Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-xbtfd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-18T03:20:25.917Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Resetting the Nominal Mapping Parameter in L2 English: Definite article use and the count–mass distinction*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 March 2008

NEAL SNAPE
NEAL SNAPE*
Affiliation:
University of Calgary/Hokkaido University
*
Address for correspondence: Research Faculty of Media and Communication, Kita 17, Nishi 8, Kita-ku, Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan060-0817ne-snape@imc.hokudai.ac.jp
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper presents two experiments in the acquisition of the nominal domain in English by Japanese and Spanish second language (L2) learners. The first experiment tests the L2 learners' ability to distinguish between count and mass nouns using a grammaticality judgement task and the second experiment tests learners on different types of definite (based on J. Hawkins's 1978 taxonomy) in count and mass contexts by means of a forced-choice elicitation task. The claim by Chierchia (1998a, b) is that there is a Nominal Mapping Parameter and the three languages discussed in this paper each have a different parametric value. The aim of the paper is to test Japanese and Spanish L2 learners of English to see whether they can reset the parameter to the English setting.

Type
Research Article
Information
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition , Volume 11 , Issue 1 , March 2008 , pp. 63 - 79
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

The research reported in this article formed part of the author's Ph.D dissertation completed at the Department of Language & Linguistics, University of Essex, UK, which was supported by a three year ESRC scholarship. Earlier versions of this research were presented at J-SLA 2005, GALA 2005 and GASLA 2006. The author wishes to thank Roger Hawkins for his supervision as well as Y-k. Ingrid Leung, Tania Kupisch and three anonymous reviewers. All errors and misinterpretations are solely due to the author.

References

Abney, S. 1987. The English noun phrase and its sentential aspect. Ph.D. dissertation, MIT.Google Scholar
Adger, D. 2003. Core syntax. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Athanasopoulos, P. 2006. Effects of the grammatical representation of number on cognition in bilinguals. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 9 (1), 89–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barner, D. & Snedeker, J. 2005. Quantity judgments and individuation: Evidence that mass nouns count. Cognition, 97, 41–66.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bernstein, J. B. 2001. The DP Hypothesis: Identifying clausal properties in the nominal domain. In Baltin, M. & Collins, C. (eds.), The handbook of contemporary syntactic theory, pp. 536–61. Malden MA:, Blackwell.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bloom, P. 1994. Syntax–semantics mappings as an explanation for some transitions in language development. In Levy, Y. (ed.), Other children, other languages: Issues in the theory of language acquisition, pp. 41–75. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Borer, H. 2005. In name only: Structuring sense (vol. I). Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bos, P., Hollebrandse, B. & Sleeman, P. 2004. The pragmatics–syntax and the semantics–syntax interface in acquisition. IRAL, 42, 101–110.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chaudron, C. & Parker, K. 1990. Discourse markedness and structural markedness: The acquisition of English noun phrases. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 12, 43–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cheng, L. & Sybesma, R. 1999. Bare and not-so-bare nouns and the structure of NP. Linguistic Inquiry, 30 (4), 509–542.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chierchia, G. 1998a. Reference to kinds across languages. Natural Language Semantics, 6, 339–405.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chierchia, G. 1998b. Plurality of mass nouns and the notion of ‘semantic parameter’. In Rothstein, S. (ed.), Events and grammar, pp. 53–103. Amsterdam: Kluwer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chierchia, G., Guasti, M. T. & Gualmini, A. 1999. Nouns and articles in child grammar and the syntax/semantics map. Presented at GALA, Potsdam, Germany.Google Scholar
Choi, I. 2005. The internal structure of the Korean DP: Evidence from prenominal and postnominal classifiers. Oxford University Working Papers in Linguistics, Philology & Phonetics, 10, 21–40.Google Scholar
Chomsky, N. 1965. Aspects of the theory of syntax. Cambridge MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Crisma, P. & Tomasutti, E. 2000. Phonological effects on article omission in the acquisition of Italian. In Howell, S. C., Fish, S. A. & -Lucas, T. K. (eds.), Proceedings of the 24th Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development, pp. 220–231. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.Google Scholar
Gathercole, V. C. 1986. Evaluating competing linguistic theories with child language data: The case of the mass – count distinction. Linguistics and Philosophy, 9, 151–190.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gil, D. 1987. Definiteness, noun phrase, configurationality and count-mass distinction. In Reuland, E. J. & Meulen, A. G. B. terdr (eds.), The representation of (in)definiteness, pp. 254–269. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Gordon, P. 1985. Evaluating the semantic categories hypothesis: The case of the mass/count distinction. Cognition, 20, 209–242.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gualmini, A. 2000. The acquisition of ontological categories: The mass nouns issue. University of Maryland Working Papers in Linguistics, 9, 71–89.Google Scholar
Guasti, M. T. & Gavarró, A. 2003. Catalan as a test for hypothesis concerning article omission. In Beachley, B., Brown, A. & Conlin, F. (eds.), Proceedings of the 27th Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development, pp. 288–298. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.Google Scholar
Hawkins, J. A. 1978. Definiteness and indefiniteness: A study in reference and grammaticality prediction. London: Croom Helm.Google Scholar
Hawkins, R., Al-Eid, S., Almahboob, I., Athanasopoulos, P., Chaengchenkit, R., Hu, J., Jaensch, C., Jeon, Y., Jiang, A., Leung, I., Matsunaga, K., Ortega, M., Rezai, M., Sarko, G., Snape, N. & Velasco-Zarate, K. 2005. Non-target-like article use in English: Implications for current UG-based theories of SLA. Ms., University of Essex.Google Scholar
Hiki, M. 1990. The judgement of noun countability by Japanese college students: Where is the difficulty? JACET Bulletin, 21, 19–38.Google Scholar
Hiki, M. 1991. A study of learners' judgement of noun countability. Ph.D. dissertation, Indiana University.Google Scholar
Hua, D. & Lee, T. H.-T. 2005. Chinese ESL learners' understanding of the English count–mass distinction. In Dekydtspotter, L., Sprouse, R. A. & Liljestrand, A. (eds.), Proceedings of the 7th Generative Approaches to Second Language Acquisition Conference (GASLA 2004), pp. 138–149. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project.Google Scholar
Imai, M. & Gentner, D. 1997. A cross-linguistic study on early word meaning: Universal ontology and linguistic influence. Cognition, 62, 169–200.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Imai, M. & Mazuka, R. 2003. Re-evaluating linguistic relativity: Language-specific categories and the role of universal ontological knowledge in the construal of individuation. In Gentner, D. & Goldin-Meadow, S. (eds.), Language in mind: Advances in the udy of language and thought pp. 429–464. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Inagaki, S. & Barner, D. 2006. Lexical and syntactic sources of individuation: Evidence from quantity judgment in Japanese and English. Presented at the 8th Annual International Conference of the Japanese Society for Language Sciences (JSLS 2006), International Christian University, Tokyo (June 10–11, 2006).Google Scholar
Ionin, T., Ko, H. & Wexler, K. 2008. The role of semantic features in the acquisition of English articles by Russian and Korean speakers. In Liceras, J. M., Zobl, H. & Goodluck, H. (eds.), The role of formal features in second language acquisition (Second Language Acquisition Research Series). London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Kowaluk, A. 2001. The development of pronouns and determiners in the second language: A study of Polish learners of English. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Cambridge.Google Scholar
Kupisch, T. 2006. The acquisition of determiners in bilingual German–Italian and German–French children (LINCOM Studies in Language Acquisition 17). Munich: Lincom GmbH.Google Scholar
Liu, D. & Gleason, J. L. 2002. Acquisition of the article the by non-native speakers of English: An analysis of four nongeneric uses. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 24, 1–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lleó, C. 2001. The interface of phonology and syntax: The emergence of the article in the early acquisition of Spanish and German. In Weissenborn, J. & Höhle, B. (eds.), Approaches to bootstrapping: Phonological, syntactic and neurophysiological aspects of early language acquisition, pp. 23–44. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lleó, C. & Demuth, K. 1999. Prosodic constraints on the emergence of grammatical morphemes: Crosslinguistic evidence from Germanic and Romance languages. In Greenhill, A., Littlefield, H.Tano, C. (eds.), Proceedings of the 23rd Boston University Conference on Language Development, pp. 407–418. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.Google Scholar
Murphy, S. 1997. Knowledge and production of English articles by advanced second language learners. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Texas, Austin.Google Scholar
Nicolas, D. 1997. Count nouns, mass nouns and their acquisition. Ph.D. dissertation, McGill University.Google Scholar
Nisbett, R. E. 2003. The geography of thought: How Asians and Westerners think differently and why. London: Nicholas Brealey Publishing.Google Scholar
Öztürk, B. 2005. Case, referentiality and phrase structure. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Papafragou, A. 2005. Relations between language and thought: Individuation and the count/mass distinction. In Cohen, H. & Lefebvre, C. (eds.), Handbook of categorization in cognitive science, pp. 256–277. Oxford: Elsevier Science.Google Scholar
Parrish, B. 1987. A new look at methodologies in the study of article acquisition for learners of ESL. Language Learning, 37, 361–383.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Radford, A. 2000. Children in search of perfection: Towards a minimalist model of language acquisition. Essex Research Reports in Linguistics, 34, 57–74Google Scholar
Robertson, D. 2000. Variability in the use of the English article system by Chinese learners of English. Second Language Research, 16 (2), 135–172.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schmitt, C. & Munn, A. 1999. Against the Nominal Mapping Parameter: Bare nouns in Brazilian Portuguese. In Tamanji, P., Hirotani, M. & Hall, N. (eds.), Proceedings of NELS 28. Amherst, MA: GSLA.Google Scholar
Schwartz, B. D. & Sprouse, R. A. 1996. L2 cognitive states and the Full Transfer/Full Access model. Second Language Research, 12 (1), 40–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shin-ichi, I. 1991. Variation in interlanguage with special reference to articles and pronouns. ARELE, 2, 1–10.Google Scholar
Shirahata, T. 1995. The Japanese learner's long-term attainment in English articles. JACET Bulletin, 26, 113–130.Google Scholar
Snape, N. 2005. The use of articles in L2 English by Japanese and Spanish learners. In Snape, N. (ed.), Essex Graduate Student Papers in Language and Linguistics, 7, 1–23. Colchester: University of Essex.Google Scholar
Soja, N. N. 1992. Inferences about the meanings of nouns: The relationship between perception and syntax. Cognitive Development, 7, 29–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Syndicate, U. C. L. E. 2001. Quick Placement Test. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Takahashi, T. 1997. Japanese learners' acquisition and use of the English article system. Edinburgh Working Papers in Applied Linguistics, 8, 98–110.Google Scholar
Tarone, E. & Parrish, B. 1988. Task-related variation in interlanguage: The case of articles. Language Learning, 38, 21–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomas, M. 1989. The acquisition of English articles by first- and second-language learners. Applied Psycholinguistics, 10, 335–355.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ticio, M., E. 2001. Definite generics in Spanish. Presented at the 4th Conference on the Acquisition of Spanish & Portuguese as First and Second Languages together with the Fifth Hispanic Linguistics Symposium, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.Google Scholar
Trademan, J. E. 2002. The Acquisition of the English article system by native speakers of Spanish and Japanese: A cross-linguistic comparison. Ph.D. dissertation, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Tsoulas, G. 2005. Greek mass nouns and the Inherent Plurality Hypothesis. Presented at the University of Essex.Google Scholar
Wakabayashi, S. 1998. Systematicity in the use of the definite article by Japanese learners of English. Gunma kenritsu joshi daigaku kiyo, 19, 91–107.Google Scholar
White, L. 2003a. Fossilization in steady state L2 grammars: Implications of persistent problems with inflectional morphology. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 6 (2), 129–141.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
White, L. 2003b. Second language acquisition and universal grammar. Cambridge & New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yoon, K. K. 1993. Challenging prototype descriptions: Perception of noun countability and indefinite vs. zero article use. International Review of Applied Linguistics, 31, 269–289.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Young, R. 1996. Form-function relations in articles in English interlanguage. In Bayley, R. & Preston, D. R. (eds.), Second language acquisition and linguistic variation, pp. 135–175. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar