Interfaces and Features in Second Language Acquisition: A Study on the Acquisition of Chinese Negation by English Speakers and Korean Speakers

This book investigates the acquisition of Chinese negation by L1-English and L1-Korean learners,analyzing factors such as L1 influence,target input,L2 proficiency,and task modality. It provides evidence from grammaticality judgment data and learner corpus data,supporting the Interface Hypothesis and the Feature Reassembly Hypothesis in generative-oriented SLA research.

Format: Hardback
Length: 300 pages
Publication date: 13 February 2023
Publisher: Springer Verlag, Singapore

This book delves into a comprehensive and rigorous exploration of the acquisition of Chinese negation by L1-English and L1-Korean learners, drawing upon the theoretical frameworks of the Interface Hypothesis and the Feature Reassembly Hypothesis. Through the analysis of grammaticality judgment data (N=182) and a vast learner corpus encompassing an overall scale of 15.19 million characters, a multitude of factors emerge to influence the variability in L2 acquisition at the interfaces involving Chinese negative structures. These factors encompass L1 influence, the quantity and quality of the target input, including input consistency and regularity, as well as L2 proficiency. Moreover, they shed light on the detectability and reassembly of the [±realis] features encoded with bu and mei, the two primary negation markers in Mandarin Chinese, within different licensing contexts.

Task modality, whether in the form of written or aural tasks, appears to play a role in L2 learners' access to explicit and implicit knowledge about Chinese negation. However, the impact of task modality is intricately shaped by other factors such as structural/feature complexity, L2 proficiency, and L1-L2 similarity. By employing both elicited experimental data and authentic learner corpus data, this study provides novel evidence supporting the acquisition of Chinese negation by L2 learners. The findings of this research hold significant importance in advancing our understanding of the Interface Hypothesis and the Feature Reassembly Hypothesis within the realm of generative-oriented SLA research.

Weight: 641g
Dimension: 235 x 155 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9789811986284
Edition number: 1st ed. 2023