Scalar implicatures in second language acquisition
Scalar implicatures in second language acquisition
This study investigates the second language acquisition This study investigates the second language acquisition (L2A) of scalar implicatures (Grice, 1989 and Horn, 1972), implicatures based on a range of quantifiers ordered in terms of informational strength: some … most … all. We compared acceptance rates on scalar implicatures with some compared to universally true and false sentences with all by Korean natives in Korean, English natives in English, and two groups of advanced and intermediate Korean learners of English. Experiment 1 presented scalar sentences without context. Pragmatically infelicitous but logically correct sentences with some were the crucial test items. Results indicate that L2 learners derive scalar implicatures significantly more often than the native English and Korean speakers. Experiment 2 used statements in the rich context of stories presented with pictures and text. The pragmatically felicitous responses of the learners increased to over 90%. It is concluded that scalar implicatures present no problem to L2 learners, and that linguistic pragmatic principles are universal. These results are interpreted in light of two influential accounts of scalar implicature calculation and situate them among recent L2A theories.
second language acquisition, scalar implicatures, conversational implicature, acquisition of pragmatics
2444-2462
Slabakova, Roumyana
1bda11ce-ce3d-4146-8ae3-4a486b6f5bde
October 2010
Slabakova, Roumyana
1bda11ce-ce3d-4146-8ae3-4a486b6f5bde
Slabakova, Roumyana
(2010)
Scalar implicatures in second language acquisition.
[in special issue: Morphological variation in Japanese]
Lingua, 120 (10), .
(doi:10.1016/j.lingua.2009.06.005).
Abstract
This study investigates the second language acquisition This study investigates the second language acquisition (L2A) of scalar implicatures (Grice, 1989 and Horn, 1972), implicatures based on a range of quantifiers ordered in terms of informational strength: some … most … all. We compared acceptance rates on scalar implicatures with some compared to universally true and false sentences with all by Korean natives in Korean, English natives in English, and two groups of advanced and intermediate Korean learners of English. Experiment 1 presented scalar sentences without context. Pragmatically infelicitous but logically correct sentences with some were the crucial test items. Results indicate that L2 learners derive scalar implicatures significantly more often than the native English and Korean speakers. Experiment 2 used statements in the rich context of stories presented with pictures and text. The pragmatically felicitous responses of the learners increased to over 90%. It is concluded that scalar implicatures present no problem to L2 learners, and that linguistic pragmatic principles are universal. These results are interpreted in light of two influential accounts of scalar implicature calculation and situate them among recent L2A theories.
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e-pub ahead of print date: 25 July 2009
Published date: October 2010
Keywords:
second language acquisition, scalar implicatures, conversational implicature, acquisition of pragmatics
Organisations:
Modern Languages and Linguistics
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 353328
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/353328
ISSN: 0024-3841
PURE UUID: 75541d8d-3d76-4b0c-b56e-b02581b7c2a5
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Date deposited: 05 Jun 2013 10:37
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 03:48
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