Chapter published in:
Language Learning, Discourse and Cognition: Studies in the tradition of Andrea Tyler
Edited by Lucy Pickering and Vyvyan Evans
[Human Cognitive Processing 64] 2018
► pp. 213–247

Chapter 9
What is happened? Your amazon.com order has shipped

Overpassivization and unaccusativity as L2 construction learning

It is well known that many L2 users overpassivize unaccusatives. The same L2 users may also be reluctant to accept constructions with unaccusative meanings. We examined the responses from 56 L2 users of English on a scaled grammaticality judgment task. We predicted that performance would be negatively affected in the presence of a conceptualizable agent in the discourse scene that biases an external causation construal and with low-frequency verbs and alternating verbs. We found clear effects for frequency and alternation in the hypothesized direction. However, there was no evidence for an independent contribution of the conceptualization bias condition. Our study supports the claim that learners build their L2 grammars by abstracting not only the statistical properties but also the complex, polysemous meanings of the constructions they experience in usage.
Keywords: Frequency, cognitive-effects, L2 constructions
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Overpassivation and unaccusativity
    • 2.1Unaccusatives as types of predicates
    • 2.2Event construal of causation in unaccusative constructions
  • 2.3L2 learning of unaccusatives as construction learning
  • 3.Method
    • 3.1Participants
    • 3.2Corpus-based selection of target verbs
    • 3.3Scaled acceptability judgment task
    • 3.4Procedure
    • 3.5Analyses
  • 4.Results
  • 5.Discussion
    • 5.1Why did the availability of a conceptualizable agent make only a subtle difference?
    • 5.2The importance of considering crosslinguistic influence
    • 5.3Frequency is key to L2 learning, but is no panacea
    • 5.4In defense of the centrality of discourse meaning in constructional learning
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Note
  • References
Published online: 20 December 2018
https://doi.org/10.1075/hcp.64.10ort
References
Abdi, H.
(2007) The Bonferroni and Šidák corrections for multiple comparisons. In N. J. Salkind (Ed.), Encyclopedia of measurement and statistics (pp. 103–107). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Alexiadou, A., & Doron, E.
(2012) The syntactic construction of two non-active Voices: Passive and middle. Journal of Linguistics, 48, 1–34. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Ambridge, B.
(2015) Island constraints and overgeneralization in language acquisition. Cognitive Linguistics, 26, 361–370. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Ambridge, B., Bidgood, A., Pine, J. M., Rowland, C. F., & Freudenthal, D.
(2015) Is passive syntax semantically constrained? Evidence from adult grammaticality judgment and comprehension studies. Cognitive science. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Ambridge, B., & Brandt, S.
(2013) Lisa filled water into the cup: The roles of entrenchment, pre-emption and verb semantics in German speakers’ L2 acquisition of English locatives. Zeitschrift für Anglistik und Amerikanistik: A Quarterly of Language, Literature and Culture, 61, 245–263. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Ambridge, B., Kidd, E., Rowland, C. F., & Theakston, A. L.
(2015) The ubiquity of frequency effects in first language acquisition. Journal of Child Language, 42, 239–273. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Ambridge, B., & Lieven, E. V. M.
(2011) Child language acquisition: Contrasting theoretical approaches. New York: Cambridge University Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Ambridge, B., Pine, J. M., Rowland, C. F., Jones, R. L., & Clark, V.
(2009) A semantics-based approach to the “No Negative Evidence” problem. Cognitive Science, 33, 1301–1316. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Ambridge, B., Pine, J., Rowland, C., & Young, C.
(2008) The effect of verb semantic class and verb frequency (entrenchment) on children’s and adults’ graded judgments of argument-structure overgeneralization errors. Cognition, 106, 87–129 CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Armon-Lotem, S., Haman, E., Jensen de Lopez, K., Smoczynska, M., Yatsushiro, K., Szczerbinski, M., & Kamandulytė-Merfeldienė, L.
(2016) A large-scale crosslinguistic investigation of the acquisition of passive. Language Acquisition, 23, 27–56. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Balcom, P.
(1997) Why is this happened? Passive morphology and unaccusativity. Second Language Research, 13, 1–9. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Bard, E., Robertson, B., & Sorace, A.
(1996) Magnitude estimation of linguistic acceptability. Language, 72, 32–68. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Behrens, H., & Pfänder, S.
(2016) Experience counts: Frequency effects in language. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Bowerman, M.
(1974) Learning the structure of causative verbs: A study in the relationship of cognitive, semantic, and syntactic development. Papers and Reports on Child Language Development, 8, 142–178.Google Scholar
British National Corpus
(2007) BNC XML Edition, Version 3. Distributed by Oxford University computing services on behalf of the BNC Consortium. URL: http://​www​.natcorp​.ox​.ac​.uk/
Brooks, P. J., Tomasello, M., Dodson, K., & Lewis, L. B.
(1999) Young children’s overgeneralizations with fixed transitivity verbs. Child Development, 70, 1325–1337. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Bybee, J.
(2006) From usage to grammar: The mind’s response to repetition. Language, 82, 711–733. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Cadierno, T. & Eskildsen, S. W.
(2015) (Eds.), Usage-based perspectives on second language learning. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Clahsen, H.
(2006) Dual-mechanism morphology. In K. Brown (Ed.), Encyclopedia of language and linguistics (Vol. 4: Morphology, pp. 1–5). Oxford, UK: Elsevier. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
de Marneffe, M. C., Grimm, S., Arnon, I., Kirby, S., & and Bresnan, J.
(2012) A statistical model of the grammatical choices in child production of dative sentences. Language and Cognitive Processes, 27, 25–61. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Ellis, N. C.
(2002) Frequency effects in language processing. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 24, 143–88.Google Scholar
(2015) Cognitive and social aspects of learning from usage. In T. Cadierno & S. W. Eskildsen (Eds.), Usage-based perspectives on second language learning (pp. 49–74). Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
(2016) Online processing of Verb-Argument Constructions: Lexical decision and meaningfulness. Language and Cognition, 8, 391–420.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Ellis, N. C., O’Donnell, M. B., & Römer, U.
(2013) Usage-based language: Investigating the latent structures that underpin acquisition. Language Learning, 63(Supplement 1: Currents in Language Learning), 25–51. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Ellis, N. C., & Ferreira-Junior, F.
(2009) Constructions and their acquisition: Islands and the distinctiveness of their occupancy. Annual Review of Cognitive Linguistics, 7, 188–221. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Ellis, N. C., Römer, U., O’Donnell, M. B.
(2016) Usage-based approaches to language acquisition and processing: Cognitive and corpus investigations of construction grammar. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar
Gao, Y.
(2016) Investigating the impact of L1 morphology and semantics on L2 acquisition of English detransitivized constructions by Chinese and Korean learners. In L. Yu & T. Odlin (Eds.), New perspectives on transfer in second language learning (pp. 124–144). Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
Goldberg, A. E.
(2005) Argument realization: The role of constructions, lexical semantics and discourse factors. In J. O. Östman & M. Fried (Eds.), Construction grammars: Cognitive grounding and theoretical extensions (pp. 17–43). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
(2016) Partial productivity of linguistic constructions: Dynamic categorization and statistical preemption. Language and Cognition, 8, 369–390. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Gordon, P., & Chafetz, J.
(1990) Verb-based versus class-based accounts of actionality effects in children’s comprehension of passives. Cognition, 36, 227–254. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Gries, S. Th., & Ellis, N. C.
(2015) Statistical measures for usage-based linguistics. Currents in Language Learning, 2, 228–255. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Han, Z.
(2000) Persistence of the implicit influence of NL: The case of the pseudo-passive. Applied Linguistics, 21, 78–105. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
(2006) Fossilization: Can grammaticality judgment be a reliable source of evidence? In Z. Han & T. Odlin (Eds.), Studies of fossilization in second language acquisition (pp. 56–82). Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
Hirakawa, M.
(2001) L2 acquisition of Japanese unaccusative verbs. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 23(2), 221–245. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Hopper, P., & Thompson, S. A.
(1980) Transitivity in grammar and discourse. Language, 56, 251–299. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Hubbard, P. L.
(1994) Non-transformational theories of grammar: Implications for language teaching. In T. Odlin (Ed.), Perspectives on pedagogical grammar (pp. 49–71). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Ju, M.
(2000) Overpassivization errors by second language learners: The effect of conceptualizable agents in discourse. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 22, 85–111. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Juff, A.
(2001) Discussion: Verb classes, event structure, and second language learners’ knowledge of semantics-syntax correspondences. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 23, 305–313. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Kellerman, E.
(1979) Transfer and non-transfer: Where we are now. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 2, 37–57. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Kondo, T.
(2005) Overpassivization in second language acquisition. IRAL - International Review of Applied Linguistics, 43, 129–161. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Kucera, H., & Francis, W. N.
(1967) Computational analysis of present-day American English. Providence, RI: Brown University Press.Google Scholar
Langacker, R. W.
(2008) Cognitive grammar: A basic introduction. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Levin, B., & Rappaport Hovav, M.
(1995) Unaccusativity: At the syntax-lexical semantics interface. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Lieven, E.
(2016) Usage-based approaches to language development: Where do we go from here? Language and Cognition, 8, 346–368. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
MacWhinney, B.
(2000) The CHILDES project: Tools for analyzing talk (3rd. Ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum AssociatesGoogle Scholar
(2015) Multidimensional SLA. In T. Cadierno & S. W. Eskildsen (Eds.), Usage-based perspectives on second language learning (pp. 19–48). Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Montrul, S. A.
(2001) Causatives and transitivity in L2 English. Language Learning, 51, 51–106. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
(2005) On knowledge and development of unaccusativity in Spanish L2 acquisition. Linguistics, 43, 1153–1190. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Nagano, T.
(2015) Acquisition of English verb transitivity by native speakers of Japanese. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism, 5, 322–355. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Ortega, L., Tyler, A., Park, H. I., & Uno, M.
(Eds.) (2016) The usage-based study of language learning and multilingualism. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.Google Scholar
Oshita, H.
(2000) What is happened may not be what appears to be happening: A corpus study of ‘passive’ unaccusatives in L2 English. Second Language Research, 10, 293–324. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
(2001) The unaccusative trap in second language acquisition. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 23, 279–304. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Paolillo, J. C.
(2000) Asymmetries in Universal Grammar: The role of methods and statistics. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 22, 209–228. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Perek, F., & Goldberg, A. E.
(2015) Generalizing beyond the input: The functions of the constructions matter. Journal of Memory and Language, 84, 108–127. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Perlmutter, D.
(1978) Impersonal passives and the unaccusative hypothesis (BLS No. 4). University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley Linguistics Society. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Ranta, L., & Meckelborg, A.
(2013) How much exposure to English do international graduate students really get? Measuring language use in a naturalistic setting. Canadian Modern Language Review, 69, 1–33. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Reppen, R., Ide, N., & Suderman, K.
(2005) American national corpus (ANC) second release. Philadelphia: Linguistic Data Consortium.Google Scholar
Robenalt, C., & Goldberg, A. E.
(2016) Nonnative speakers do not take competing alternative expressions into account the way native speakers do. Language Learning, 66, 60–93. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Sorace, A.
(1993) Incomplete vs. divergent representations of unaccusativity in non-native grammars of Italian. Second Language Research, 9, 22–47. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
(1995) Acquiring argument structures in a second language: The unaccusative/unergative distinction. In L. Eubank, L. Selinker, and M. Sharwood Smith (Eds.), The current state of interlanguage (pp. 153–175). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Sorace, A. and Shomura, Y.
(2001) Lexical constraints on the acquisition of split intransitivity: Evidence from L2 Japanese. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 23, 247–278. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Sprouse, J.
(2011) A test of the cognitive assumptions of magnitude estimation: Commutativity does not hold for acceptability judgments. Language, 8, 274–288. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Theakston, A. L.
(2004) The role of entrenchment in children’s and adults’ performance on grammaticality judgment tasks. Cognitive Development, 19, 15–34. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Theakston, A. L., Maslen, R., Lieven, E. V. M., & Tomasello, M.
(2012) The acquisition of the active transitive construction in English: A detailed case study. Cognitive Linguistics, 23, 91–128. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Tomasello, M.
(2003) Constructing a language: A usage-based theory of language acquisition. Harvard, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Tomlin, R. S.
(1983) On the interaction of syntactic subject, thematic information, and agent in English. Journal of Pragmatics, 7, 411–432. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Tyler, A.
(2012) Cognitive linguistics and second language learning: Theoretical basics and experimental evidence. Routledge CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Tyler, A., & Evans, V.
(2001) Reconsidering prepositional polysemy networks: The case of over. Language, 77, 724–765. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Van Valin, R. D.
(1990) Semantic parameters of split intransitivity. Language, 66, 221–260. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Yip, V.
(1995) Interlanguage and learnability: From Chinese to English. Amsterdam: Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Zobl, H.
(1989) Canonical structures and ergativity. In S. M. Gass & J. Schachter (Eds.), Linguistic perspectives on second language acquisition (pp. 203–221). New York: Cambridge University Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Zyzik, E.
(2006) Transitivity alternations and sequence learning: Insights from L2 Spanish production data. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 28, 449–485. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
(2014) Causative verbs in the grammar of Spanish heritage speakers. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism, 4, 1–33. CrossrefGoogle Scholar