Adult L2-learners lack the maximality presupposition, too. 2006

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1、AdultL2-learnersLacktheMaximalityPresupposition,Too!*121HeejeongKo,TaniaIonin,andKenWexler1MassachusettsInstituteofTechnology2UniversityofSouthernCaliforniaThispaperexamineserrorsofarticleuseinL2-English,andarguesforsimilaritybetweenL1-andL2-acquisition

2、ofarticles.Ourexperimentaldatashowthatpartitivityasdiscourse-givensetmembershipcontributestooveruseof‘the’inplaceof‘a’inL2-English,asinchildL1-English.WeproposethatadultL2-EnglishlearnershavedifficultywiththeMaximalitypresuppositionfor‘the’,similarlytoc

3、hildL1-learners(cf.Wexler2003).TheparallelsbetweenchildL1-andadultL2-acquisitionimplythat‘the’overusebylearnersistiedtoasemanticfactorratherthantochildren’segocentricity.OurdataalsodemonstratethatpartitivityandspecificityareindependentfactorsatworkinL2-

4、acquisition.1.IntroductionInvestigationofparallelsbetweenadultsecondlanguage(L2)andchildfirstlanguage(L1)acquisitionhasbeenatthecenterofintensiveresearchincurrentacquisitionstudies(seeFlynn1987;Thomas1989;Neeleman&Weerman1997;Ionin&Wexler2002;Schwartz20

5、03;Unsworth2004,amongothers,forchild-adultcomparisons).ThesharedassumptionunderlyingthisresearchprogramisthatparallelsbetweenL2andL1acquisitioncandeepenourunderstandingofthegeneralhumanabilitytoacquirelanguage.AdultL2datarevealtheprocessoflanguageacquis

6、itionuninfluencedbytheconcurrentcognitivegrowthofchildL1learners.ChildL1datareveallanguageacquisitionpatternsunaffectedbyL1-transfer.ParallelsbetweenadultL2andchildL1data,thus,constituteevidencethatthecourseoflanguageacquisitionisdetermined(atleastpartl

7、y)byuniversallinguisticfactorswhichareseparatefromL1-transferandcognitivegrowth.ThispaperinvestigatessuchL1-L2parallelsinthedomainofEnglisharticleusage,andarguesforsimilaritybetweenL1andL2acquisitionofarticlesemantics.Inparticular,weexamineL2acquisition

8、ofEnglisharticlesbyadultL1-Koreanspeakers.SinceKoreanlacksarticles(ordirectparallelstoarticlesinotherdomainsofthegrammar),itisunlikelythatL1-transferplaysacrucialroleinL2-EnglisharticleusebyKoreanspeakers.Forthepurposesofthispape