Cover not available
Article published In:
Acquisition of Chinese: Bilingualism and Multilingualism
Edited by Boping Yuan and Yanyu Guo
[Journal of Second Language Studies 3:2] 2020
► pp. 261–289

Facilitative transfer only?

L3 acquisition of Mandarin sentence-final particle clusters by English-Cantonese bilinguals

| University College Cork
| University of Cambridge

This study investigates transfer effects and later development in English-Cantonese bilinguals’ L3 Mandarin grammar. Three types of Mandarin sentence-final particle clusters are involved as the target structures. The results show that L3 learners with the knowledge of Cantonese behave in a less native-like way than their English-speaking L2 counterparts on the illicit Mandarin cluster [*de le/* le de] that has a licit corresponding cluster in Cantonese, and outperform their L2 counterparts on the licit Mandarin cluster [le ne] that has a Cantonese equivalent. This is regarded as strong evidence of transfer effects from Cantonese, which is typologically and structurally more similar to Mandarin than English. We hence argue that L3 initial transfer is not determined by the order of the languages previously acquired but the structural similarity. More importantly, our study shows that transfer effects can be facilitative as well as detrimental. In addition, our data cross different proficiency levels show that factors such as the learning situation (learning or unlearning), word frequency and form-meaning relationship can influence the success of acquisition of a specific property in the L3.

Keywords: sentence-final particle clusters, L3 Mandarin, transfer, Cantonese, English
Article outline
  • 1.Transfer at L3 initial stages and later development
    • 1.1Transfer at L3 initial stages
      • 1.1.1Learning order or structural similarity
      • 1.1.2Wholesale or piecemeal
      • 1.1.3Facilitative only or not
    • 1.2L3 development and influential factors
  • 2.Mandarin sfp clusters and their counterparts in Cantonese and English
    • 2.1Syntax and semantics of Mandarin sfps de, le, ne and ma
    • 2.2Investigation of three types of sfp clusters
  • 3.The study
    • 3.1Participants
    • 3.2Materials and procedures
  • 4.Results
    • 4.1Data on Type 1 sfp cluster [*de le/*le de]
    • 4.2Data on Type 2 sfp cluster [le ne]
    • 4.3Data on Type 3 sfp cluster [le ma]
  • 5.Discussion
    • 5.1Summary of main findings
    • 5.2Transfer source at L3 initial stages
    • 5.3L3 development and influential factors
      • 5.3.1Unlearning vs. learning
      • 5.3.2Construction frequency and form-meaning relationship
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 5 February 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jsls.00013.guo
References
Alonso, J. G., & Rothman, J.
(2017) Coming of age in L3 initial stages transfer models: Deriving developmental predictions and looking towards the future. International Journal of Bilingualism, 21(6), 683–697. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bardel, C., & Falk, Y.
(2007) The role of the second language in third language acquisition: The case of Germanic syntax. Second Language Research, 231, 459–484. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2012) Behind the L2 status factor: A neurolinguistic framework for L3 research. In J. Cabrelli Amaro & J. Rothman (Eds.), Third language acquisition in adulthood (pp. 61–78). John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Biberauer, T., Holmberg, A., & Roberts, I.
(2008) Structure and linearization in disharmonic word orders. In Charles B. Chang & Hannah J. Haynie (Eds.), Proceedings of the 26th West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics (pp. 96–104). Cascadilla Proceedings Project.Google Scholar
(2014) A syntactic universal and its consequences. Linguistic Inquiry, 451, 169–225. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cheng, L. L.-S.
(1991) On the typology of wh-questions (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). MIT.Google Scholar
Cheng, L. L.-S., Huang, C-T. J. & Tang, C-C. J.
(1997) Negative particle questions: A dialectal perspective. Journal of Chinese Linguistics Monograph Series, 101, 65–112.Google Scholar
Erlewine, M. Y.
(2017) Low sentence-final particles in Mandarin Chinese and the Final-over-Final Constraint. Journal of East Asian Linguistics, 26(1), 37–75. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Falk, Y., & Bardel, C.
(2011) Object pronouns in German L3 syntax: Evidence for the L2 status factor. Second Language Research, 27(1), 59–82. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Flynn, S., Foley, C., & Vinnitskaya, I.
(2004) The cumulative-enhancement model for language acquisition: Comparing adults’ and children’s patterns of development in first, second and third language acquisition of relative clauses. The International Journal of Multilingualism, 11, 3–16. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Fung, R. S.-Y.
(2000) Final particles in standard Cantonese: Semantic extension and pragmatic inference (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Ohio State University.Google Scholar
Gabriele, Alison, & Sugita Hughes, Mamori
(2015) Tense and aspect in Japanese as a second language. In M. Nakayama (Ed.), Handbook of Japanese psycholinguistics, (pp. 271–302). Berlin: De Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
García Mayo, M. del P., & Slabakova, R.
(2015) Object drop in L3 English. International Journal of Bilingualism, 19(5): 483–498. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hermas, A.
(2010) Language acquisition as computational resetting: Verb movement in L3 initial state. International Journal of Multilingualism, 7(4): 202–224. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Holmberg, A.
(2000) Deriving OV order in Finnish. In P. Svenonius (ed.), The derivation of VO and OV (pp. 123–152). John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hsieh, F. F., & Sybesma, R.
(2011) On the linearization of Chinese sentence-final particles: Max spell out and why CP moves. Korea Journal of Chinese Language and Literature, 1(1), 53–90.Google Scholar
Hu, M. Y.
(1981) Běijīnghuà de yǔqì zhǔcí hé tàncí [Mood particles and interjections in the Beijing dialect]. Zhongguo Yuwen, 51, 347–350.Google Scholar
Huang, C.-T.
(1982) Logical relations in Chinese and the theory of grammar (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). MIT.Google Scholar
Jin, F.
(2009) Third language acquisition of Norwegian objects: Interlanguage transfer or L1 influence? In Y-k. I. Leung (Ed.), Third Language Acquisition and Universal Grammar. Multilingual Matters. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kuznetsova, A., Brockhoff, P. B., & Christensen, R. H. B.
(2017) lmerTest Package: Tests in linear mixed effects models. Journal of Statistical Software, 82(13): 1–26. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kwok, H.
(1984) Sentence particles in Cantonese. Center of Asian Studies.Google Scholar
Law, S.-P.
(1990) The syntax and phonology of Cantonese sentence-final particles (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Boston University.Google Scholar
Lee, H. T.
(1986) Studies on quantification in Chinese (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of California, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Leung, C. S.
(1992) A study of the utterance particles in Cantonese as spoken in Hong Kong (Unpublished M.Phil. thesis). Hong Kong Polytechnic.Google Scholar
Li, B. Y.
(2006) Chinese final particles and the syntax of the periphery (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of Leiden.Google Scholar
Li, C., & Thompson, S.
(1989) Mandarin Chinese: A functional reference grammar. University of California Press.Google Scholar
Matthews, S., & Yip, V.
(1994) Cantonese: A comprehensive grammar. Routledge.Google Scholar
Montrul, S., & Yoon, J.
(2009) Putting parameters in their proper place. Second Language Research, 25(2), 291–311. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Muroya, A.
(2019) L1 Transfer in L2 acquisition of English verbal morphology by Japanese young instructed learners. Languages, 4(1). DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Na Ranong, S., & Leung, Y-k. I.
(2009) Null objects in L1 Thai-L2 English-L3 Chinese: An empirical take on a theoretical problem. In Y-k. I. Leung (Ed.), Third language acquisition and Universal Grammar (pp. 162–191). Multilingual Matters. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Paul, W.
(2014) Why particles are not particular: Sentence-final particles in Chinese as heads of a split CP. Studia Linguistica, 68(1), 77–115. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2015) New perspectives on Chinese syntax. Berlin: De Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Paul, W., & Junnan Pan, V.
(2016) “What you see is what you get: Chinese sentence-final particles as head-final complementizers”. In Discourse Particles. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter. doiDOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pinheiro, J., Bates, D., DebRoy, S., Sarkar, D., & R Core Team
(2014) Nlme: Linear and Nonlinear Mixed Effects Models. R Package Version 3 (pp. 1–117).Google Scholar
Puig-Mayenco, E., Miller, D., & Rothman, J.
(2018) Language dominance and transfer selection in L3 acquisition: Evidence from sentential negation and negative quanti- fiers in L3 English. In J. Cho, M. Iverson, T. Judy, T. Leal, & E. Shimanskaya (Eds.), Meaning and structure in second language acquisition: In honor of Roumyana Slabakova (pp. 229–260). John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rizzi, L.
(1997) The fine structure of the left periphery. In Liliane Haegeman (Ed.), Elements of grammar (pp. 281–337). Dordrecht: Kluwer. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2004) Locality and left periphery. In A. Belletti (Ed.), Structures and beyond. The cartography of syntactic structures (Vol. 31, pp. 104–131). Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Rothman, J.
(2010) On the typological economy of syntactic transfer: Word order and relative clause high/low attachment preference in L3 Brazilian Portuguese. International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching (IRAL), 481, 245–273.Google Scholar
(2011) L3 syntactic transfer selectivity and typological determinacy: The typological primacy model. Second Language Research, 271, 107–127. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2015) Linguistic and cognitive motivation for the typological primacy model of third language (l3) transfer: Considering the role of timing of acquisition and proficiency in the previous languages. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 18(2), 179–190. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rothman, J., González Alonso, J., & Puig-Mayenco, E.
(2019) Third language acquisition and linguistic transfer. Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Schwartz, B. D., & Sprouse, R.
(1996) L2 cognitive states and the full transfer/full access hypothesis. Second Language Research, 12(1), 40–72. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Simpson, A.
(2014) Sentence-final particles. In C. T. J. Huang, Y. H. A. Li, & A. Simpson (Eds.), The handbook of Chinese linguistics. Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Slabakova, R.
(2017) The scalpel model of third language acquisition. International Journal of Bilingualism, 21(6), 651–665. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Slabakova, R., & García Mayo, M. P.
(2015) The L3 syntax-discourse interface. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 18(2), 208–226. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sybesma, R., & Li, B.
(2007) The dissection and structural mapping of Cantonese sentence final particles. Lingua, 117(10), 1739–1783. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Westergaard, M.
(2019) Microvariation in multilingual situations: The importance of property-by-property acquisition. Second Language Research. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Westergaard, M., Mitrofanova, N., Mykhaylyk, R., & Rodina, Y.
(2017) Crosslinguistic influence in the acquisition of a third language: The Linguistic Proximity Model. International Journal of Bilingualism, 211, 666–682. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
White, L.
(1989) Universal grammar and second language acquisition. John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Whitman, J.
(2008) The classification of constituent order generalizations and diachronic explanation. In Linguistic universals and language change (pp. 233–252). Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Xiong, Z. R.
(2007)  Shi…de de goujiàn fēnxī [Syntactic analysis of the construction shi…de ]. Zhongguo Yuwen, 41, 321–330.Google Scholar
Yuan, B. P.
(2014) ‘Wh-on-earth’in Chinese speakers’ L2 English: Evidence of dormant features. Second Language Research, 30(4), 515–549. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Zhu, D. X.
(1961) Shuo de [On de ]. Zhongguo Yuwen 1961, 1–15.Google Scholar
(1982) Yǔfǎ jiǎngyì [On grammar]. Beijing: Shangwu Yinshuguan.Google Scholar