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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.

Publishing year

2013

Language

English

Pages

477-494

Publication/Series

Bilingualism: Language and Cognition

Volume

16

Issue

3

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