Cover not available
Article published In:
Three Factors and Beyond: Socio-syntax and language acquisition
Edited by Kleanthes K. Grohmann
[Linguistic Variation 14:1] 2014
► pp. 46–68

The state of the article

Patterns in the production of English articles by Thai learners

 | Thammasat University
English articles represent one of the most challenging areas of second language acquisition for learners whose L1 lacks articles. The two studies presented here examine the developmental sequence of acquisition, the first through a cross-sectional analysis of Thai learners at different levels of overall English proficiency, the second through a longitudinal experiment in which learners were exposed to semantically-tailored tokens of article use, but without any explicit or meta-linguistic instruction. It is argued that the data do not show evidence of abrupt parameter resetting. Instead, the developmental patterns fit well with Yang’s variational model of acquisition. Keywords: L2 acquisition; article systems; determiners; definiteness; specificity
Published online: 25 November 2014
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/lv.14.1.03win
References (60)
Abbott, Barbara. 2003. Definiteness and indefiniteness. In Laurence Horn & Gregory Ward (eds.), Handbook of pragmatics, 122–149. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Abney, Steven. 1987. The English Noun Phrase in its Sentential Aspect. PhD thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA.
Bolinger, Dwight. 1977. Meaning and form. London & New York: Longman.Google Scholar
Bošković, Željko. 2007. What will you have, DP or NP? In Proceedings of NELS 37. GLSA.
Carlson, Greg & Rachel Sussman. 2005. Seemingly indefinite definites. In Stephan Kepsar & Marga Reis (eds.), Linguistic evidence. Berlin: de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Chomsky, Noam. 2004. Beyond explanatory adequacy. In Adriana Belletti (ed.), Structures and beyond: The cartography of syntactic structures, vol. 31, 104–31. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Cinque, Guglielmo & Luigi Rizzi. 2008. The cartography of syntactic structures. STiL – studies in linguistics. CISCL Working Papers. vol. 21.Google Scholar
Christophersen, Paul. 1939. The articles: A study of their theory and use in english. Copenhagen: Munksgaard.Google Scholar
Dryer, Matthew. 1989. Article-noun order. Chicago Linguistic Society 251. 83–97.Google Scholar
Ellis, Nick. 2002. Frequency effects in language processing: A review with implications for theories of implicit and explicit language acquisition. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 24(2). 143–188. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2006. Selective attention and transfer phenomena in L2 acquisition: Contingency, cue competition, salience, interference, overshadowing, blocking, and perceptual learning. Applied Linguistics 27(2). 164–194. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Fodor, Janet & Ivan Sag. 1982. Referential and quantificational indefinites. Linguistics and Philosophy 51. 355–398. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Franceschina, Florencia. 2001. Morphological or syntactic deficits in near-native speakers? An assessment of some current proposals. Second Language Research 171. 213–247. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Givón, Talmy. 1978. Definiteness and referentiality. In Joseph Greenberg, Charles Ferguson & Edith Moravcsik (eds.), Universals of human language, vol. 41, 291–330. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Goad, Heather & Lydia White. 2004. Ultimate attainment of L2 inflections: Effects of L1 prosodic structure. In Susan Foster-Cohen, Mitsuhiko Ota, Michael Sharwood Smith & AntonellaSorace, A (eds.), EUROSLA yearbook, vol. 41, 119–145. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Greenberg, Joseph. 1990. On language: Selected writings of Joseph H. Greenberg. K. Denning & S. Kemmer (eds.), Stanford University Press.
Gundel, Jeanette, Hedberg Nancy & Ron Zacharski. 1993. Cognitive status and the form of referring expressions in discourse. Language 691. 274–307. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hawkins, John. 1978. Definiteness and indefiniteness. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. Trinity Hall, Cambridge.
Hawkins, Roger, et al. 2006. Accounting for english article interpretation by L2 speakers. In Susan Foster-Cohen (ed.), EUROSLA yearbook 6. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hawkins, Roger & Chan, Cecilia Yuet-hung. 1997. The partial availability of universal Grammar in second language acquisition: The ‘failed functional features hypothesis’. Second Language Research 131. 187–226. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hawkins, Roger & Hajime Hattori. 2006. Interpretation of english multiple wh-questions by Japanese speakers: a missing uninterpretable feature account. Second Language Research 221. 269–301. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Haznedar Belma. 2003. The status of functional categories in child second language acquisition: evidence from the acquisition of CP. Second Language Research 191. 1–41. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Heim, Irene. 1982. The semantics of definite and indefinite noun phrases. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
Huebner, Thomas. 1985. System and variability in interlanguage syntax. Language Learning 351. 141–163. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ionin, Tania. 2003. Article semantics in second language acquisition. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. Cambridge, Mass: MIT.Google Scholar
Ionin, Tania, Heejeong Ko & Ken Wexler. 2003. Specificity as a grammatical notion. Evidence from L2-english article use. In Gina Garding & Mimu Tsujimura (eds.), WCCFL 22 proceedings, 245–258. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.Google Scholar
. 2004. Article semantics in L2-acquisition: the role of specificity, Language Acquisition 121. 3–69. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2007. The role of semantic features in the acquisition of english articles by Russian and Korean speakers. In Juana Liceras, Helmut Zobl & Helen Goodluck (eds.), The role of formal features in second language acquisition, 226–268. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Jarvis, S. 2002. Topic continuity and L2 english article use. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 241. 387–418. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ko Heejeong, Ionin Tania & Wexler Ken. 2004. Adult L2-learners lack the maximality presupposition, too! Retrieved from: [URL]
Ko Heejeong, Perovic Alex, Ionin Tania & Wexler Ken. 2008. Semantic universals and variation in L2 article choice. In Roumyana Slabakova, et al. (eds.), Proceedings of the 9th Generative Approaches To Second Language Acquisition Conference (GASLA 2007). 118–129. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project.Google Scholar
Koulidobrova, Elena. In Press. DP or not DP: Acquisitional evidence. Language Acquisition.
Lyons, Christopher. 1999. Definiteness. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Maratsos, Michael. 1974. Preschool children’s use of definite and indefinite articles. Child Development 451. 446–455. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Matthewson, Lisa, Tim Bryant & Tom Roeper. 2001. A salish stage in the acquisition of english determiners: Unfamiliar ‘definites’. Occasional papers in linguistics- University of Massachusetts 251. 63–71. Retrieved from: [URL].Google Scholar
Poesio, Massimo. 1994. Weak definites. In Mandy Harvey & Lynn Santelmann (eds.), Proceedings of Salt IV, 282–299. DMLL, Cornell. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Poesio, Massimo & Renata Vieira. 1998. A corpus-based investigation of definite description use, Computational Linguistics 24(2). 183–216.Google Scholar
Pongpairoj, Nattama. 2007. L2 English Article Production by L1 Thai Speakers: Influences of the Prosodic Structures? Thoughts 90–110.Google Scholar
Prévost, Philippe & Lydia White. 2000. Missing surface inflection or impairment in second language acquisition? Evidence from tense and agreement. Second Language Research 161. 103–133. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ramchand, Gillian & Peter Svenonius. 2008. Mapping a parochial lexicon onto a universal semantics. Retrieved April 2012. from [URL]. DOI logo
Robertson, Daniel. 2000. Variability in the use of the English article system by Chinese learners of English. Second Language Research 161. 135–172. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Russell, Bertrand. 1905. On denoting. Mind 141. 479–493. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Schaeffer, Jeannette & Lisa Matthewson. 2005. Grammar and pragmatics in the acquisition of article system. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 231. 53–101. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Schafer, Robin & Jill de Villiers. 2000. Imagining articles: What a and the can tell us about the emergence of DP. In Proceedings of the 24th Annual Boston University Conference On Language Development, 609–620. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.
Schwarz, Florian. 2012. How weak and how definite are weak definites? downloaded from [URL]
Sharma, Devyani. 2005. Language transfer and discourse universals in Indian English article use. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 271. 535–566. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Slabakova, Roumyana. 2009. Features or parameters: which one makes SLA easier, and more interesting to study? Second Language Research 25(2). 313–324. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Snape, Neal, Yan-kit Leung & Hui-Chuan Ting. 2006. Comparing Chinese, Japanese and Spanish speakers in L2 english article acquisition: Evidence against the fluctuation hypothesis? In Mary Grantham O’Brien, Christine Shea & John Archibald (eds.), Proceedings of the 8th Generative Approaches To Second Language Acquisition Conference. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project.Google Scholar
Strawson, Peter. 1950. On referring. Mind 591. 320–344. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Thornton, Rosalind & Graciela Tesan. 2007. Categorical acquisition: Parameter-setting in universal grammar. Biolinguistics 11. 49–98.Google Scholar
Ting, H. Hui-Chuan. 2005. The acquisition of articles in L2 English by L1 Chinese and L1 Spanish speakers. MA thesis. Essex: University of Essex.Google Scholar
Trenkic, Danijela. 2008. The representation of english articles in second language grammars: Determiners or adjectives? Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 111. 1–18. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2009. Accounting for patterns of article omissions and substitutions in second language production. In María del Pilar García Mayo & Roger Hawkins (eds.), Second language acquisition of articles, 115–143. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Trenkic, Danijela. and Pongpairoj. N Nattama. 2013. Referent salience affects second language article use. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 161. 152–166. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Valian, Virginia. 1986. Syntactic categories in the speech of young children. Developmental Psychology 221. 562–579. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
von Heusinger, Klaus. 2011. Specificity. In Claudia Maienborn, Klaus von Heusinger & Paul Portner (eds.), Semantics: An international handbook of natural language meaning, vol. 21, 1024–1057. Berlin: de Gruyter.Google Scholar
von Heusinger, Klaus & Udo Klein. 2013. The distribution of two indefinite articles: The case of Uzbek. In Cornelia Ebert & Stefan Hinterwimmer (eds.), Different kinds of specificity across languages, 92, studies in linguistics and philosophy, 155–176. Dordrecht: Springer. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Yang, C. 2004. Universal grammar, statistics or both? Trends in Cognitive Sciences 8(10). 451–456. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Yang, Charles. 2010. Three factors in language variation. Lingua 1201. 1160–1177. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Winward, John. 2012. The role of semantic and pragmatic factors in article production by advanced Thai learners. Linguistics Journal 6/11. 104–126Google Scholar
Cited by (1)

Cited by one other publication

Crosthwaite, Peter
2016. L2 English article use by L1 speakers of article-less languages. International Journal of Learner Corpus Research 2:1 ► pp. 68 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 21 december 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.