Article published In:
EUROSLA Yearbook: Volume 3 (2003)Edited by Susan H. Foster-Cohen and Simona Pekarek Doehler
[EUROSLA Yearbook 3] 2003
► pp. 7–27
Edited by Susan H. Foster-Cohen and Simona Pekarek Doehler
[EUROSLA Yearbook 3] 2003
► pp. 7–27
On the existence of scrambling in the grammar of Japanese elementary EFL learners
This paper examines the representation of English WH-phrase movement in the grammars of Japanese elementary and intermediate EFL learners. It argues that elementary level speakers allow movement of the kind *How manyi did Bill think ti students are smart? and that this is because they treat WH-movement as scrambling. By contrast, intermediate EFL learners do not allow such movement. Given that scrambling is optional, the elementary subjects should also allow WH-phrases in situ. However, this is not the case for some of the speakers. It is suggested that in these cases, informants have an obligatory stylistic WH-fronting rule. It was also found that while the intermediate proficiency EFL learners have acquired the movement property of English WH-phrases, they have not acquired their quantificational force. It is argued that this follows if the Fquant Absorption parameter proposed by Watanabe (2000) has not been reset from its Japanese value.
Cited by
Cited by 1 other publications
Hettiarachchi, Sujeewa & Acrisio Pires
2022. Second Language Acquisition of Constraints on WH-Movement by L2 English Speakers: Evidence for Full-Access to Syntactic Features. Languages 7:2 ► pp. 134 ff. 
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