The University of Southampton
University of Southampton Institutional Repository

Untangling locality and orientation constraints in the L2 acquisition of anaphoric binding: a feature-based approach

Untangling locality and orientation constraints in the L2 acquisition of anaphoric binding: a feature-based approach
Untangling locality and orientation constraints in the L2 acquisition of anaphoric binding: a feature-based approach
This study offers a Minimalist analysis of the L2 acquisition of binding properties whereby cross-linguistic differences arise from the interaction of anaphoric feature specifications and operations of the computational system (Reuland 2001, 2011; Hicks 2009). This analysis attributes difficulties in the L2 acquisition of locality and orientation properties in binding to problems reanalysing the features responsible for reflexivisation in the target language. Such an approach is shown to predict, in contrast to previous accounts, that if the locality and orientation behaviour of English reflexives arise due to syntactic operations on their features (Agree), acquisition of locality cannot be achieved unless orientation is also acquired; a picture-verification task completed by 70 Korean L2 speakers of English fully bears out this prediction. We show that for independent reasons, Korean speakers could still behave apparently nativelike for locality (by means of L1 transfer), but not for orientation. Crucially, this analysis can explain how two properties traditionally subsumed under the same UG principle can appear to pose different learning difficulties to L2 speakers.
1048-9223
266-300
Dominguez, Laura
9c1bf2b4-b582-429b-9e8a-5264c4b7e63f
Hicks, Glyn
1f3753b1-1224-4cd3-8af3-5bf708062831
Song, Hee-Jeong
74b0cca0-d4b8-4dad-94d3-03ed17353a6b
Dominguez, Laura
9c1bf2b4-b582-429b-9e8a-5264c4b7e63f
Hicks, Glyn
1f3753b1-1224-4cd3-8af3-5bf708062831
Song, Hee-Jeong
74b0cca0-d4b8-4dad-94d3-03ed17353a6b

Dominguez, Laura, Hicks, Glyn and Song, Hee-Jeong (2012) Untangling locality and orientation constraints in the L2 acquisition of anaphoric binding: a feature-based approach. Language Acquisition, 19 (4), 266-300. (doi:10.1080/10489223.2012.712827).

Record type: Article

Abstract

This study offers a Minimalist analysis of the L2 acquisition of binding properties whereby cross-linguistic differences arise from the interaction of anaphoric feature specifications and operations of the computational system (Reuland 2001, 2011; Hicks 2009). This analysis attributes difficulties in the L2 acquisition of locality and orientation properties in binding to problems reanalysing the features responsible for reflexivisation in the target language. Such an approach is shown to predict, in contrast to previous accounts, that if the locality and orientation behaviour of English reflexives arise due to syntactic operations on their features (Agree), acquisition of locality cannot be achieved unless orientation is also acquired; a picture-verification task completed by 70 Korean L2 speakers of English fully bears out this prediction. We show that for independent reasons, Korean speakers could still behave apparently nativelike for locality (by means of L1 transfer), but not for orientation. Crucially, this analysis can explain how two properties traditionally subsumed under the same UG principle can appear to pose different learning difficulties to L2 speakers.

Text
Dominguez_Hicks_Song_Language_Acquisition.pdf - Author's Original
Download (534kB)

More information

Published date: September 2012
Organisations: Modern Languages and Linguistics

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 210937
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/210937
ISSN: 1048-9223
PURE UUID: 60b21ea2-7b8f-492f-a245-c7b1bfe5c452
ORCID for Laura Dominguez: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-2701-2469
ORCID for Glyn Hicks: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-4126-8655

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 20 Feb 2012 14:51
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 03:29

Export record

Altmetrics

Contributors

Author: Laura Dominguez ORCID iD
Author: Glyn Hicks ORCID iD
Author: Hee-Jeong Song

Download statistics

Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.

View more statistics

Atom RSS 1.0 RSS 2.0

Contact ePrints Soton: eprints@soton.ac.uk

ePrints Soton supports OAI 2.0 with a base URL of http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/cgi/oai2

This repository has been built using EPrints software, developed at the University of Southampton, but available to everyone to use.

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue without changing your settings, we will assume that you are happy to receive cookies on the University of Southampton website.

×