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Individual Differences in Anaphora Resolution: Language and cognitive effects
Edited by Georgia Fotiadou and Ianthi Maria Tsimpli
[Language Faculty and Beyond 18] 2023
► pp. 118–141

L1 effects in acquisition of the Japanese OPC by L1 English and L1 Spanish speakers

| Ritsumeikan University

This paper provides evidence for the Full Transfer/Full Access Hypothesis (FT/FA; Schwartz & Sprouse, 1994, 1996) through an investigation of the interpretation of the Japanese pronoun kare ‘he’ by intermediate and advanced L1 English and L1 Spanish speakers of L2 Japanese. The intermediate English group was not sensitive to the referential/quantified antecedent asymmetry in interpreting pronouns, while the intermediate Spanish group was. This difference is attributable to their L1s: English does not observe the Overt Pronoun Constraint (OPC), while Spanish, like Japanese, does. Moreover, the advanced English and Spanish groups showed evidence of the target-like grammar. As the OPC is underdetermined in input, these results suggest that Universal Grammar (UG) is operative in L2 acquisition, supporting the FT/FA.

Keywords: The Overt Pronoun Constraint, null subjects, L2 Japanese, L2 Spanish, L2 Turkish, Full Transfer/Full Access Hypothesis, coreferential interpretation, bound variable interpretation
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Null subject languages
  • 3.Interpretive differences of pronouns
    • 3.1Coreferential and bound variable pronouns in English
    • 3.2Spanish pronouns
    • 3.3Japanese pronouns
  • 4.Previous studies
    • 4.1L2 Japanese
    • 4.2L2 Spanish
    • 4.3L2 Turkish
  • 5.Research questions and predictions
  • 6.Experiment
    • 6.1Participants
    • 6.2Task
  • 7.Results
  • 8.Discussion
    • 8.1The Japanese OPC
    • 8.2L1 transfer and L2 development
    • 8.3Future research
  • 9.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgments
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 2 November 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/lfab.18.05oku
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