANOVA(Yomg&
adoptingヽ ARB]R肌 缶

rate of dollarl,the pOS● modi■ er

figure out the relaは ve

PrepOSiiOnral phrase(e.gっ

ofthe pos● modi■ ed PP(e.g"rate of doll露 ),the head noun

factOrs in affecting theof the relative clause.

is,the learller's llse ofFG¨ 5動 ″γ
ηαJヵ %θ ttπ グ 励ιηθγη′ん″′焼υθ
みJ電 ′″―zθ ご′郷 グ

not to the influellce dF a

励ιπθ ππα戒″ (Lee,1997;MizunO,2000):

status)but tO Simul― ―atteCuves(e.gっ a beaudful animal),numerals(e.gっthe threedOgS),COmpound nouns(e.g"StaⅣ ation problem)。

FG‑2,3,etc. besides
article usage in I■ りcDIEI餞The f0110b7ing tto factor 8TOups(FG 6 and η are concemed withthe factors that arecontextual cues to the marking Of artides.Mizuno(2000)claims

alld to examine how量 お

‑126‑

」
″
′πθ
α
ご
質(Kim WbOn,1993;bung,′ιthat the use Of ttticles is likely to be affected both positively andnegatively by other linguistic elements of the sentence,、vhich
singular nouns,plural nOuns.

may either substitute fOr the functiOns Of articles or help theloun marked and distinctions betweeni■‐Of the nOun as co― occurringャvith theare andyzed.Lee's(1997)study of EFL
n by 49 freshmen at a SOuth Koreanlettner choose approp五 ate articles.

γ
FG‑6 oι θι%θ Jzγ′θ∫(Thomas,1989;No3■ lChi,1997;Mizuno,

2000):
̀tl■ is isメt their Onlissions of bOth DAL and IA al‐ èthat is/̀there is,'̀there are'as preceding the nOun

marked with articles.

l of■ ouns. lVhen nOuns fO110ャ ving theFG¨ 7ハi夕 π
ttι γ
θ
θ
γ
γ
ι
η
ルη
ι
ιι
ι
ttι ι
ηι
ん
ι∫
2″ ι
θ
ια
η
グ滋ιθ
θ
η
ι
ηルπι
ψθ

nouns,the articles are lnore likely tO be(MiZun。 ,2o00):
corresPondence(e.gっ he is a stlldenO or miSm・ atch(e.gっ theare count nouns,the articles are moreq√

most impressive memoり・iS my hiま sch001 dayl betWeen

励ιπ
Zη π
θ
α
ttι ご
ωグ
励α
γ
ι
″腸α
η
ごθ
ttι γ″
夕―sh,1987;Yamada,1996;MizunO,200o:〕
redicate position,and the o匈 ect Of thethe suttect and its complementin number.

The present study conducts oneサ pe of lnultivariate analysis
known asヽ ろ
生RBRUL(SankO二 1988),whiCh iS particulttly moresuitable for handling the inevitable七nbalance Of factor distribuions

―
θ
α
η′ん
Z∫′ υ
θ
んグ
∫
ι
πθ
ご
雰グ
グ励ιη
昭夕θ
′ι

in natural linguisic data than Other simil額

da,1996;Ybung,1996;T・ akahashi,1997):〕NP,the head noun Oftlle post modified

as ANOヽ 強 (I)ung&Ba)「 le)ヽ 1996).The 8Teatest advantage ofadOpungヽ 7ゝ RBRLTL for the present analysis lies in its capacity toSe(e.g"rate of doll額 ),tlle pOst― modi■ er

figure out the relative sigl■ iflcance among multiple intersectingd PP(e.g.,rate of dOllar),the head noun〕factors in affecting the prOduction of the dependent variable. ThatSe

is,the lettners use of ardcles li.e..the dependent vttiable)is sutteCt

θη′ん
役
%ι グ
η
υ
θ
ん,電 夕γ
ιπθ
ノ
雰グ
グ″ιπ
′ι

not to the in■ uence of a single cOntextualね ctor(e.gっ referenialJη

997:MizunO,200o:)eauiflll animal),numerals(e.gっstatll→the three

サpeS Of pro8Tams such

but tO Simllltaneous effecも of mdiple contextual factors(1.e.,FG 2,3,etc.besides FG l).To n3・ re out the system Of rules fOr■ouns(e.g"starvadon problem).

article usage in IL,Our task is tO flnd Out the relative si3■ ■ificance ofDr youps(FG 6and 7)are concerned withmttkng of arucles,MizunO p000)cl五 ms

the factors that are hypothesized to affect variable usage of articles―‑126‑―and to exal■ ine how itis ch∬ erent iOm that of native speakers of TL.

‑127‑

Because ofllnavoidable skewedness of namral lin3uisic performanceand eno....OuSly complex intersecting relationships alnong potential

ハウπうι
rグ 氏山富ange

constralnts,thё learner's varlable gFarnlnar alld its diachronicぬwill be described prOb〔 おilisucally(Rousseau&Sanko氏 1978)。

The present analysis uses the GoldVarb program(Rand&
Sanko亀 1990),the application of VARBRUL for the Macintosh
computer. This version enables us to lneasure the relative eects ofs of theall the potential factors on the dependent variable in te..■ ■Weiま t Of each factor in relation to the other remaining factors.
Stepwise regression analy/sis ofthe prOgram is dso capable of sorung
Out the groups of varirables whose effects are statistically signiflcant.

3.4.Results
As showll in Table 3,a total of 1551 occurrences of articles and

AInOng the ovd
colu― o,cOrect聰 園ごmodifiers have been analyzed. The overall accuracyof intermedi7ate leaI―

ratio is 83%.A total of ll17 occurrences of DA,IA,and zero marking■
th an accuracy ratio of 790/o.
have also been analyzed separately,■ 、

written by 57JaP―

pre― ■olninal

Table 3 also shows the total number oftokens analyzed for each of

the suttectS:819(DA[d]+IA[]+zerO marking[Z]+Other pre―nomind modi■ ersI司 )and 577(d+i tt Z)fOr Akiko,alld 780 and(1996).In the f。 ̲were 7730/o(out Of翼Time 2(a year ll畿 ⇒̲

of 85)in Time l and

580 for Nttsuko,respectively Each stttect'S accuracy ratios of thethat the suttects'―

dependent variables over the four Observation periods(Tilne lprogress over a yeaE hthrough→ are dSO indictted.

use of DA by 5Japm―
all average of 710/o10mご(5 months late⇒ ,and

Yamada cOncludes量 L
in their usage of Dメ L―‑128‑一‐T̲3日 E3
Mι π
ι
ι
γグ乃λ
ι
容′η
α
ι
ごα
〃 σθ
″ι
″6肇 ′%「 助ヶι
θ
おχイルγ
グ
θ
ζ
ケ

e、 edness of natural linguistic performallce

lntersecting relationships among potentid/5・五 able,falnmar and its diaChronic cl■ ange
isically(Roussea■ l&Sal■ ko氏 197鋤.

uses the GoldVarb program(Rand&
3ation ofヽ マゝ
RBRUL for the WIlacintosh

83● ￨￨(680/8191

8,￨● (]68/201

フ
601t(96/126)

87・=l109'126'8%(443/57η

lables us to lneasure the relaive effects of

ュthe dependent variable in terms of therelation tO the other remaining factors.

880/o(125/142

83%(610/732)

101)

800/ll130/・ 401

85● /o(36′L ofthe pr08Tam is・ also capable of sOrtingi lfhose effects are statistically si〔 】
lifiCant.

85%(293′343

Among the overall a、 ―erage ratios of accuracy(see the Totall tot〔 ■ofcOll‐ lns),coHectuses of DA and h o、1551 occurrences of articles and、e been analyzed. The overall accuracy「 occurences of I)A,12ヽ ,and zero ln・ al‐ kingiCPaFately,wvith an accuracy ratio of 79%Эai number oftOkens andyzed for each of.

―
er面 ne are contrasive to thoseof intermediate leamers of EFL in Kubom(1994)and in￢ ぬmada‐(1996).In the former stlld}・ ぃ 、hich analyzed EFL cOmpositions
writen by 57」 apal・ ese college studenも ,the accllracy r狙 os of IA
were 773%わ ut of 58 occllrrenCel h The l and 83%わ ut of 8助 in+IA[i]十 zero marking[z]十 other pre1577(d+i tt z)for AkikO,and 780 and‐elI Each suttect'S accuracy ratios of tlle

Time 2 1a yett late→ .The aCCllrac)‐ ratios of DA were 95.50/oわ ut

r the four observation periods(Time lpr03FeSS OVer a yea■ h the latter sttd),、 、1五 ch mvesigated o」 y theed.

use of DA by 5JapaneSe conege studens,the accllrac)ratiOS wereof 85)in Time l and 91.59b lout Ofア 5 in Thle 2.Kubota concludes

that the su匈 eCtS'usage of the article s,‐ Stem has not made any

an average of 71%out Of 12,m Stage I.ァ ア]lutofl10 m S● ge II

テin Smge IH 13 monthslate⇒マ
hmada cOncludes that the su￢ eCも have sho、 、■an improvement(5 months later),and 90qt iout ofアin their usage of DA.

―‑128‑――‑129‑―.

FIGU皿 1characterisic of reLttdレゐι
γイルr′ θ
'α γ
γ
ι
αしな
ιθ
υ

動ιS2t校(BrOWn,1994:211)̲

̀おratios・alone m■ lst lead¨

Akiko and Natsuko Together

been acqutted ealllier a■ d

100%
90%

tO the generalizatioll「ESL and EFL co■ t―

80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%

will be examined―
Fi3■lres2 and 3‑Natsuko's correCt l― ●『modifiers Over t遣 nヽ10%0%
1‑Sprin9

1‑Fa‖

2‑Sp‖ ng

The present results(Table 3,Figure l)shoW an Ⅳ erage of 940//o(49/52)accuracy in Time l,720/o(43/60)in Time 2,920/o(4751)inTime 3(a year late→ ,and 920/o(33/36)in Time 4 for IA.Asfor DA,

the results show an average of 840/o修 2/6劾 accuracy in Time l,

86%修 5/60 in Time 2,71%(108/15鋤 in Time 3,and 86%(Z/80
in Time 4. Based on thègrOuP'reSults,it seelns fair to assume that

Akiko and Natsuko have shown quite a prolonged,gradualappro対 mation to TL― like ustte Of the English aぬ cle system overthe 2 years of learning. The results,ho、vever,also seeFn tO imply
that one year of classroom learning of EFL mtty nOt be sufflcient forJapanese learners to make a noteworthy progress in their acquisi■

onofthe aricle system,Which coincides with Kubota(1994).

Rather our results indicate that the su匈 ectS'processes ofacquisition do not necessarily consist of a straightforャ vard,linear
progression but has involved a 8Teat deal of̀̀backsliding,"wvhich is―‑130‑―FIGURE lcharacteristic of relativelỳearlier' stages of acquisition process

お'(乃 γ%″ ιむιθrイ P′ γJθ ゐυιIBrOWn,1994:2H).MOreover,a simple compttison of accuracy
餞dos alone rnustlead to the drtttic claヒ n that I)A has not necessal‐

ilybeen acquired earlier and in a l■ ore stable manner than Iメ 1,coniarytO the generalization put forth by a number of prior studies both in

ESL and EFL cOntex愧 .The vttdity of thiS preliminary obseAzatiOn
恥■ll be exalllined fLlrther in the fo1lo■ ving sections.
Figures 2 alld 3 are the schematic representaions of FLkiko's and
NatsukO's correCt uses of the article systelll and otller pre―modifiers over tiIIle,respectively. A feM′

observations are in order.

FIGU駆 2γ
υ イPι γグ
θJ5・
Иλttθ むσθπα しζιθ̀γ％％％「 he results,hOwever,also seen■ to imply
leaming of EFL may nOt be sufflcient fOr％

uStte Ofthe En」 ish aricle system Over％re shO、 vn quite a prolonged,gradual％野oup'results,it seems fair to assume that％

10/0(108/153)in Time 3,and 860/o(74/86)％

ge of 840/o(52/62)accuracy in Time l,％)20/o(33/36)in Time 4 for IA.AsfOr DA,％

1,2%(43/601in Time 2,920/o14751)in％

ぬle 3,Figure l)shoW an Nerage of 94%

1‐

Fa‖

2‑Spttng

a notettZorthy prO」 ess in their acquisition

h coincides witll Kubota(1994).

ldicate that the subjectS' processes ofanly cOnsist of a straightforward,linear

・ed a great dea1 0f―‑130‑―

backsliding,''マ vhich is‑131‑―

nOrl■ inal

2‑Fa‖

FIGURE 3

and LttzunO(20001̲L
accuracy raios of

Aり おzλ θむCθ r%α Use θυιγイfセ γグθ̀おover time. IIl ordc

seemin」 y

100%

chaOi―

doser look at httr」 L

90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%

would constrnl■ 働E
3.4。

1.Diachronic
To accountfor

VARBRUL狙 攀
independent factos

ARBRUL w餞 勢 醸h

0%

I‐
1‐

Sp‖ n91‑Fa‖

2‐ Spttng

in linkage to FC卜 1

As already pointed out,neither sutteCt has shown a linear,

the independent面
1.00,the stronger…

steady prottess in correct usage of the article systen■ in general as

favor of acc― te― Jヽloreover,the patterns Of instability as well as
the accuracy ratios vary si3ni■ candy between the suttectS,despite
both suttectS having learned EFL in the identical curricula andlearning proceeded.

made a steady proFess in overall English pro■ ciency over the師 oyears of obseⅣ ation(see the sequences of their TOEFL scores inTable動 .Akiko's Pattems of progress appears to be more■ uctuating
especidly in her uses of DA and IA,as compared with Nttsuko's,■
vhich display a gradual upward curve as time passed.
Some aspects are shared by the suЧ ectS・BOth■ 8ures show

relativeヶ 10Wer accuracy ratios of zero marking than the remttning

three variables over the pe五 ods lthough there are aた w excepdon⇒.

This result coincides with a number of prior studies of」 apanese

EFL learners such as Yamada&Matsuura(1982),Kubota(1994)―‑132‑―

effect the indep―
Weiま t C10Se to Om
neutral effects lneiLFIGURE 3

and Mizuno p000).In addition,both igllres consistendy show hi許i Oγ 彫 ttι θ
γイルγ
υ
ι
グ
θ
冶
̀ι

accuracy ratios of pre nominal modi■ ers(See the lotl・ ersl line→
over time.In order to detelll■ ine any systematicity underlying thisseemingy chaouc state Of indi宙 dual vttiaions,let us now take acloser look at how the independent factors(disCussed in Secion 3.3)
wOuld constrain the subJects'article usage.

3.4.1.E)iachronic va五 adon in use of definite artides
To account for systematic va五 abiliサ in the SutteCtS'uses of DA,
N/ ARBRLTL analyses of the relative effectiveness of the crosscutting

independent factors(see section 3.3)have been conducted.
ミ＼RBRLTL weights in Table 4 describe the effects on accurate use

in linkage to FG l(Status of Reference and Hearer Kllowledge)aS

the independent variable.The closer aヽ フゝRBRUL weightis tout,neither sutteCt has shOwn a linear,〕l.00,the sttonger effect the independent vttiable(FG‑1)exerts in

t usage of the article systen■ in generd asfavor of accurate use of E)ノ 社. The closer it is to O.00,the sttonger

eover,the patterns of instability as well as

effect the independent variable exerts in disfavor Of accuracI A

五罪 i■ Candy between the suttectS,despite
med EFL in the identical curricula andWei■lt C10Se to O.50 indicates tllat the independent variable exerts
neutral effects(neither positive nor negative).

l overall English proiciency over the■ ′othe sequences of tlleir TOEFL scores inof proyess appears to be rnore fluctuating

DA and IA,as cOmpared with NatsukO's,
P｀

Vttd Curve as tilne passed.

red by the suttectS・BOth igllres shOw

raios of zero marking than the remaining
3五 ods(thou〔 井 there tte a few excepuOns).

h a number of priOr studies Of」 apanese

mada&Matsuura(198動 ,Kubota(1994)
一‑132‑――‑133‑―

Natsuko's thereafter

剛 躍 翌 ιL Иηαヶ なグ И ZZ″ Z/9″ グ Dグ ηグ
ι
′Иγ
ι
グ
ι
tt θ
υ
ι
γイル γ
″
θ
お

十F

The results also cl=I

Rψ ″
ι
η
″
グ
α
ι
肋″
%∫ α
π
グルαrス缶θωルカ
ル

DA should involve boirὶF19‑7ノ

l距

劇コ上

国

bet、 veen individuals.d=[=二 二三』 :旺

IIШ

m認 1町
shared aspects,it is hi=三 ・ ̲■ ―the alni zer(

7崎 117151

1('%116185)

6171'641

33りll′ 3163ヽ 15/8)()叫(0′ 91

33て

100/112/2,
1'1'11/11,

21● (8,321

38̀ヽ 120152)

451r181401,8̀1,111/281

NOte(1):the numbers lla bddface itdics indlcate statlsic』

16ち 131,4ア

lう
5.1128/511

111■ 1= i「 L鳳 瓦 嘔effects.6 1vhile prior三 :■ i― ■1型 剛

33■ 13,0).彎

581'1'7121″ π

70ち ￨フ ア10)

21Ⅲ サ
113/55)accurately marked、 、ill 三 社f I111世 1ア、、eights consistentl}1■

50Ⅲ ,11'2)″ ″67̀1,110′ 15),13191％

一Ｍ[+SR+HKl

4Ⅲ (1/28)

100/t i616)

コ+HK

2¨ 11/45,

″ ″

l+SR・

15喘 113′ 851″ 卿

卜SR+HK]

16%￨フ /381

3・

″ ″
″ ａ

/(1'35,７
７

卜Sヽ +H珂

︒
︒
ｋ
ｍｋ
ｉ
ｉｍ
ｋ
Ａ

け

TABLE 419〈 ￨,13(,ア l11)

sipincance at p<05 or ttss

NOte(2):categorical use(100/1)or nOn use(0%)cannot be included in VARBRUL analysis

L 出■backyounds(including」 ■子三十that the[― SR,+Htt f=こ =ゴ =´ t̲押DA due to the learners li[‐ 'I tt T喘
1,町

IHuebner,1984;NIasler ir｀

やARBRUL analyses have revealed tllat FG‑l consistently exerts

1

―
li lt
rneriC reference、 、ith E)七 二

robust effects On Natsuko's accuracy of I)A in particular throughout

EFL st■ ldies ofJapaneS=:=三 ￨「 1,Wi

tlle fOur peHods of ObseⅣ adOn← ee the stausuc」 ly si3■■
incallt wei31■ tS

tti l↓ コ
predorllinant in both ELi ■SutteCtS have selected zゴ [■ ̲r4 mT嘩 1

hi31■ er tl■ al1 0.50 in boldface italics).That is,variabiliけ

obServed in

NatsukO's DAL prOductiOn,、 vhich is nOt necessarily native like,has

DA,IA,zerO)as a cOrT二 [■ 五 :ず 貿輌been rule governed(or differentiated)in close linkage to this factOr←ee Note 6 and tlle ne、 1==I」:嗜

rOup:When making her decisiOns on the use Of D2代 ,Natsuko has

ESL learners of Czech=iS̲:如Ll,11

operated systematically on her IL grarlllnar constructed at giveni[=馴 1嘔have no articles,indicat=i■ 華stag〕 s,in which tlle types of semalluc reirence alld hetter knowledge

卜ll l
is disfavored for geneic r=ゴ =ri■ ‐differentially cOntribute tO accurate producuon as internalized rules.

(0.35).As a potentia1 1■ 1=手 I■ 1風 珈出

As forノ ヽkikO's uses of D2生 ,on the other hand,the results indicatethat sOme systemaiciサ in linkage to FG‑l began to be fOrmulated

dishvor for gene五 c refer=■ ■ 二 珈Ч ld
Of first language transfer.れ 三̲li :プ ■1■叫roughly after her fl・ eshman year was over. 2ヽ t the flrst t、 vo stages

EFL learning envirOn正 =■ ■ 1: 前田(Time l,2),Akko's uses of DA appett to be immune to the factOr

than in naturalistic enヽ

group(except for O.75 in Speciic Referent),but her grammar

also a noteworthy findi■ [‐ ■: 世け ]emerged in Tirne 3 and has become influential in Parallel ways tO

interIIlediate learners cif EFL I」―‑134‑―

1,こ

■
二

=■

1肛

1圭

￨

lld

厠

TABLE 4
7F′ ″跳″グ
Dグ η
グ
″∠γ
ι
グ
θ
ι
ι
rイ ルγ
∫θ
υ
ι
グ
θ
ゐ
バα
″
あ磁α
γ
ι
γ
κん
θ
″ι
″G― 〃
4ζ ι

Natsuko's thereafter.

The results also clearly suggest that the process of acquisition ofr

DA should involve botl■ shared and discrepant aspects of variabihサヽ¨

between ind市 idu・als,depending on the referendalけ peS Of DA.As
shared aspects,it is highl)・
７
ο
″

ア70(1/151
・

19t/1(16′ 85)

ltll 14/64)

86111(6/ア

昭四

拠¨

フ
41/t14/19,

ん ω)

11/45)

00/・

″
α

2t/・

″ ω

15叫 (13/85)″一16t71(7/38)(0/81

50%(1/2)
33・ l113/9)

5811117′ 12)

381/1(20/52)

66Ⅲ(31′ 47)551(23/51)

38'1,1/28}

38幅

(1つ

′
50,

￨￨● /130/61,:五 d■ cate statisical sittiflCallce at p<05 0r lesslse O11)cannot be included in VARBRUL analysis

unlikel)「 that generic referents areaccurately mttked with DA in both subieCtS'ILs,asヽ、
veights consistently indicate statistica11)・

ARBRULsigniflCant disfavoring

effects.6 wvhile priOr ESL studies of learners of various Llbackgrounds(includhgJapaneSe Ll ha‐ e put brth a generalizttion
th・at the卜 SR,+HK]feature i.e.:gene五 cl iS OVer speci■ ed with‐pid｀ e resPonSe to the l+HKlた ature
DA due to the lettners c。 〔‐e reveded that F(}l cOnsistently exerts(Huebner,1984;Master,198ア ￨,our Sublects have httdly marked
generic reference宙 th DA lnd Lヽ .Rather,in accord with priori accuracy of D2牡 in particular throughOut

Lch ind th・at zero― marking is
EFL studies ofJapanese leamers.ヽ 、

dOn

ee tl.e statisuc」 ly sitti■ cant wei3htS

predominant in both DA and IA context(No〔 興chi,1997),our℃italic→ .That is,vttiabiliサ ObserVed in

SutteCtS hⅣ e selected zero marhng ttong tlu・ ee possib■ ides(i.e.,
DA,IA,zero)as a c01‐ mon altemtti、 e to mark gene五 c referencea、、
vhich is nOt necessarily native― like,hasdecisiOns On tlle use of DA,NatsukO has(see Note 6 and tl■ e next secion on Lミ .loung's(1996)smdy Of‐「
hlch,likeJapanese,
ESL lettners of Czech and Slo、 よ Llsi both of、 、n her IL grammar consttucted at」 ven

have no arucles,indicates a s士 niar tendenc)‐ in that the use of I)」 ヘ

Fsemanic reference and hetter kno■ vledge

is disfavored for gene五 c referens to a staisicall)「 si〔 FliflCant extent

accwate productiOn as internalized nlles.

(0.35).As a potential interpretation of our su司 ectS'COnsistent

1,on the other hand,the results indicate

disfavor for gene五 c referens,・ all tte obseA― a遠 ons lead to a possibihヶhnkage to FG‑l began to be fOrmulated

Of first language llansfer,、 hich tends to become more persistentin

ras over. 2牡 t the flrstれ vO stages
n year、へ)fI)2牡 appett to be immune to the factOr

EFL lettning environments of resmcted TL,inPut and interaction
than in naturalistic environments like ESL ゝIarton, 1981) It isl Specinc Refereno,but her grammar

also a noteャ vorthy finding that the process of acquisition by ouras become influential in parallel vvays tointerinediate learners of EFL still in、

breniated)in close linka3e to this factOr―‑134‑―‐‑135‑

ol、 es「Lrstlanttage transfer,vvhich is generally considered tO characterize relaively earlier sta28es

ofSLA crOnll,199→

ル 助″滋S'こ 飛 げ.

As for the aspects constructed uniquely by each individual,itseerns tl■ at Natsuko has be3un to fo....ulate a rule fOr unique referents

since Time 3(0.59;0.76in Time 4),whereas AkikO,wh01電 s behindin her acquisition of DA rules in general,has shOwn instabiliヶ in
her use ofthe same feature thrOu8hOut all the periods.In additton,

NOte:demonstraives(e̲g.th離for INatsuko,anaphoric referents can be assumed to be the earliest(and most easily)aCquired feature for DA marking,because of thestability of prObabiliサ

weiまtS(Time l:o.97;2:0.94,3:0.98;4:

Natsuko,who hadreferents,did not re9cわ0.82).ThiS result accOrds with the inding of Kubota(1994).Speci■ cTime l‑0.98 vs.0̲404

referents may be considered to be the second mle she has acquired,こ00/010/7];Time 4‑0̲唖 を■

based On the slighdy lower prObabiliサ weightS for accuracy(Timemarking of anapholt

l:0.69;2:0.77;3‑0,44;4:0.76).For AkikO,itis not undl Time 3

had not yet acquiredとgrammar(DA vs.

that she began tO fo....ulate her rule for anaphoric reference(0.83;

c reference mり haveemerged at earlier stages(Time l:o.75)and perhaps has become
more stable■ Om Time3 on(0.77;0.92in Time 4).
0.70 in Time 4),while her rule fOr speci■

vs.0.58). Akiko'stime passed.

replaced by DA as…

Because her IL 3Tamlntt is lacking in anaphoric differentiauOn

3 on(Time 3‑0.万 、

就 re17ativeけ earher stttes of aCq■lisidon,Akiko seems to avoid taking

Now,let us fo― mrisks Of producing article errOrs,vvhich may have resulted in her

7 descrlbe the re象 】℃コ面L量

relatively higher accuracy ratios of]DA in the earlier stages of

Natsuko across ie面

acquisition(780/oin Time l,880/oin Time 2;as compared with
NatsukO's89%and 83%,respectively)(See Table 3)(Schachter,E■ correct

forlns aFe

imPIOVementin DA

1974). Instead, she takes advantage of Possessives as the pre―NatsukO:110/o‑179序 4qト■OIIlinal marker Of anaphOric referents as a compensatory strate3y.

concerned,the re血 可

Table 5 cOmpares the probabilides Of the suttectS'using DA andclaim thtt DA erros

POSSeSSiVes as the rnarkeFS Of anapho五 c referents.

alnended even・ at‑136‑

T IB‐ 5ered to characterize relatively earlier stages

′
εttξ‐
υ
″ル rlη ψ あ ′動 ι助 けιθお'訥 ιfPoss翻 ′,nstl‐

llcted uniquely by each individual,it̀″θ′0"ι Z配′ツ 駒Zι 響〕gtt to formdate a ttle fOr unique referents
″

in

郵

rllles in general,has shOwn instabiliサ

821ち ￨つ ,14'■

re thrOu8hOut all the periOds.In addition,

58恥 17,12
25ヽ ,13′ 12)12Note:demonstraives(eg,thal tllis.etc i、

22¨ ,1219
0Ⅲ ,10/9

鰤■TIIlle 4),whereas AkikO,wh0 1ags behind

ere also usedも r anapho五 c reLrenヽ by both subJects

3ferents call be assumed to be the ettliest

d featllre for]DA marking,because of theeights(Time l1 0.97;2:0.94,3:0.98;4:、、
ith tl■ e inding of Kubota(1994).Specinc
red to be the second rule she has acquired,

Natsuko,who had acquired the DA rule to speciヶ anaphOricreferents,did not resoi to tlle use of PosSessi、・es(DA vs.Possess市 es:
Tirlle l‑0.98 vs. 0.40:Time 2‑095、 s O.46;Time 3‑0.99 vs.
0%[0/7];Time 4‑0.82vs O.54 1n contrast,Ahko carried out tllevhen sheer probabiliサ weiま tS fOr accuracy(Timemarking of anaphoAc reference b)exPloiting possessivesャ

[:0.76).For AkikO,itis not unul Time 3

had not yet acquired the anaphoric function of DA in her IL

1te her rule fOr anaphoric reた rence(0.83;

gammar(DA vs.Possessives:Time l‑0.24 vs.094;Time 2‑0.60

ler rule for specific reference may havevs.0.58).Akiko's avoidance beha、 iors radually disappeared as

Time l:0.7助 alld perhaps has becOmetime passed. Correspondingl),the COmpensatoDF strategy has beenon(0.77;0.92in Time 4).

replaced by DA as2俎 dko acqlllred iも al■ aPho五 C hCtion ioll■ Tilne■ar is lacking in anaphoric differentiation

s.00b[0/81).
3 on(Time 3‑0.77 vs.0.48:Time 4‑0.65、 ‐of acquisiuon,ハddkO seellls to avoid taking

Now,let us focus on incorrect uses of DA in detail.Tables 6 and: errors,which may have resulted in her

7 describe the referential t)「 pes of]D.ヽ eⅡ ors made by 2寝 ko andratiOS Of]Dノt in the earlier stages of

Natsuko across the pe五 ods,respectl、 el). .ヽ s iar as the flequencies of
Ortl■ yhcolectfoHns tte concemed,itis ttcultto idendi― an)「 note｀ アC)「e l,8807o in Tilllle 2;as cOmpared、 vith

.respectively)(see Table 3)(Schachter,ddko1 2211‑121b‑40'も ‑6q4Э
ilnprovement in E)A usage over 2)‐ earS ・→

3s advantage of possessives as the pre―to五 c referents as a corllpensatoFy sttategy.

Natsuko:11%17%4%‑19'1]￨.As far as the accurac)「 ratiOS areconcerned,the results ma),support Yamada&卜 Iatsuura's(1982)

obabilities Of tlle suttects'using DA andclttm that DA errors made b)」 apanese EFL stlldents are hardly

s of anaphoric referents.

mended even at relatively advanced stages.

―‑136‑――‑137‑;TABLE 6
Иた
艦θむa43Generic卜 sR,+HKlerroneously m―宵rRψ %π ι
ヵJ2シ χイルγグθ油p五 mariヶ re〔Time lTime 2

11%(3/27)

207/0(1/41) 24%(26/1o7) 6%(2/34)

dO nOtseem tO
purely on thediachrOnlc chaD「110/o(3/27)

7%(3/41) 150/o(16/107) ̲e‐ors Or theTime 3Time 4(Tar8et the,aln],zer。 )lSt Mentiom卜 sL̲HKl(Talget alnl,zerol

Others2070(1/41) o9%(1/1o7)

ErrOr TOTAL

22%(6/27)

A Inore̲

120/o(5/41) 40%(43/107) 60/0(2/34)

TABLE 7other intersecting

we can Observe錮 口E

Mzお 滅θ
t a4ル γθ
ttrRψ ″πι滋;珈ωχイルrグ θゐTime lGeneHc[̲s氏 十HKl
Carget the,ain],zer。
1・

MentiOns l■ SR

Time 2Time 3Time 440/o(1/23) 20/0(1/46)

6%(3/52))

HKlhand,Inay pro餞PhenOmenOn. 0̲

90/o(3/35)

90/o(2/23) 20/0(1/46)

120/o(6/52)

Others3%(1/35)

4%(1/23) ̲̲

2%(1/52)

ErrOr TOTAL

11%(4/35)

170/0(4/23) 40/o(2/46)

190/o(10/52)

Because of the直、
νas unable tO綱signiflcance aII10ng

tendency ofi(Target ainl,zero)

噂
TiIIle]

The tables shOw that mOst DA errors made by the sutteCtS markeither generic Or irst― mendOned referents lAkikO:960/o lgene五

1'mendOns 390/0];NatsukO:850/o Leneric 250/0,1

c570/o,Intemal SmmreαO九叫oF Noun Phrase:

Head ぃPostm。 酬 ie"

RCI● ヽ ●,mendOns 600/01).

This ObservatiOn is accOrdantャ v■ th the rlndings Of priOr studies On

Intemal Sttucttre

銑 Ⅲ r4‐

overprOductiOn(or overgeneralizatiOn),thOugh unsystematicof Noull Phrtte:

いfloOding''may not be the prOper ternl fOr characterizing thequantitative distributiOns in this study. Past studies「lnd that either

gene五 c(Huebner,1984;ヽ laster,1987;YOung,1996)Or l・mentiOnedreferents(Parrish,1987;ThOmas,1989;KubOta,1994)tend to be―‑138‑―→ :Юー｀ COmPared Й th:

ReFerendal stan

―
―

:
…

1層

erroneously l■ arked wlth DA,but it is llnsllre llnsolved■ /hich is

TABLE 6

づ
θ
ゐ
廃r睦 ′
滋ιコ
ン″χイルγ̀πTime 2

primariヶ reSPOnsible for dle phenfbIIlerlon.Unforlunateけ ,ollr resd惚
Time 4

Time 320/o(1/41) 24%96/10η

607tl(2/34)

70/o(3/41) 15%(16/107):η

do notseem to prow■ de any clear cut answer for the prObleln based
purely7 on the frequencies Of the llnlversal catego五es,ln that anys of either ratios ofdiachrOnic change can■ ot be identi■ ed i■ l te.1■ ■time process of acquisidon.
errors or the referential tyPes in tte re曇 ―A more qualiLave 10。 k at individual eror tOkens,On the other2%(1/41) 0907o(1/107)
̀7)

―
―

12%(5/41) 400o(43/107) 60/o(2/34)

Other intersecung tttOrs besides refere■ ltid types(ci,Young,1996),

TABLE 7
イル θ
ゐ
70■「
Rψγ
ι
π
ι
ttJコ 物♭χ

we can obseⅣ e some patterlllsin how ie su匈 eCtt made these errors.

rグ

5)

5)

Because of the sm』 nlllnber of errOr tokens,VARBRUL analysis

Time 4、vas unable to fulf11l a stepⅥnse regression analysis for statistical40/o(1/23) 2%(1/46)

6%(3/52)

Si31i■ Callce alnong the factors,ぬ90/o(2/23) 207o(1/46)

12%(6/52)

4%(1/23)

2%(1/52)

TABLE 819%(10/52)

グθ富 わ И力戒θt a4ル γθ宵И ル πルπり √ 乃 痢 rC開 ″勝 ιTime 2Time 3

hand,Inay provide us with some alternative account of thephenomenOn. Once、 ″e take illto accollnt the rel・ ative effectiveness of――170o(4/23) 4%(2/46)

tendency ofintelfacto五 al efectivelless in the production ofI)A errors.

Time l
0舞 DA errors made by the sutteCtS markloned referents lAkiko:960/o18ene五 c570/o,:850/o[generic 250/o,1〕IntemaI Stru

reof Noun Phrase:
Post n■omers

mendons 60%]).

祖 t■ ■th the findings of prior studies on

generalization),thOugh unsystematic
he prOper terln for characterizing the厖■is mereヶ adOpted to indicate aqll..plel aィ

TIme 2
7(7%15/64)

Head:a%● o070И /司 ) HCad:33%(1/0

R C 1 0t7o(0/7)

RC:NO TOKEN

̲qmplc a″ υ%ゎ /6■

of Noun Phrase:comp amottlers

e4
Tll■ ■

SmPle:aィ 7270/t136/132:)SmplC:1%(1ノ 77)8

Hcad:α θ,2501.11/4) Head:(恥 pん )lnternal St「 uc● nre

Pre―

Tulle 3

綴mple:7%(4/59)フ)

05%11/J)

Adl:NOTOm

RCINOTOm

RC:007。

SImple:a″ (40/o12/521) SInlple:a'0080/t p7/9a)

ampl aω 907011/111) COmp:aω
AclJttσ601e7。 [/11)13111o 14/131)

4dJ:a′ ,129%p/3J)(0ノ 1)

錨 ゃle:5%(2/441
Comp:00b10/25)

A商 :00o10/2⇒

ヽ colllpared宙 th:

E this study Past studies find that either
田ter,1987;Young,1996)or l'mendoned

Referelltal Stat■ ls Cenel■ c:α1807o13ん 61)'δl VIellヽ :α("も Bノ 3司 )″Gmo%[1/38D Geneic:aδ θ(2901P4/83])Gcncic:40/o(2/46)c:ὰδ

1'Mcnヽ :α ″ poO F/3q)1■ 4ell、 :α ω 280/K口 6/54)1ヽ 4enも :No tokens

homas,1989;Kubota,1994)tend tO be
一‑138‑一―‑139‑―

c alld lゞ

mendoned

目︱︱ロローーー

Table 8 shows that referendd status(gene五

reference)dOes notseem to induce Akiko's errOrs so strongy as FG‑4
(Internal sttucture of the noun phrase marked:pos● modi■ ers)and
FG‑5(Internal structure ofthe noun phrase marked:pre― mOdi■ ers).
Akiko is likely to mark the head nOun thatis pOst modified by the

preposidonal phrase(c.g"…

because of the violence sceneS of thetele宙 siOn),Which resulted in nOnTL ustte Of DA(Head:0.85 inTime l,0.73 in Time 3,330/oin Time 4).Akiko is alsO likely tomttk compound nOuns(e.gっ … take the ballet lessOn,… face the…
… 仁034、 RC̲4』
…
嘔

り

曇

∝ 製 rm…

starvation problem,etc。 )as Well as■ Ouns modi■ ed by attecaVes

sttdies通 硼
灘iJaPa̲(e.g"the seriOus problems)erroneously(COmp:0.83 in Time l,has begln 10

All侵 馴 覇 ご

0.69 in Time 2,0.60 in Time 3;A商 :0.60 in Time 2),but this mle
operation seemsto have been abandOned in Time 4.

steln fromwhich is血TABLE 9Иルηルη
ιθN夕 な%λ θむ】 Errθ 胃
クグλttγ ttπ ιι
rグ

Tin■

el

intersecting―bOth suttect5‑zιTmle 2"需

Tlllle 3

Tlrllc 4l■

Intemal ttmcuresEl.pb:α ″ 2%[/6])Su■・ plα àθ OO/31/1])Slll・ PL:20/oO/110

SullPlc a"(%(1/7η

of Noun Phrase:

Hcadi a,イ (250/o[1/4])Head:aθ 7(1307o[1/81) Head:007o(0/1つ

Head:à7(獅 口/1J)

POsrmOdlllers

RC:a%(250/111/4D RC:a,7(20t/o「 /51) RC:00b〔 Э/4)

RC:NO TO翻hternal Structure澁 PIc 6%13ん 3)

SmplC 60/oo/5o3tllpた :aof Noun Pllrase:

Comp:0%0/a

COmP:o,o(γ 10)

COmp:00o(0/7)

GnlP:No Tokens

4dJ:aル (3%[1/291)

AdJ:a%に 2%F/2)■e― modll■ ers

AdJ:動 oれ つ

4dl:0%coo%[/1o■)Smplc a″ (蘭 F/劉HKlin Ш 赴 電

analyses of
COIllpanSOIIs J b■ 自E

SutteCtS'acq― E)

elillllinating ie L4‑輪

ada&Ma―The patterIIsごAs compared宙 th:Referenml Stans Gmenc o%0/20
l Ments:7%o/43)

C.ell載 :σ ″o%口 /1』)

1'Mens a4o%P/61D

ca"げ ん13601

Genettc a″ o%[/8Dl)

Gen

1'Melltsi ajァ O070口 /4● l)

1■ 4m● :a

01010F/50)

intersecting facto菫systematic ettbcts uL.」 h●

Because the nmbtt「 mfTable 9 shOws that Natsuko's pattems of DA errors are similtt tO
Akiko's,thOugh her overall rates of ёccuⅡ ence are even lowen Here―‑140‑―

small and unbalattα ttl L
allalysis,the currenl

BIltial status(generic and l・men■ oned

again,referential sttLtus does llot seett■to be as resPonSible fOr■
e noun phrase mttked:pre― modi■ ers).

NatsukO's errors as the other two factor groups in terlns ofヽ強 RBRUL weigh撻 .9 Clettly ie mttor cttSe of氏 潔 uko's errors
is overgeneralizatiOn of lnarking the head noun that is POst

llead■ oun that is posじ modi■ ed by themodified either by tlle preposidolltt Phrase or the relative clause. because of the violence scenes of theにg"the children who dO硬 Ⅱin■ e tett alld.→ (Time l:He謎n nOnTL usage of DA(Head:0.85 in

0.94,R.C。 ‑0.94;Th■ e2:Head4̲87,RC.¨ 0.91).The latterり pe of,0/oin Time 4).Akiko is also likely toovergeneralizatiOn errors have also beeII found repeatedly in PriOr「,¨・take the ballet lesson,… face thei well as nouns 1lodified by attectiVes

studies such as Yamada l19961 aILd Takahashi(1997)which dealt

nduce Akiko's errors so strongly as FG 41■

EI PhraSe markedi post― modi■ ers)andl erroneously(Comp:0・ 83 in Time l,
モ 3;A菊 :0.60 in Time動 ,but this rule〕
Il abandoned in Time 4.

宙 th」 apanese̲

EFL learners.N畿 越 Ю 's overgenerttzatiOn,hOWever,has begun tO disappear since Time 3 as acq‐ sition progressed.10
All the types of errors de髄 Hbed■ us far can be considered tO
steIIl from over『 neralization of̀speciヶ ing'the noun in quesaOn,
which is the prlIIlattF function of DA. Relattve e∬ ectiveness among

TABLE 9intersecting factors o■ er ian referelltial stams seems tO suggest tl■ at

4 Eη θ雰
θAり おz力 θむりし
%κ″必zι あ需 ιboth suЧ ectt ShOl■ld be attentte to the[+SRl feature rather thane3
Tll■ ■

Ilc 2

申 e:a

1207o l1/151)

岬

Tll■ e4
Sunplc:aJ̀(%(1/77)

e:2%(2/1101

Head:0%0/1のHead:à7● %[ノ lJ)

Cia,7(200o[1751)

RC:0%(0/4)

RC:NOTOm

9/1e6%eん 1)SIn■

響 :0%10/10)■0%(07/15)
与Comp:00o10/7)

COmp:No Tokens

Adl:aル (30/f口 /2q)

AdJ:a

涸∝c:α θ7(70/o l1/15])

Oncl■ c:a″ o07。 [/8■ )CJeneic:0"OOlo 13 oOl)

1∞ 、:α る (3770P/611)
ヽ

1'Mellts:a,7p%[/40):a1ヽ 1∞ も豪 :α θ7(13%[1/則)I+HKlin makingふ oseり PiCtt errors of DA.In ddition,diЖ hrOnic
analyses Of rule― gOvernedness of errors,rather than silnple
comparisOns of bare percentages of errors,alsO indicate that the

SutteCtS'acquisiuon Of DA htt certainly made prOgress towards
pL:a″ (1%「 /10■)■■
ple a″ い F/74)

S■

020o卜 421)

eliminating Llle Lctors itt are the potendd causes Of errorsにf.,

Yamada&M・atsullrち 1982).
The patterns of errors evoke a possibility that a variety ofintersecungね ctOrs other than FG‑1(SeCuon 3.3)would hⅣ e sOme

o1010F/50)

systematic e∬ ects on the leaners'accllrate usage of DA as cOnstralnts.

Because the number of occurrences of the target structures is too
島 's pattems of DA errors are similar tosIIlall alld unbalanced in each sin」 e periOd tO cOnduct statisticalHereanalysis,the current analysis has dealt vvith Tilne l and 2 asrates of 6ccllrrence are even lo■―‑140‑―Ve■―‑141‑―

こombined forthe n.st observatio■ peFiOC and Time 3 and 4 forthe
second in order tO accOunt for any.change Over tlme.
ヽフJRBRULThe only factoF―

analyses Of relative effectiveness among the factors have fOund thatsiuar nollns

countability andFG‑2,3,and 4 exert statistically significant effects on]DA accuraqッ

1NatsukO:0.59)錮 d

Table 10 and ll describe the effects ofthose factoF grOups on Akik♂

sre,pectivelyl hweigh惚 誠 later

and Natsuko's DA uses respe‐ ctively and diachronic changes inaIInending thiseffectiveness as acquisition progFeSSed.11

thOuま the ered(面Naむd口L(0.27)。

TABLE 10動 ι聯 ″ a/D滋 盪"ηthroughout d■e″ Cみ αηgι Oπ Иんた0む И‐ι
例鶴″ ιむιげ D∠

while a c…

Tine l and 2

Plural NOuns

250/Oo″ 5C

3496("/r4

15%(11/71
260024/94

33%r31/93
27%(o4/199)
71%(20/281∞%0/1Q

1∞%(107710}

14%0/2r

31Qo(11/鋤

Slovak l̲1
ere由… ご口nCance at p<05 or less.

in…

LE

TABLE llγθπ
π助勧λむ∠観z″ 伽 √】
″αα
動ι
ο
月ル ′
√Dttι ん
tt ο

Lct雌
嗜
…
ご Ⅷ由 日 町

d2

39070(4フ /122)

19%(1/8
36311o/205″

0(υ 3)

舞い:… Cttlabtt andtothe nedCOШ

Note(鋤 i categOricd use(1000/0)or non̲use但 り cmhOtbe Ⅲ血 ded● VARBRULaШ ゥ由Time l al・

weightt of%13ν 931

200o20/1831
42%(8/19

Note(1):tlle ntlmbOrs in bOldface italics indicate statlstlcal s亀Ofthe we轟砕爾

Post ll10d101er

31n6● 2ノ 106)αi Shucttue of NP

31%に ′
13)
34%149/143)

70/1rン 41
昴

it

0%(08
2噺 (54/185

４ ８
５ ４

Sul,■ ■ Noun,

警い物

Nol■ .o■ ll■ tNO● ¨

¨
¨
呻

ヾ
oun CO‐ ltab■ ,alld

14%(321)Notel tl■ e numbers in boldfacc italics indicate statlstlcal signincancc at p<.05 or less=We first notice that the factOr groups that are found to bestatistically sttpiflCant,「 eady vary between―‑142‑―

Akiko and Natstk。

.

…

尊

―
ation period,and Time 3 and 4 forthe

The only factor goup that is shared is svstematic effects of noun

,Or any change over ime.l‐ ARBRUL

countability and number FG 2.At earlier stages(Time l+2),
kikO:0.56;

ness among the factors have found that

Sin3■llar nouns we法 ly promOled accllrate usage of DA I住ally si〔 】lifiCant effects on]DA accuracy.

NatsukO: 0.59)and Plural nouns strongly inhibited it(0.26,0.11,
respecuvely)in bOth leamers・ ILs. .襄 ko's statistlcally insi3■ lificant‐

e∬ects of tllose factor 3■ Oups onメ ddko's

llldicate thtt she has succeeded inspectively and diachrOnic changes in

Welが・ tS at later stages、'rOFeSSed.H

tllou」 l the effect of nOn count nouns sill appears to be quite strongal■throughout the process of acquisition by the restricted operation,■
vhile a certain deFee of lnPrO｀ ement could be identified in terIIls
Of the weaker inhibiting、 、eight of plural nOuns(0.34)and theweights of non― count 10.45 and sin〔 興lar(0.56)nounS that tte c10sèθ

31Ⅲ (4713)

34/t(49/115)
30%132′ 105)″tO the neutral value 10.50

3■ lr t25774)

311(32/95)
７″ ７:1.S‐ ],I:￨71¨ 120/28
100(111て

％

」.■
'.lて
'￨
1211
ヨ

酔 持

33・ /1(317931

lending this non― TL like di∬ erentiation as acquisidon progessed,(0.27). Natsuko's uses, on the other hand,have been affected

BLE 10ι
ιttι fDA
むИθ
θ
zγ α
グ
λ
θ
働α
昭 ηИん
T=ヽ

27(■ 15,1/19'￨

lllle 3‑■'7101

311(11736

Conductingヽ ¥」RBRL L anal)「 ses of ESL speech of Czech and「hose nati、 e languages IIlake distinctions in nolllinal
Slovak learllers,、 、

countability and numberi■iЭung(1996)did nOt ind any notableeffects of tllis factor youp on the use of DA(tllough their uses ofildicate statistlcal signiflcance at p< 05 or lessindeinite artlcles and zerO markng were positively a∬se 01h)cannOt be included in VARBRUL analysis

ected[i.e.,pOsiuve Li transfer]).Because of this empirical e宙 dence and the
T2牡 BLEllfact that our leamers,、 tllo also share Ll,possess very silnilar patterns″跳ιグ】
θИ zγ απ乃おた動′写θof vttiabiliサ witll tl■ e constraints,it seems fair to assume that tl■ ett

̀ιcurrent results represent negative Ll transfer. The lack of the
('′

3)

布

粋

'●

13¨ (1/8

311175′ 205: 3121)
Lcate statistical si〔 昇iflcance at p< 05 or lessnoIIlinal distinctions in Japanese contributes negatively to thelettners'choice of articles. It is̀unmarked'for singular nouns to bemarked wvith articles,thus the learners are rnore likely to be correct

宙 th DA mttking.On tlle otller halld,it is unmarked for plurral alldte factor groups that are found to be
ltly vary betヽveen Jた kiko and Natsuko.
―‑142‑―

non― count nouns to stand alone witll zerO marking,thus̀mttked'

uses of DA宙 th thoseサ peS Of nOuns reqllire of tl■ e leTners advallced―‑143‑―

operational knowledge. The present results suggest that the learning

the prepositioIL O日 色problemsJapttese EFL/ESL learners would generalけwith DA corred‐
have been leveLdarticle systeIIl should be interhvinedャv■ tl■

face n・ ith thetheir masteぅ ″of nOFninal

disincions of countabihけ and number,in addidon to the difficulties
in accluiring referential functions of articles per se.

Akiko's accurate usage of]DA has also been systematicallyaffected by the internal structure of the noun phrase(FG‑4)
thrOughout the process of acquisiuOn(Table lo).The uSe of DA intl■e post modif77ing phrase inhibits accuracy at ettlier stages(0.26),

It is an五 嗚
her Ow、 狙 lln■que醸

It may be fatt tOsolid system of山
earlier stages,h鴻 ―types of coll…

but has become almost neutral atlater stttes(0.53).The head.olln of

characte五 stics ofthe re17ative clause has the strOngest promoting e∬ ects on her accuracy

referentia1/discO―

of DA marking at both periods(0.99;1000/o).The head noun ofthe

acquisition

prepositional phrase also has sttong promoting effects(1+2:0.77;

based on the llm

3+4:0.81).Both Of tl■ ese fll■ dings are accordant with the indings off∝ tOrs that wereprior studies of」 apanese EFL learners(Yamada,1996;1凛 ahashi,

constraints.I五1997).Note that Akiko's DA errors were primarily due to her

acquiring DAコ 山田 重

overgeneraliz・ation Of speciヶ ing the head nOun oftl■ e preposi■ onal

the universal

phrase(Table助 .speciflcation of the heだ noun ofthe relauve clause,

3.4.2.Diachroin■vhose acquisition is found to be near completion in the current

Parallel to l山 E

result,did not produce any related errOrs inノ 社kiko's uses of E)A.2

Table 12 describ6 dh「There is another factor youp that is found to be statistically
FlifiCant at Akiko's earlier stages of acquisition but has 10st its
illllpact as constraints at later stages. Clause position of the noun
Si〔marked with DA(FG‑3)has bOth pOsiive and negative effects on
accuracy. The noun in the predicate is less likely to be marked
accurately with DA(0.31)only at earlier stages of acquisition,vhich exactly coincides vvith the finding of Parrish(1987),wvho
ャ
longitudindly studied a」 apanese ESL learner.The noun following―‑144‑―

accurate use of m in

Hcarer Knod哺 ♂
￨PreSent results suggest that the learning

the preposition,On tlle Other hand,is lnore likely tO be lnarked」leaners would generdly face wtt thewith DA correcdy(0.66)(e.g.,one ofthe prOblems.…

rい宙ぬed with their lnastery of nonlinal

have been leveled as her acqlllsi遠ld number,in addition to the difflculties
ions of articles per se.

Of DA has also been systematicallytructure of the noun phrase(FG‑4);qu■ si饉 on(Table 10).The use of DA in
血 bits Жcuracy at eal・ lier stttes崚 .20,
1載 later sta8es O.5助 .The head nolln of).These effects

on progressed.

It is an intl・ i8uing obsen‐ atiOn iat eatt Ofthe suttectt COnstrllcts

her owv■ unique set of IL cOIlcints on]DA markIIlg as time passes.
It rnay be fair tO assl■ Ine that Jddko,whO had■ ot yet acquired asolid systeln Of nies based On referential statLIS Of E)A at relatively

earlier stages,has been mOre inchned tO receive effects from othertypes of constrttnts.Those cOIIsttaintt are mainly derived fromcharacteristics of surface strucme rather than cOgnitive analysis Of

referentia1/discOursal requirements of article usage. As her

mgest promo6峡 ;ettCtt On her accllracy
だs(0.99;1000/o).The head nOun ofthes strong promoung effects(1+2:0.77;

based On the lln市 ersal caterneS・

品 gs are accordant lvith tl■ e flndings offactOrs that were ac歯 e at inidal並 電 es have 10stthett mOmentum as

FL learners(Yamada,1996;Takahashi,
DA errors、 vere prilnarily due to her

acqui五 ng DA rdes at earlier壺 導eS,has p五 marily been affected by

霞ng the head noun of the prepositional

the universal catego五 es of DA as aFe native speakers Of TL.

ln ofthe head■ oun ofthe rela饉 ve clause,

3.4.2.Diachronic vttability in use ofindeinite ttddes

tO be near completion in the current

acquisition progressed,メ 饉dkO has cOnstructed her gramlnar of I)A

Accordingly,thOse in■ uenual

constrttnts.In cOIltrast Naぉ uko,whO was already advanced in

Parallel to the analysis Of DA presented in the last section,

related errors in Akiko's uses of DA.2

Table 12 descibes the resl」 ts of VARBRUL analysis of effects On

group that is found to be statisticallyaccurate use of IA in linkage tO FGl(Status of Reference andHearer Knowledge)as the independent variable.

)I stages of acquisition but has lost its

31 stages. Clause position of the nouns botll positive and negative effects on

3 predicate is less likely to be marked
Only at earlier stages of acquisition,

ith the ttnding of Parrish(1987),who
祖 ese ESL learner.The noun following―‑144‑――‑145‑―

Weiま tS・ B

TABLE 12
γイルγ
″
グ
θ
ι
ι
∫θ
υ
ι
グ
θ
ゐ
α
圏R″もL ИηヶおfAttz″ 訥″グ動グ
グ滋″′γ
ωルを ιFG― 〃Rψ ″η′
滋JS″ αιπ∫αη&Hoα %γ Kη θ

The cllrrellt

rprocess ofvarlatiorls. It〕鋼コ回B
一節ｅ
一Ｗ

2817o(17/61)

28%(13/46

14070(3/59)

O1/0(0/7)

10%(2/21

OOrO(0/9)

5017o(1/2)

50%(7/14

13070(2/16)

o・ O

ro/5)

た

500o(4/8)(4/5)

3307o(1/3)

¨

8007。

250/0(2/8)

5007t(9/18)

ん

70%(16/23)

０12010(5/43)

跡a(n),zerO

22%(10/45)

９
４

HKl
Sヽ 一

140/o(8/57

７
６ ％a(n),zerO[―

22%(8/36)鰤¨a(n),ZerO

卜SR,一 H珂

0%(0/15)3111o(11/35)

33%(7/21)

38%(3/8)
33%(2/6)00/j(0/⇒50t/D(1/2)

Note(1):tlle numbers in boldface italics indicate statsical sl昇systeIIl of R」 優 缶

perlod indicat6

31/1(1/38)﹄報a(・ ),ZerO

卜SR― HKlwelqhtwelqhtｐ け

ふe arn)卜Sヽ 一Hη¨価¨価﹄﹄螂
﹄¨
燕

卜SR+HKl―HKlた attre Lι

P

sttucture)see.IIs miiCance at p<05 or lessNote(2):c・ ategOrical use(100%)Or nOn use(0%)Cal.not be included inヽ

Natsuko,OIl the由Time 3,as IIL…
∝ curェ ン
lF駈Ю 喝″ARBRUL analysis

of IA(Time 31 0… ユNOte(3):nOunS in the scope of interrogat市 e and irrealis[― SR,― Htt ale not included in tl■ erather dittcult

analysis,due to the sn■ allness Of tl■ e sample

the卜 SR,一 H珂 お
tokens analyzed越ln striking contrast to the results of DA(Table 4),statiSticallyA c10ser輸

significant effects are not fOund on both Akiko's and Natsuko's

revealed thを 維Lゝ

accuracy of many of the func■Ons in the maO五 ty Of observationof sources shared b摩periods.This means that bOth sutteCtS hⅣ e had more dimculies

related to 0

in figuring out the systern Of rules for IA than for DA,and that thefunctiOns Of LA FG卜 1ルprocess of consttucting IL『 anllnar fOr IA requires a prolonged

factOrs,as obsep瞑 田量Lperiod of acquisi■ on Of the suttectS as compared with DA,This

sources of erro応 鵡

observation seems to accord■ vith a generalization mentioned
earlier DA is acquired earlier and more easily tl■ al■ IA(and zer。
arucles).A tendency shared by both sutteCtS iS th・atひL is scarcely

into threeり pey llused for generic reirence(as Was the case in DAl,whiCh iS thus

the ume(4/1動 ,in遭

very unlikelD/tO contribute to accuracy,as indicated by tlle lack of

霞 e mttked宙 亀 h

RBRULtokens in a number of periods alld sipi■ canゥ lower、 独‑146‑2)underspeci餡=菫、■ce versa. 」
亀L」LO‐ s

2 errors are due"

weights.B

牡BLE 12
『壼

イルγ
グ
θ
ttr
θ
υ
ι
γ
ι
グ
ι∫
グ
″′γ
∫
″6むι
グ2グ グπωルをιFG― 〃
物θ
%γ 』
薩 ルα
Jι

The current longitudinal investigation has revealed that theprocess of acquisition of IA alsO inv01ves a great dea1 0findividualvaEations. Itseems that AkikO has not fO■ ■■lulated the apprOximating

system of rules for IA throughOut the enure obseⅣ ation,in that nO
た

鰤

ん

躙

８
５
０

蝸¨

welAht2207o(8/36)

14%(8/57)

22%(10/45)

2800(17/611

2801(13/46)

14%(8/59)

0°/o(0/7)

100o(2/2りo070(0/9)

50%(1/2)

50011(7/14)

13%(2/16)

500o(9/18)

33010(1/3)

1001/o(1/1)

50%(4/8)50%(2/4)

400o(6/9ヽ

0%10/1)

38%(3/8)500/o(1/2)

33%(2/6)

ldlcate statlstlcal signiicallce at P<05 0r less,(い ん)Cannot beincludedin VARBRUL an■

ysiS■ Ve and irrealis I SR― HKl ale nOt included in the

period indicates statistically significant effects On her accuracy.

NatsukO,On the other hand,has begun tO fO.1..ulate IA rules since
Tilne 3, as indicated by the statistically si〔■lifiCant e∬ ects On her

accuracy.Among the vanety ofreferenu・ al funcuOns of IA,the[+SR一HK]feature(i.e.,1・ mentioned nouns,nouns in the existential
structure)Seems to contribute steadily tO NatsukO's accurate usageof IA(Time 3:0.79,0.90;Time 4:0.67,0.79,respecuvely).It israther difflcult,hOwever,to judge whether such posiuve effects Of
the[― SR,一 HKl dsO emerged at Time 3 becatlse the number Of
tokens analyzed is too snlall.

le results of DA(Table 4),staiSucallyA c10ser exa■ lination of error tokens,On the other hand,hasOund on both Akiko's and Natsuko's

revealed thtt IA errOrs are derived fl・ om a relatively restticted set

ncions in the mttority7 of observationof sources shtted by the sutteCtS・

Dth Suttects have had more difflculies

related t0 0vergeneralizatiOn or inisinterpretation of referential‐
mles for IA than for DA,and tllat the

incuons ofIA(FG‑1)but are derived from sOme ofthe intersecung

Famrnar for IA requires a prolonged
SutteCtS as compared宙 th DA.This)rd with a generalization mentioned
ier and more eas■ y thal■ IA(and zer。

factors,as observed in the patterns of]DA errOrs asマ 、
rell.И

The sources are not necessarilyThesources of errors made by AkikO and NatsukO can be categorized
into threeサ pes:1)mispercepuon of noun countabiliサ and number,

2)underspeci■ cauOn of deiniteness,al■ d3)misuse of̀ゴ fOr̀an'Or

i by both suljects is that IA is scarcely

宙ce versa.AkikO's IA errOrs(10%[10/10q)inv。 lve Type 1 40%Of

田 was the case in DAl,whiCh iS thus、

the ume鱚 /1o,in.vhicl■ nOn cOllnt noul■ s sutt as̀f00d'and̀garbtte'

b accuracy,as indicated by the lack of〕
ds alld sitti■ cantly lowerヽ 独 RBRUL―‑146‑―

are rnarked u7ith IA as a singular count nouno Al1 0f Akiko's Tνpe

2 errors are due tO underspecification of the head■ Oun Of the―‑147‑―

prepositional phrase(e.gっ He was a leader Ofthat club.)(400/o14/101),

D滋 議 縫and the reIIldning errors are Type 3(e.g"鯉 yellow house)(200/o『

2/1朝 ).Nttsuko's IA errors(19%[17/9q),which tte more ttequent
than Akiko's,consist mttnly Of Type l errors 650/o ofthe dme(11/1り,which inv01ve wrong choices of singular nOuns for the cOntext ofvell as lnisperception of nOn― count nouns asplural nouns,as Ⅳ
fOur percent(4/17)of her errors arё
singlllar count nouns.■ venサ ーType 2,with the same source as Akiko's,and the rernaining l10/o
2/1η iS〕 pe 3.An1/占 aChronic chttge in these patterlls of IA ettors
has nOt been idendied in IL of either su匈 ect aS ume passed.

Notei tlle numbers lo

The factor…
correspondence
SVC strucbШ e.N
strong positive eret0.8鋤 and Namkoゝ

Stepwise regression andyses have been cOnducted to ttnd out
the suttectS'accurate uses of IA.Justlike in the andysis ofDA,theaccommodated in色、
vhich has been fon

current analysis has combined Time l and 2 for the■ rst observauon

Natsuko's later̲Jpe五 od,and Time 3 and 4 for the second in order to accollntfor any

evident that ide

change over time. Tables 13 and 14 describe the factor grOups thatcount nouns in bom

have been fOund to exert statistically significant effects on Akiko's

over referential

and NatsukO's accuracy of IA respectively,and sho、 v diachronic

have not acq11lred theany statistically significant effects of the intersecting consttaints on

Akiko's acc硼 ぼヒchanges in their effectiveness as acquisition progressed.

&fferenddヶTABLE 13
ηИλ
グ
λ
οむИθ
鍬鶴″ろむ
ιげユ
D"励 γ
θ
ηグ
ιCん α
η
tt zη ttι 」
動物 θ

in predicate posltlm

̀ι

3901o(50/12o

301o(2/60)

160o(16/99)
16%(14/85)‰(2/22)12070(31″ 50)

55%(29/5,

38%(5/13)

170/o(28/161

1100(23/259)

cal■ce tt p<05 or lessNote(2):categOricd use(100D7o)Or nOn use(0070)CannOt be lncluded inヽ 「ARBRUL al■ alysis―‑148‑―

to be lnttked

be lllarked with mwhereas the nolln aE雌″ ″12%(2/17
280o(557197

Note(1):tlle numbers in boldLce italics indicate staisical slgni■

笏幽OC10(0/65

綺酔曖

SubleCtby―drttattc contrast to」 L●

be marked acc―
Ofthe nOun a■ er iLE

as time passed「h=fas a leader of ttat cl■lb.)(40%[4/101),

TABLE 14e■「pe 3(e.g.,璽 ュyellow house)(20%θηMZお %た θ
七∠θ
θ
%γ α
″跳ιグ
D″ 盪γ
θ
η
グ
θttα tt πttι ttι ι:、Z

19'b[17/991),WhiCh are more■ equentlf■ pe l errors 65%ofthe dme(11/1η

,Is Of singular nouns for tlle context oflisperception Of nOn― count nouns asl■ fOur percent(4/17)of her errors are

500/0(10/20)
120/1(35/281)

Notel the numbers in boldface italics indicate statistical signiflcance at p< 05 or lesseⅡ ors

The factor group shared by the sutteCtS iS FG 7,number
corresPondence between the suttect and the complement in the
SVC structure, Number correspondence is found to exert very

Of either suttect aS ume Passed・

sむ ongses have been cOndllcted to find Out○.89)and Natsuko's(0.89,0.94)uses Of IA.In fact,this sttuctllre is

iko's,antt the renlaining l19/Э
ce asメ 贔こl ■:、4,tl1 19/19
23[¨ 126/113

C Change in tllese pattems of 12へ

posiive effects on botll Akiko's(Time l+2:0.65;Time 3+4:

fects of the intersecting consttaints on

accommodated in the category of equatives(FG l:[―:IA.」 ustlike in the an・ alysis of DA,thewhich has been found nOt to be staistically si〔SR,一 HKl),:d Tilne l and 2 for the ttrst observation

Flificant except for
Namely,it is
Natsuko's later stages of acquisition(see Table 12)。

r the second il■ order to accollnt for any

evident tl■ tt idendicauon of cOuntability of tlle nOunに e。 ,Sinttlar: aid i4 desc五 be the factOr yollps tllat

count nouns in both sutteCt and complement position)iS Crucial

adsdcally si〔 FlifiCant effects on Akiko's

over rettrential considerations([― SR,一 HKl)for the suttectS WhO

I=ミ

respectively,and slloャ v diachronic

Akiko's accurate uses of IA in particular are also affecteds as acquisition proresSed.

differentirally by clause position of the nOun to be mttked(FG‑3).InBLE 13
ttθ む
Zθ θ
zι ι
ttι グ璽
:J ttθ ιθηИλTlへ

ble 10)in WhiCh the noun
dramatic contl‐ ast to the result of DA(眠 しin predicate positionに e.,the complement or the otteC→ iS unlikely

16%(16/99

％ ″ ″

一 け

to be lllarked accurately,the noun in predicate position is likely to
3%(2/60
16h l14/861

ce at p<05 or less″ 打

布

38%(5′ llll%(28/250

be rII∬ ked witl■

IA accurately(Time l+2:0.64;Time 3+4:0.58),

whereas tl■ e noun as the sutteCt Oftl■ e sentence is hi」 lly unlikeヶ to9%(2/2212114(31/250

二iicae statlstical signiflcal■

have not acquired the TL systeIIl of rules to use IA accurately.

be IIlttked accurately(Time l+2:0%;Time 3+4:0.26).IA marhng
of tlle noun after the preposition shoャ vs a〔 Ieat deal ofilnprovement

as time passed(Time l+2:0.32;Time 3+4:0.67).In addition,:= ]:cannot be included in VARBRUL analysis‑148‑一―‑149‑―

AkikO's uses of IA are alsO under the pOsitive inJllence of cOIIlinOnly
occurring structures such as̀there is'Only at ltter sttteS(0・

84).

動ι助〃ι
ι
な'こル√

Earlier,we were informed fl・ Om Overall accuracy r〔 五〇s(■ lble3)that Akiko uses IA more accurately thal■ Natsuko(900/o,810/o,
respecively).In the present 1/‐ ARBRUL analysis Of the universal

cttegories,hOwever,we hNe obtained the seemingly contradictoッ
resultthatitis AkikO vvhO has■ Ot constructed the TL― like systeln ofNo掟 (⇒ :the n̲bes hrules thrOuま Out the entire periods of acquisition(T・ able 12).There

Note(2):categOncal嗅!

are several reasOns for this cOntradiciOn.First,」 ven that her IL
system Of rules is nOt based On the universal categories of IA(FG―The results shw

1),Akiko seems to have been mOre dynamic than Natsuko inexerts either zero or

tesung hypOtheses and construcing systematiciサ of her own.As

throughout the fow

shOwn in the results thus far,AkikO's IL is governed by multiple

favor Nattuko'sIBe

factors,■ vhich shOuld provide her wvith numerous clues to proper

colnpensatory stru・

usage of IAo Second,AkikO seems tO be more advanced thanldentical envlro― dNatsuko in identification of noun countability and number,■ vhich

0.95;2‑0.99;34̲87;

has fOund tO be crucial fOr using IA accurately. WVhile Akik0

seen■ to resort to畿

erroneously marked non― cOunt nouns 170/o Of the time(4/24),

AkikO's extenslve

Natsuko did s0 330/o(8/24)。 Natusko alsO used IA■ vith Plural COuntintel‐

nouns three imes(20/o[3/2021),whereas Akiko never did(0/186).5

her relatively嗜

preted as群 Oi―

Fin』 y,it seems that AkilcO has』 so been mOre pro8ress市 e than
Natsuko in adoping avoidance strategies,as also Observed in the4. E)iscussion

case of DA(Table 5).In striking cOntrast to Natsuko,Akiko quite
extens市 ely takes adval■ tar Of pronomind elements sucl■ as■ Ome'Or

恥b have mv国 町諄d̀any'as the[+SR,一 HKl markers ofirsじ mendoned nouns f0110wing

articles in ILs of油 饉dbD

existential̀have'Or̀there is.'Table 15 compttes the probabilities

school subeCt Oコ け

of occurrence of IA and pronOIllinal elements as the marker Of

to natural input attdsuch nouns betn‐ een Akiko and]ヽ atsukO.

EFL cOntextis g――‑150‑―hTABLE 15

ler the positive influence of conllnonly
here is'only at later stages崚 .8→.

動 ι助 崚 め 'ιむιげ POπ θπグηαなル rル な″ηι″ι駒吻物 γι郷 働 ψ ιttα ιθッ S″ αι響d iol■ overJl accuracy ratios(Table

accurately than NatsukO(900/0,810//o,

Target mcle
一

a(nl

WttL

鞭 lghtwelgl■ t

５
４

＞
ｎ
ｌ
ａ

ヽは BRUL allalysis of the universal
obtained the seemingly conttadictorywelght330/r(7/2⇒

1001n(2/21)

48%(10/21)

38171(8/21)

O° 7o(0/5)

54Cfo(7/13)

1907・

00o(0/5)

460o(6/13)

440/o(7/16)(3/16)

i not constructed the TL― like systenl ofNote(1):tlle numbers u■ boldface ltalics ll■ dicate statlsical s13micance tt P<05 or less五ods of acquisition(Table 12). There〕

NOte(2):catcgorical use(100%)Or non usc(00o)Cttnot be included in VARBRUL malysis

ontrttLction.First,3■ Ven that her IL)n the universal cttego五 es ofIA(FG―The results show that this ParuCulT factOr(E対 stendal Sttuctllre))en more dynaIIlic than Natsuko inexerts either zero or allnost neutral effects On Akiko's use ofIA

rllcung SyStemtticit1/Of her owno As

throughout the four periods,whereas the same factor has be8■ ln to、Akiko's IL is governed by multiPle

favor NatsukO's use ofIA since Time 3(0.95;0.89in Time 4).As ae her with numerous clues to propercompensatOry strategy,Akiko has adopted Prononlinals for theo seems to be more advanced thanidentical envirOnlllent consistently over the entire period(Tillle l―lolln countabiliサ alld number,which

0.95;20.99;30.87;40.85).Natsuko,on the other hand,does■ ot

usil■

8 1A accurately.WVhile Akiko〕
unt nouns 170/o of the time(4/24),
ヾ
amskO alsO used IA with plural count7hereas Akiko never did(0/186).6l),・

seem to resortto the same stratew exCept for during Time 3(0.94).

Akiko's extensive use of pronoTIlinals in IA context can beinterpreted as avoidancc,■ vhiCh Can be assumed to have resulted inher relat市 ely hi」ler ratio of accuracy of IA.

0 has also been mOre pro3Tessive thanlce strate3ies,as also observed in the4. E)iscusslon

king contrast to Natsuko,Akiko quite・Wヽ

b have investigated variable usage Of definite and indefinite

PrOnOnlinal elements such as̀some'or■
ers of flrstmentioned nouns following

aricles in ILs of Akiko and NatsukO,whO had studied En」 ish aS a.'Table 15 compares the prObabiliues

schOol su匈 eCt Only inJapan(EFL)withOut ally extens市 e exPosure

onoIIlinal elements as the marker of

to natural input and interactions in TL countries. AlthOugh the■dlヽ atsuko.

EFL context is generally assumed to be impoverished in TL input―‑150‑――‑151‑―

alld interactions,our results still showv that their variable usage ofand negativelI 陥

the ttucles inv。 lves a great deal of underlソ ng syStemtticity.Our

EFL le=ning elll■ ‐iEFL learners'ILs are sensitive to robust effects Of referential

generally restricted 8

hncdOns ofthe田 巨cles(especially sO in the case of deinite aricles),

like ESL(bllat】 ■1日 ■口L

as alsO demonstrated in a number Of priOr studies Of ESL.ThOu〔井the time ofinitiation alld the rate of progress both vary,AkikO and

Ll tra■ sfer.、 ■血土 お
relativelv inttК ■―Natsuko are learning howv to differentiate the functions in making

EFL suЧ ec撻 ニ

their chOice Of articles(YOung,1996).Their abilities in making

advanced特五ぎlt decisions appear to deve10p gadually as they appro対 mate to(Cl,B・ OB・ L銹Cl赫

TL norllls over tilne.

Our EFL learners'processes of acquisition also involve theover IIIm

aspects that rnay potentially differ frOm general aspects of SLA inaSPeCごmore natural learlling en宙 ronments(e.g"ESL)■ vhere extensive TL

input and interactions are generally guaranteed. In the present

even b―
EFL o回 」bJh

study,the suttectS'approximations to TL went through quite a

individlld

prolonged process,■vhich wvill perhaps require an extensive amountqualini■ Fe…

of time and duration for its cOmpletion. One year of observation

SutteCむ

identified hardly any note、 ν
ortl■ y pro3Tess in usage of articles byln acc―either sutteCt・

The su萄 ∝魅 b田 晴

Our EFL sutteCtS'processes of acquisition are also hea宙ly,dthe system of―characterized by irst language transfer,which is re■ ected inサ
PiCal

Each has fo― ■patterlls Of both Dノ ゝand IA errors as well as fractorial cOntributions

functions of theto accuracI AlmOst catego五 cal chOice Of zero articles fOr genericacqured缶 壼1鶴 ョ己
on the m額 h噛 ごreference in the cOntext Of bOth]DA and IA can be assumed tO be

due tO negative transfer frOmJapaneSe Ll which has■ O article
system(Noguchi,1997).COrrect idend■ cation of noun countabiliサ

thrat Akiko,who甲rules(i.e.,FCrll霞and number has alsO been fOund tO be a crucial deterlninant thathン

consistently affects the suttects'usage of DA and IA botl■ pOsidvelyof second― order―‑152‑―

TOtheses of her…

ill show that their variable usage ofand negauvel)た Firstlanguage ttansfer tends to be more persistent in:al of underlying systemauciサ .our

EFL learning envirOnments where TL input and interactions are

e to robust effects of referential

generally restticted as comparedャ vith more natural environments

so in tl■ e case of deinite arucles),

like ESL(MartOn,1981).Of fLlrther si3■ li■ Cance is that tl■ e effect Of

ber of prior studies of ESL. Though

Ll transfer,、 ″hich is characteristic of earlier stages of SLA,remains

ate of prOyess both vary,Akiko andrelatively intact over tlme even at later stages of acquisition by ouriifferentiate tlle functions in IIlよ ing

g,1996).Their abilities in making

EFL su匈 ectSに e.,Time 3 to 4:their late― intermediate to early―
advanced stages with apprOximately 450 to 500 TOEFL scores)

OP gadually as they approxilnate to(Cl,Brown,1994).

i、

」

1)・

Closely exanlining the actual[「o、 /th oft、 vo individual learners

sses of acquisition also inv01ve theover time,the desi〔 平l of the present study has also revealed̀creative'

iffer from general aspects of SI壺 牡 innents(e.g.,ESL)where extensive TLぉpects of their constl■ lcdons ofIL grarnn■ tts,■ vh(■ l var′ COnsiderably
ho ha、「even bet■ veen the lettners、 、
e participated in tlle identicalnerally gllaranteed. In the present

EFL curricula and achieved the same levels of TL proiciency. The

lations to TL、 vent through quite a

individual variations obser、 ed involve both quantitative andPerhaps require an extensive amountqualitative aspects

Inple■ on. One year of Observation〕

Su匈 eCtS,and diach■・
onic Pattems Of improvement(or iuctllauon→

ithy progess in usage of articles byin accuracy rados o、O、 rerall ratiOs Of accuracy differ bet、 veen theer tlll■ eare alsO fOund to be quite individualistic.

The suttectS have had different POinも Of departllre for fOrmulatingsses of acquisition are also heavily

tlle system of mles l‐ Or atticle usage du五 ng tl■ e prOcess of acqllisition.

transfer,which is reflected in typical

Each llas formed a certain hierarchical preference for referential

rors as well as factoriral contl‐ ibutions

functions of the articles tO acquire li e.,WhiCh fllnctiOn is to be

al choice of zero articles for generic

acqllired irs→ as Well霞 esttbLshed a w五 que set of mllltiple cons廿 灘
nts

th Dハ L and IA can be assumed to be

On the marking of articles independently. FOr example,it seemsl Japanese Ll which has no article

that 2牡 kko,、vho lagged behind Natsuko in her fOrmulatiOn Of TL]ct idendficauon Of nOun countability

rules(i.e.,FG‑1)as flrst― Order cOnstralnts,has actively tested val‐ ious

ind to be a crucial deterlllinant that

hypotheses Of her oャ vn for intemal consistency,involving a number

usage of E)2生 and Iいk botll pOsitivelyof second― order cOnstraints derived P五 ma五 ly fl・ om sul・ face sttuctllre.

s・‑152‑――‑153‑―

This indi、 idualistic fo..1latiOn of IL rllles has 8Tadually disappeared,

distributiOn Of

hOwever,as acquisition pro8Tessed(Ellis,1985;Pan‐ ish,1987).

to resolve. TLe

Creative cOnstructiOns extend to a learner strateaア Of avoidance

accounts are IIlce

for cOmpensating deficiency of IL graIIlinar at given stages offor developmeIL鮨 』

acquisition. AkikO,、 vhO had nOt acquired the s01id systell1 0f rules

skewed namal

for article usage,characterisucally resOrted to the use of other pre―Bayley,1996).

nominal modiners that can dtemativeヶperfO・ 1.incuons eq■ livJent・This illsi3ht h

to articles in question(e.g.,pOSSessives fOr anaphoric DA;

rauos are nOt Ц帥けpronominals fOr e対 stenual IAl.Recepaveサ

constructing IL

peS Of tasks fOr eliciunganalyucal data(e.g.,Cloze tests)would nOt be able tO reach thisサpegeneralizatiO■ 脚of outcOme. Focusing on IL production data in natllralistic context,

English IL:tlle

the present stlldy has succeeded in shedding fair light On dynanlicarticles「lrst alld雌aspects of IL,wvhich enable the learner with lilnited competence tozero articles)thm

make her performance mOre efficient.

has shOwn that■ にGoitt baCk tO Figllres 2 al■ d3,it is qul

enliま tening to recogllize

lettner over limethat the gradual processes of the learllers'constructing IL gralnlnars

apparent ЪacLL轄

over time are not necessarily reflected in Overall accuracy ratios inlearner's cOIIsm―

each cOrresponding peHod of acquisition. The results discussed so

サpeS Of referendal status a」 ven ttucle happens to carry in a Jven

behind that chaOLamong intersedコ g
are alsO fOund tO L

discOurse(Tarone&Parrish, 1988)。

processes Of acq甲 由ゴ画h■L

ftt seem to imply that Overall accuracy is heⅣ ily sutteCt tO what

Since learners do notinstantaneously acquire all the functiOns of a given article but

exclusively On tic

gradually cOnstruct a hierttchica1 0rder Of functions in their own

conducive to苗

unique wvays, diachrOnic changes in overall accuracy ratios alone

exalllllination of imay be too unsophisticated to provide us with useflll infOrmation

dilnens10nal lla― ご

fOr understanding real― time processes Of acquisition. h/10reover,inuniversal catego―

situatiOns like the present study,ャ vhere uncOntrolled data frOm

constraints hy

natural IL performance are likely tO be skewed in terms Of thestages of acqlll● 血―‑154‑―

disttibutiOn Of various functiOns,this problem is paricularly crucial

OfIL l‐ LlleS has yadually disappetted,

ressed(Ellis,1985;Parrish,1987).

to resolve. The present analysis has demOnsttated tllat probabilistic■end to a learner strategy of avoidance

accounts are more heuristic than bare percentages in accounting:], Of IL grammar at given stages offor developmental processes of acquisition based On pOtentially

i not acquired the solid systerll of rules

skewed natural hnguistic PerfOrmance(Sank。 氏 1988;Young&
Bayley,1996).

ica11)「

resOrted to the use of other pre―temaaveけ perfOrm fllncuons eqll市 dent

This insidlt has led tO prOducuve results.ル ヽLile overall accuracy

ぎ ヽPOSSessives for anaphoric D2牡
ゝ Receptiveけ peS Of tasks for eliciung

ratios are not highly suggestive,our analysis Of rule―

10uld not be able to reach this typeヽIS ヽ

generalizatiOn put forth by a number of priOr studies Of articles in

production data in naturalistic context,

English IL:the learners initiate the systelll of rules for definite・
ded in shedding fair light on dynal■ lic

articles irst,and the fOrmulation of rules fOr indeinite aricles(and[he learner wlth lilllited cornpetence tozero articles)then f。 110ws.The present lonJtlldinal invesugation

efflcient.

′has shoャ 、n that the diachrOnic state of acquisition by a single;

・lld 3,it is quite enlightening to reco3niZegovernedness inconslructing IL gralllmars has prOvided supportive evidence for alearner Over time apparently inv01ves a(Ieat dea1 0f fluctuauons orlllarsthe leamers'consttucting IL gral■ ■apparent̀backshding'in terms of overall accuracy ratios,but the、rellected in Overall accuracy ratios inlearner's construction of the underlying systerll is under way]f acquisiuOn. The results discussed sobehind that chaOs. Systematic accounts of relative effectiveness■ll accuracy is heavily sutteCt tO Whatamong intersecting factors,、 vhich fe、 v priOr studies have attempted,

i、

en article happens to carry in a 8■ Ven

are also fOund tO be very useful for understanding real―

timerish, 1988). SinCe learners do notprocesses of acquisition. This study has demOnsttated that focusing

i the functions of a given article but

exclus市 ely On tlle universal fllncdons Of articles(FG l)is nOt flllly

chical order of fllnctions in their own

cOnducive to diagnOsing incorrect patterns Of usage. Close

anges in overall accuracy ratios alone

exall■ ination of interfactor relatiOnships has revealed the multi―

lo provide us wvith useflll information
PrOCeSSes of acquisition. A/10reover,insludy,■ vhere uncontrolled data frOm

= hkely to be skewed in terms of the‑154‑一dilnensiOnal nature Of article acquisition,、 vhich cOnsists not onl)・ of

universal categories but alsO a unique set of other t)・ pes of
consttaints hypothesized and tested by individual learners at〔stages of acquisition.
―‑155‑

昇Ven

Referencesof nOun cOllntab==、Rιυ″″グ物 ι
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BrOwn,c.■ Y
αηごZ

ηJ電

WashingtoIIL D̲C
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榊 神滞 i濫 .戦幾蠍 I
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‐
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銀

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″
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Elllilltrlll;l:￨:ssI物

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ι
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γ
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α
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̀り―‑159‑一

Ben」 amins. pp.253‑306.

referents are highly likelF

grammars OfbOth subi̲
Notes
Imel

l. This Paper iS dedicated tO PrOfessOr Kei Nよ amurち whO has been

AkikO
a‐―
NatsukO に

轟諸肌肌T奮樅∬認L驚 淵littwS硝

doubt,his philosOphies、 vill keep afFecting what l shOuld aim tO be as

7.

when auSe(OIL,cr

8. A■■0■
onl、 二ヽL

Wilma Luth,Peter Gray,「 Fhalawyn SilverwOod,Satsuki Tani, andem句
含蹴:1)翼無 碁
認灘.thanhhOぬ はs br』 ng meゝSpeCiJ
G聯 肌 ∬:W翼17認窮::織獅Idケo宙

2.The present study宙 1l discuss Only the analysis Of defmite(̀the')and工=10̲ 1通 由 db

+ョ̲̲L
11̲時

12. h…
efFectinコfrom her

preposittOnaI P―&bNottc‖

匈∝ 面
総

θ
物

む μ た脱 躍 ―
ぽ

噸

鮮 )ド

嗅

L週

clause(Time l+2:呟
NP itself has beerl f―

4.Yamada(1996)JsO invesugated cOHelatiOns be"een the use ofthe
definite article and three specific syntacuc enviroIIIIlentS Where nOuns

are used(i.e.,nouns in sutteCt pOSitions,011eCt pOsitions,and in
preposi■ Ond phrase→ but found nO notable cOrrelation.
5.

As lnentiOned earlier,the present study will discuss only the resultsof analyses Of deflnite and indefmite articles.

6.

ーIn lhct prelininary analyses OfzerO Inarking have fbund that genedc―‑160‑―

on her̀accurate'use ofD■
13.

CeneHc referents are聰 ofbtt sutteCヽ ・See巌14̲叫 山ecЖ eofDA rabL8ニ
…
ー
…
IL

tO demonstrate ten〔 LⅨ 彙
m the productiOn Of Lヽ

L―…
l nurnber Of errOr tOL―‑161‑

referents are highly likely to be marked、 vith zerO articles in IL
grammtts ofboth subiectS・

Notes

:

Tin■ el Tin■ e2 Tin■ e3 Tin■

Akiko
aθJ
Natsuko aθ θ

Professor Kei Nakamura,who has been
l=ofthe term. I would like to express lny
[er』

)ア

uttng me to Whatl am now.No

3■

aθ θ

a 79

a7σ

a92

7.やVhen a hctor youp includes eitl■ er catego五 c」 use(100070)Or nOn
use(0%Or no token),VARBRUL weights cannot be cralculated.

for the rest of my life.I feel extremely8.

ne of tlle luchest of his sttldents at Selo軍ateful to the follo、 ving people,v√ ithout/hich are concerned
Akiko's Time 4 has only t、 vo errOr tokens,、 へers).Therefore,tll
FG
4(Internal
sttuctllreof
NP:post
modi■
Only宙

VARBRUL wei」 ltS Were not calculated.

Ⅳlatsuo,

9.However,tlle weights in Time 4(Generic:0.38;1・ Mentions:0.63)

vood,Satsuki Tani,and
Lala、「〜yn Silver、
10 thal■ kful to the sutteCtS for allo宙a 7θ

iiCantう(An tlle wdま ts tte statisuc』 ly d3■ ■keep affecing v√ hat l should ailn to be as

t have been completed: Yuki
〕

e4

a9θ

are as strong as those ofthe otl■ er factor 8「 oupS・ng me

10.Nttsuko began to overproduce DA with the sequence of adieCiVe
曖

.

b、

+noun in Time 3に gっ I walnt to gO to tlle new place al■ d meet new‐Hokusei Gakuen Universiげ s Special

people...),fOr which l do nOt have ally possible account to offer.

in the academic year 2001.
‐ss only tlle andysis of deinite〔 tl・ eぅ al・ d11.

Only the stausucally si3■ liiCant factor 8「 Oups are listed in the tables

iue to lilnitauons of space

12

1n contrast,it seems tl■ at Natsuko has not lnastered tllese nlles so

Though myeffectively as pddko. Natsuko's error patterns are prirnarily derived

IOund a number of intriglling aspects offrom her imperfect comand of D2牡 with the head noun ofthe

Or tlle use of zero ttucles),tl10Se indings

preposidonal phrase(Time l+210.59;Time 3+4:0.70 al■

Pendent paper in the near futurebe」nning level
Z― sん α
ん
γ
ZZ ι
∫
iο
〔
tt yれ ∫り

NP itself has been found not to be a staustically Si〔 平liiCant constraint

On her̀accurate'use of DA.

iま ated correla饉 ons bet、 veen the use oftlle

13.

ecttc s)τ ltaCtiC environments WVhere nouns

ibieCt pOSitions,obieCt pOSilions,and in

Generic referents are predonlinantly marked with zero articles in
ILs ofboth suttects・ See the result of prehmintty analyses in Note 6.

,Iと d nOtCOnduct VARBRUL
analyses to demonstrate tendencies of conttibudon,Of intersecting
factors On the producuon Of Iい k er■ ors. In botllフ 牡kko's and Natusko's

14.UIllike dle case ofDA CableS 8 allld動Ound no notable correlation.
‐present st■ ldy,vill discuss only the results
idettdte a」 Ecles.

・ S Of ZerO marldng have found that gene五cILs,tlle total number of error tokens is much smaller than the E)2牡

̲・―‑160‑―

d the relative

clause(Time l+2:0.87;Time 3+4:0.31),tl10u〔 井 internal structllre of

一‑161‑―

counterpart,and the sOurces of errOrs are concerned with sO few
members Ofthe factOr groups that VARBRUL analysis seems useless.

15.FG‐ 2(COlmt/non‐ cOlmt distinc■ On and nllmber Of he nOlm marked),
hOwever,has nOt been fOund tO be stadsacally Signincant on accuracyof IA.AkikO's weights for̀oOncurrences'of IA宙 th the three typesof nOuns:0.52 fOr sinNar nOuns,0.16 1br non― cOunt l10uns,no use
lvith plural nOuns in Time l+2,catego五 cal use of lA widl singular

nolmsin Time 3+4.NatsukO's weights:0.49 for sIBrar nouns,0.79
for nOn― count nouns,no use、 vith plural nOuns in Time l+2,0.72 fOr

singular nouns,0.82 fOr non̲cOunt nouns,0.13 fOr Pl―

Time 3+4.

―‑162‑―

l nOuns in