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Part of
Generative SLA in the Age of Minimalism: Features, interfaces, and beyond
Edited by Tania Leal, Elena Shimanskaya and Casilde A. Isabelli
[Language Acquisition and Language Disorders 67] 2022
► pp. 93–114

L1-Mandarin L2-English learners’ acquisition of English double-quantifier scope

| National Chung Cheng University
| University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

English double-quantifier configurations such as A dog scared every man are ambiguous between a surface-scope reading (there exists one specific dog which scared every man) and an inverse-scope reading (each man was scared by a possibly different dog), while the Mandarin equivalent only has the surface-scope reading. Therefore, if L1-transfer is at work, L1-Mandarin L2-English learners would not initially allow inverse-scope readings in English, but may acquire them through exposure to relevant input. We tested learners in the U.S. and native English speakers on their acceptance of surface-scope and inverse-scope readings and found that learners disallowed inverse-scope readings of English double-quantifier sentences. This suggests that positive evidence alone is not sufficient for the L2-acquisition of inverse scope.

Keywords: second language acquisition, quantifier scope, positive evidence, English, Mandarin
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Scope in English, Mandarin and L2-acquisition
    • 2.1English and Mandarin scope
    • 2.2Experimental studies on English and Mandarin scope
      • 2.2.1Experiments on English scope
      • 2.2.2Experiments on Mandarin scope
    • 2.2Previous L2 and heritage language studies on scope
  • 3.Scope in L2-English: The role of positive evidence
    • 3.1Positive evidence and L2-acquisition
    • 3.2Research question
  • 4.Method
    • 4.1Task materials
    • 4.2Procedure
    • 4.3Participants
  • 5.Results
    • 5.1Descriptive results
    • 5.2Statistical analysis
  • 6.Discussion
  • 7.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 17 August 2022
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/lald.67.04wu
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