L1-L2 convergence in clausal packaging in Japanese and English
Author
Summary, in English
This study investigates L1-L2 convergence among bilinguals at an intermediate (CEFR-B2) level of L2 proficiency, focusing on the clausal packaging of Manner and Path of motion. Previous research has shown that Japanese speakers use multi-clause and English speakers single-clause constructions (Allen et al., 2003; Kita & Özyürek, 2003). We compared descriptions of motion from monolingual English and Japanese speakers to L1 and L2 descriptions from Japanese speakers of English as a second (ESL) and foreign (EFL) language. Contrary to previous research, results showed no significant difference between the monolinguals, who predominately used single-clause constructions packaging Manner and Path. However, bilinguals used significantly more multi-clause constructions in both their L1 and L2, with no effects of residence in the L2 community. Following Pavlenko (2011a), findings are interpreted as evidence for L1-L2 convergence. We discuss potential bidirectional cross-linguistic influences underpinning the L1-L2 convergence and implications for the restructuring of bilingual grammars.
Department/s
- General Linguistics
- Language Acquisition
- Lund University Humanities Lab
- eSSENCE: The e-Science Collaboration
Publishing year
2013
Language
English
Pages
477-494
Publication/Series
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition
Volume
16
Issue
3
Full text
- Available as PDF - 412 kB
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Document type
Journal article
Publisher
Cambridge University Press
Topic
- General Language Studies and Linguistics
Keywords
- bilingualism
- convergence
- motion events
- clause
- Japanese
- English
Status
Published
Project
- Thinking in Time: Cognition, Communication and Learning
Research group
- Language Acquisition
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISSN: 1366-7289