Under the surface
A survey of principles of language use in advanced L2 speakers
Through a survey of crosslinguistic empirical studies on narratives and in the domain of motion events, we argue
that the principles of language use pose a hurdle for second language acquisition, an issue that has not been given adequate
attention in earlier research. These principles are part of our pragmatic knowledge which encompasses language-specific
information organization at the discourse level as well as event schemata at the level of construing reportable units. The
findings show how highly competent L2 speakers activate L1-based knowledge that reflects deeply entrenched principles and seems
resistant to change.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Theoretical framework
- 2.1Language production and information structure
- 2.2Studies on typological differences
- 2.3The role of frequency
- 3.Patterns of discourse organization in narrative texts
- 3.1Introduction
- 3.2Overview of options for information selection and organization
- 3.2.1Information selection
- 3.2.2Event linking and interconnecting
- 3.3Limits in suppressing the L1 event schema in L2
- 3.3.1Uses and implications of the progressive form
- 3.3.2Selection of entities and status assignment
- 3.4Discussion
- 4.Event framing in L1 and L2: The case of motion events
- 4.1Introduction
- 4.2Background studies
- 4.3Crosslinguistic L1 analyses: Event unit formation by French and German speakers
- 4.4Crosslinguistic L1 analyses: Studies on motion events
- 4.5L2 studies
- 5.Conclusion
- Notes
-
References