A number of studies of second language (L2) sentence processing have
investigated whether ambiguity resolution biases in the native language
(L1) transfer to superficially similar cognate structures in the L2. When
transfer effects are found in such cases, it is difficult to determine
whether they reflect surface parallels between the languages or the
operation of more abstract processing mechanisms. Wh-questions in
English and Japanese present a valuable test case for investigating the
relation between L1 and L2 sentence processing. Native speakers (NSs) of
English and Japanese both show strong locality biases in processing
wh-questions, but these locality biases are realized in rather
different ways in the two languages, due to differences in word order and
scope marking. Results from a sentence generation study with NSs of
Japanese and advanced English-speaking L2 learners of Japanese show that
the L2 learners show a strongly nativelike locality bias in the resolution
of scope ambiguities for in situ wh-phrases, despite the fact
that the closest analogue of such an interpretation is impossible in
English. This indicates that L2 learners are guided by abstract processing
mechanisms and not just by superficial transfer from the L1.This research was supported in part by grants to
Colin Phillips from the National Science Foundation (BCS-0196004) and the
Human Frontier Science Program (RGY-0134). We are also grateful to Ellen
Lau, Kaori Ozawa, Rozz Thornton, and Masaya Yoshida for valuable
discussions of the study, to Deborah Eastman, Gretchen Jones, Eiko Miura,
Yoshiko Mori, and Lindsay Yotsukura for assistance with recruiting the
Japanese learners, and to John Matthews for assistance with the testing of
the Japanese NS group.