Acquisition of L2 English Negative Quantifiers without Equivalent Lexical Items in an L1

Masaaki Kamiya; Zhaosen Guo

doi:10.31261/TAPSLA.13029

Published: 2024-08-27

Vol. 10 No. 2 (2024)

Acquisition of L2 English Negative Quantifiers without Equivalent Lexical Items in an L1

Masaaki Kamiya

, Zhaosen Guo

Section: Articles

https://doi.org/10.31261/TAPSLA.13029

Abstract

This article investigates how second language learners interpret a scope bearing item in the target language. According to Sprouse (2006), L2 learners’ task is to relabel their native language’s lexical items in line with the features of the target language. An interesting lexical item is the English negative quantifier, for which there is no equivalent in Japanese. It was discovered that the default interpretation of the English negative quantifier by
Japanese-speaking learners of English was a narrow scope reading (i.e., Quantifier Raising (QR) does not occur). We follow Beghelli and Stowell’s (1997) elaborated functional structures for quantifier feature checking at Spec-Head agreement. Because Japanese is considered to be a “no agreement” language (Kuroda, 1992; Fukui & Sakai, 2003), QR is failed since the English negative quantifier cannot satisfy “agreement” for the feature-checking. Hence, even if the equivalent lexical item does not exist in Japanese, a grammatical constraint such
as “no agreement” is transferred to the initial state of the second language (Full Transfer in Schwartz and Sprouse, 1996).

Keywords:

second language acquisition , full transfer , full access , Japanese , English , quantifiers

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Kamiya, M., & Guo, Z. (2024). Acquisition of L2 English Negative Quantifiers without Equivalent Lexical Items in an L1. Theory and Practice of Second Language Acquisition, 10(2), 1–39. https://doi.org/10.31261/TAPSLA.13029

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Vol. 10 No. 2 (2024)
Published: 2024-11-13

ISSN: 2450-5455

eISSN: 2451-2125

10.31261/tapsla

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Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego | University of Silesia Press

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Acquisition of L2 English Negative Quantifiers without Equivalent Lexical Items in an L1

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Keywords:

Masaaki Kamiya

Zhaosen Guo

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