The effects of gap position and discourse information in the acquisition of purpose clause constructions by second language learners.
Creators: name: Finney, Malcolm A.
Publisher: name: Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa
Year: 1994
Subjects: subject: Education, Language and Literature.

description: This study appraises the effects of gap position and discourse information in the acquisition of purpose clause constructions (PCs) by adult native French speakers learning English as L2. PCs are generally of three types in English: (i) John chose Mary$\rm\sb{i}\ \lbrack\sb{CP}\ \lbrack\sb{IP}\sp{PRO}\sb{i}\ \lbrack\sb{I}$, to $\lbrack \sb{\rm VP}$to read)))); (ii) John$\sb{\rm i}$ chose a book$\rm\sb{j}\ \lbrack\sb{CP}0\sb{j}\ \lbrack \sb{IP}\sp{PRO}\sb{i}\ \lbrack \sb{I}$, to $\rm\lbrack\sb{VP}to\ read\ e\sb{j}\rbrack\rbrack\rbrack\rbrack$; (iii) John$\sb{\rm i}$ chose Mary$\rm\sb{j}\ \lbrack\sb{CP}0\sb{j}\ \lbrack\sb{IP}\sp{PRO}\sb{i}\ \lbrack\sb{I}$, to $\rm\lbrack\sb{VP}to\ read\ to\ e\sb{j}\rbrack\rbrack\rbrack\rbrack$. There are grounds for hypothesizing a late emergence of OPCs in English for French speakers. An OPC is not allowed in French and, in addition to the restrictions associated with the choice of matrix verb, is considered marked, typologically and semantically, relative to an SPC. Across languages, the presence of an OPC implies the presence of an SPC but not vice versa. An SPC is also argued to be unmarked in that it allows only a gap controlled by the highest available element in the thematic hierarchy -- Theme -- and the marked option (OPC) makes allowance for selection of a second argument for an additional gap (Chierchia 1989). Syntactically, though, only an OPC with a prepositional object gap (POPC), and not one with a direct object gap (DOPC), may be considered marked since prepositions are not proper governors in French. A POPC is thus expected to offer a special challenge initially to French speakers. L1 acquisition studies argue for children's initial insensitivity to semantic/pragmatic and discourse information in sentence interpretation during the early stages of language development apparently lacking the ability to maximally utilize such information during the early stages of language development (Goodluck 1990b; Stevenson &amp; Pickering 1987). The adult learner, though, is capable of utilizing discourse information in L1, and initial use of discourse information in L2 will support an L2 acquisition theory of adult learners having developed processing capacities that allow them to make early and efficient use of discourse information in L2. Initially ignoring such information will support a view of a parallel between L1 and L2 acquisition. The primary experimental task comprises a number of actout sentences, including OPCs which are preceded either by a discourse (one sentence) designed to lead the subjects towards anticipating an object gap or by a discourse with no such lead. A supplementary task--Grammaticality Judgement--requires subjects to judge the acceptability of a number of constructions, including PCs. Results of the actout experiment reveal no problems by both intermediate and advanced French subjects in interpreting SPCs and DOPCs while POPCs prove problematic for intermediate subjects. There are also some marginal effects of discourse information at both levels of proficiency. The Grammaticality Judgement results also reveal more SPCs judged acceptable compared to OPCs, with less POPCs judged acceptable compared to DOPCs at both proficiency levels. Results reveal initial difficulty interpreting POPCs, providing clear support for the syntactic hypothesis that only constructions considered syntactically (or structurally) marked may create initial learning difficulty in L2 acquisition. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)