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LINGUIST List 16.1201

Fri Apr 15 2005

Qs: L2 Coordination;Semantics in English Articles

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Directory
        1.    Ute Bohnacker, L2 Acquisition of Coordination, OV and VO
         2.    Kyoungsook (Lucy) Kim, Semantics in English Articles
Message 1: L2 Acquisition of Coordination, OV and VO
Date: 14-Apr-2005
From: Ute Bohnacker <Ute.Bohnackernordlund.lu.se>
Subject: L2 Acquisition of Coordination, OV and VO


Has anybody come across varieties of learner language OR native language
(e.g. historical varieties) that allow coordination of nonfinite OV with
nonfinite VO, of the type illustrated in (1):

(1) ich werde [einen Computer kaufen] und [schreiben ein Buch].
I will a computer buy and write a book

I am working on the L2 acquisition of verb placement (L1 = Swedish (V2 &
VO), L2 = German (V2 & OV). In my spontaneous oral production corpora,
learners have no difficulty with finite verb placement (they produce
targetlike V2), but there is something odd about their nonfinite verb
placement: Some informants appear to allow both a head-final and a
head-initial VP in the same utterance, persistently producing ''OV-und-VO''
coordinations as in (1).

(1) ich werde [einen Computer kaufen] und [schreiben ein Buch].
I will a computer buy and write a book
(learner variety)

vs. native German:
(2)ich werde [einen Computer kaufen] und [ein Buch schreiben].

At the same time as these OV-und-VO coordinations occur, VP-headedness in
'simple' clauses (non-coordinated) is typically targetlike for my informants.

I am aware that certain L2-learners have been documented to produce clauses
with the nonfinite verb in final position (OV), as well as other clauses
where the nonfinite verb isn't in final position (VO)(equally so for texts
in some historical varieties, e.g. Middle Swedish).

However, I would be interested to know if any of you know of cases where OV
is coordinated with VO in the SAME utterance (or VO with OV, or any other
differently headed phrase).

In addition to this empirical question, I am grappling with the problem of
how to model coordination of differently headed phrases (i.e. phrases of
same phrase type, but different headedness direction). Any ideas and
reading suggestions are much appreciated.

Best regards,
Ute Bohnacker

-------------------------
Ute Bohnacker
Lund University
SOL-centrum
Box 201
SE-221 00 Lund
Sweden
ute.bohnackernordlund.lu

Linguistic Field(s): Language Acquisition
Syntax
Typology
Message 2: Semantics in English Articles
Date: 12-Apr-2005
From: Kyoungsook (Lucy) Kim <lucykimsiu.edu>
Subject: Semantics in English Articles



I am interested in doing research on the interpretation of English definite
and indefinite articles. I have read an article titled Article semantics in
L2-acquisition: the role of specificity, to appear in Language Acquisition,
written by Tania Ionin, Heejeong Ko, and Ken Wexler. In the article, the
authors concluded that L2 learners of English whose native languages do not
have article systems (particularly Korean and Russian) associate the
English definite article "the" with specificity (i.e., known to the speaker
only). I would like to find out if there is any other research done on the
similar issue. I am also wondering if there is any study done on how
definite and indefinite articles are processed differently or similarly in
terms of definiteness and specificity.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Kyoungsook (Lucy) Kim

Linguistic Field(s): Language Acquisition
Semantics

Subject Language(s): English (ENG)


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