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Part of
Teachability and Learnability across Languages
Edited by Ragnar Arntzen, Gisela Håkansson, Arnstein Hjelde and Jörg-U. Keßler
[Processability Approaches to Language Acquisition Research & Teaching 6] 2019
► pp. 183–204

Chapter 9
Interlingual versus intralingual tendencies in second language acquisition

Expressing motion events in English, Hungarian and Japanese

| Naruto University of Education
| Gifu University
| University of Miyazaki

This is a cross-linguistic experimental study on motion event descriptions. Based on Talmy’s (1991) typology of motion event descriptions, we focus on three different languages, English, Hungarian and Japanese, and examine how second language (L2) learners describe motion events. Comparing the three target L2 adult learner groups with the three native language groups, this study experimentally demonstrates the influence of the L1 patterns on L2 acquisition and the common properties observed in the three learners’ languages, focusing on both spontaneous and causative motion events. The results also clarify that the L2 learners have their own characteristics as learners, regardless of the typological pattern of their L1, indicating the necessity for further study which not only examines L1 influence but also learner strategies.

Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Previous studies
    • 2.1Varieties of motion event descriptions
      • 2.1.1The typology of motion event
      • 2.1.2Motion event descriptions in English, Hungarian and Japanese
    • 2.2Motion event descriptions in L2
    • 2.3Research questions
  • 3.Research methodology
    • 3.1Participants and materials
    • 3.2Data analysis
  • 4.Results and analysis
    • 4.1Reference to each semantic component
    • 4.2Syntactic structure of motion event descriptions by L1 speakers
    • 4.3Syntactic properties of learner languages
      • 4.3.1Sentence patterns
      • 4.3.2Difficulties for L2 learners
      • 4.3.3Common properties of L2 groups
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgement
  • Notes
  • List of abbreviations
  • References
Published online: 6 June 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/palart.6.09man
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