L2 effects on L1 in foreign language learners: An exploratory study on object pronouns and verb placement in wh-questions in Polish

Kamil Długosz

Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu


Abstract

This study investigates L2 effects on L1 grammar in foreign language learners. As part of a cross-sectional study, 25 Polish native speakers learning English and German, and 16 Polish monolingual speakers participated in an acceptability judgment test in Polish The test involved two grammatical phenomena: anaphoric object pronouns which lie at the syntax-pragmatics interface, and verb placement in wh-questions, which is a property of narrow syntax. The analysis shows that multilingual learners accepted overt anaphoric object pronouns in a sentence-internal position significantly more frequently than monolingual speakers from the control group. Object pronouns in the native language seem to bean element open to the influence of a foreign language, in contrast to linguistic properties
which are solely syntactic. This study thus confirms that interface phenomena are moreprone to cross-linguistic influence than purely syntactic features, but it also extends thisthesis to include L2 effect on L1.


Schlagworte:

L2 effects, cross-linguistic influence, object pronouns, wh-questions, V2, Polish


Bialystok E. (2011): Reshaping the mind: The benefits of bilingualism. „Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology” 65(4), pp. 229–235.   Google Scholar

Bohnacker U. (2006): When Swedes begin to learn German: from V2 to V2. „Second Language Research” 22(4), pp. 443–486.   Google Scholar

Cote S.A. (1996): Grammatical and discourse properties of null arguments in English. Doctoral dissertation. Retrieved from ProQuest. (AAI9712913)   Google Scholar

Cook V. (1991): The poverty-of-the-stimulus argument and multicompetence. „Second Language Research” 7(2), pp. 103–117.   Google Scholar

Cook V. (ed.) (2003): Effects of the second language on the first. Clevedon.   Google Scholar

Cook V. (2016): Transfer and the relationships between the languages of multi-competence. [In:] Cross-linguistic influence in second language acquisition. R. Alonso Alonso (ed.). Bristol, pp. 24–37.   Google Scholar

Cook V., Iarossi E., Stellakis N., Tokumaru Y. (2003): Effects of the L2 on the syntactic processing of the L1. [In:] Effects of the second language on the first. V. Cook (ed.). Clevedon, pp. 198–213.   Google Scholar

De Angelis G. (2007): Third or additional language acquisition. Clevedon.   Google Scholar

Długosz K. (2021): Lexikalischer Zugriff bei Mehrsprachigen. Eine Studie zur visuellen Verarbeitung von Kognaten im Polnischen als Erstsprache. „Zeitschrift für Slawistik” 66(1).   Google Scholar

Dussias P.E., Sagarra N. (2007): The effect of exposure on syntactic parsing in Spanish-English bilinguals. „Bilingualism: Language and Cognition” 10(1), pp. 101–116.   Google Scholar

Ewert A. (2008): L1 syntactic preferences of Polish adolescents in bilingual and monolingual education programmes. [In:] Morphosyntactic issues in second language acquisition. D. Gabryś-Barker (ed.). Clevedon, pp. 47–62.   Google Scholar

Ewert A., Bromberek-Dyzman K. (2008): Impossible requests: L2 users’ sociopragmatic and pragmalinguistic choices in L1 acts of refusal. „EUROSLA Yearbook” 8, pp. 32–51.   Google Scholar

Grewendorf G. (1989): Small pro in German. [In:] Scrambling and barriers. G. Grewendorf, W. Sternefeld (eds.). Amsterdam, pp. 294–315.   Google Scholar

Grewendorf G. (2002): Minimalistische Syntax. Tübingen.   Google Scholar

Groefsema M. (1995): Understood arguments: A semantic/pragmatic approach. „Lingua” 96, pp. 139–161.   Google Scholar

Grosjean F. (1989): Neurolinguists, beware! The bilingual is not two monolinguals in one person. „Brain and Language” 36(1), pp. 3–15.   Google Scholar

Jarvis S. (2003): Probing the effects of the L2 on the L1: A case study. [In:] Effects of the second language on the first. V. Cook (ed.). Clevedon, pp. 81–102.   Google Scholar

Jarvis S., Pavlenko A. (2008): Crosslinguistic influence in language and cognition. New York.   Google Scholar

Kecskes I. (1998): The state of L1 knowledge in foreign language learners. „Word” 49(3), pp. 321–340.   Google Scholar

Kecskes I., Papp T. (2000): Foreign language and mother tongue. New York.   Google Scholar

Kellerman E. (1984): The empirical evidence for the influence of the L1 in interlanguage. [In:] Interlanguage. A. Davies, C. Criper, P.R. Howatt (eds.). Edinburgh, pp. 98–122.   Google Scholar

Kupisch T. (2014): Adjective placement in simultaneous bilinguals (German-Italian) and the concept of crosslinguistic overcorrection. „Bilingualism: Language and Cognition” 17(1), pp. 222–233.   Google Scholar

Mecner P. (2005): Elementy gramatyki umysłu: od struktur składniowych do minimalizmu. Kraków.   Google Scholar

Mishina-Mori S. (2020): Cross-linguistic influence in the use of objects in Japanese/English simultaneous bilingual acquisition. „International Journal of Bilingualism” 24(2), pp. 319–338.   Google Scholar

Müller N., Hulk A. (2001): Crosslinguistic influence in bilingual language acquisition: Italian and French as recipient languages. „Bilingualism: Language and Cognition” 4(1), pp. 1–21.   Google Scholar

Mykhaylyk R., Sopata A. (2016): Object pronouns, clitics, and omissions in child Polish and Ukrainian. „Applied Psycholinguistics” 5(37), pp. 1051–1082.   Google Scholar

Pavlenko A. (2000): L2 influence on L1 in late bilingualism. „Issues in Applied Linguistics” 11(2), pp. 175–205.   Google Scholar

Rankin T. (2012): The transfer of V2: inversion and negation in German and Dutch learners of English. „International Journal of Bilingualism” 16(1), pp. 139–158.   Google Scholar

Roberts I. (1996): Remarks on the Old English C-system and the diachrony of V2. „Linguistische Berichte” 7, pp. 154–168.   Google Scholar

Rothman J. (2009): Pragmatic deficits with syntactic consequences? L2 pronominal subjects and the syntax–pragmatics interface. „Journal of Pragmatics” 41(5), pp. 951–973.   Google Scholar

Rothman J., González Alonso J., Puig-Mayenco E. (2019): Third language acquisition and linguistic transfer. Cambridge.   Google Scholar

Ruda M. (2014): Missing objects in special registers: The syntax of null objects in English. „Canadian Journal of Linguistics” 59(3), pp. 339–372.   Google Scholar

Sharwood-Smith M. (1983): On first language loss in the second language acquirer: problem of transfer. [In:] Language transfer in language learning. S. Gass, L. Selinker (eds.). Rowley, MA, pp. 222–231.   Google Scholar

Sopata A. (2013): CP layer in child second language acquisition. [In:] Advances in language acquisition. S. Stavrakaki, M. Lalioti, P. Konstantinopoulou (eds.). Cambridge, pp. 364–374.   Google Scholar

Sopata A. (2016): Null objects in adult and child Polish: Syntax, discourse and pragmatics. „Lingua” 183, pp. 86–106.   Google Scholar

Sopata A. (2017): On the C/edge linking mechanism. Evidence from Polish. „Lingua Posnaniensis” 59(2), pp. 87–100.   Google Scholar

Sorace A. (2011): Pinning down the concept of “interface” in bilingualism. „Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism” 1(1), pp. 1–33.   Google Scholar

Sorace A., Serratrice L. (2009): Internal and external interfaces in bilingual language development: Beyond structural overlap. „International Journal of Bilingualism” 13(2), pp. 195–210.   Google Scholar

Strik N. (2012): Wh-questions in child bilingual acquisition of French: Derivational complexity and cross-linguistic influence. „Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue Canadienne De Linguistique” 57(1), pp. 133–151.   Google Scholar

Tsimpli I., Sorace A. (2006): Differentiating interfaces: L2 performance in syntax-semantics and syntax-discourse phenomena. [In:] Proceedings of the 30th Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development. D. Mamman (ed.). Somerville, MA, pp. 653–664.   Google Scholar

Zhou J., Mai Z., Yip V. (2021): Bidirectional cross-linguistic influence in object realization in Cantonese–English bilingual children. „Bilingualism: Language and Cognition” 24(1), pp. 96–110.   Google Scholar


Veröffentlicht
2021-12-10

##plugins.themes.libcom.cytowania##

Długosz, K. . (2021). L2 effects on L1 in foreign language learners: An exploratory study on object pronouns and verb placement in wh-questions in Polish. Prace Językoznawcze, 23(4), 153–172. https://doi.org/10.31648/pj.7032

Kamil Długosz 
Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu