Cover not available
Part of
Cross-linguistic Influence in Bilingualism: In honor of Aafke Hulk
Edited by Elma Blom, Leonie Cornips and Jeannette Schaeffer
[Studies in Bilingualism 52] 2017
► pp. 75–100

Specificity and validity in the SLA literature

| Utrecht University
| Utrecht University

We propose a new paradigm for testing the influence of specificity on the acquisition of English articles (Ionin, 2003; Ionin et al., 2004; Ionin et al., 2009; Ko et al., 2010). We discuss and resolve issues of validation and present a preview and discussion of the results the new paradigm generates for L2 learners of English with Mandarin as an L1.

Keywords: SLA, validity, specificity, definiteness
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Validation requirements
  • 3.Introducing the paradigm
    • 3.1The specificity flavors of indefinite this
    • 3.2Testing specificity with individual-level noteworthiness
    • 3.3Testing specificity with story noteworthiness
  • 4.Validating the paradigm
    • 4.1Testing for indefiniteness
      • Materials
      • Participants
      • Procedure
      • Results
      • Conclusion
    • 4.2Testing for specificity
      • Materials
      • Participants
      • Procedure
      • Results
      • Conclusion
    • 4.3Concluding the validation experiments
  • 5.Previewing the results of the testing paradigm with L2 learners
    • 5.1The study
      • Materials
      • Participants
      • Procedure
      • Results
        • Filler items
        • Test items
    • 5.2Discussion
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
  • Appendix
Published online: 19 December 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/sibil.52.05leb
References
Aguilar-Guevara, A., Le Bruyn, B., & Zwarts, J.
(Eds.) (2014) Weak referentiality. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bickerton, D.
(1981) Roots of language. Ann Arbor, MI: Karoma.Google Scholar
Brisson, C.
(1998) Distributivity, maximality, and floating quantifiers. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. Rutgers University.Google Scholar
Cheng, L., & Qi, L.
(2006) Description and examination of the national matriculation English test. Language Assessment Quarterly: An International Journal, 3, 53–70. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Collins, J. N.
to appear). Pseudo noun incorporation in discourse. In Proceedings of AFLA (Vol. 21).
Coppock, E., & Beaver, D.
(2015) Definiteness and determinacy. Linguistics and Philosophy, 38, 377–435. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Deprez, V., Sleeman, P., & Guella, H.
(2011) Specificity effects in L2 determiner acquisition: UG or pragmatic egocentrism. In M. Pirvulescu, M. Cristina Cuervo, A. T. Pérez-Leroux, J. Steele, & N. Strik (Eds.), Selected proceedings of the 4th Conference on Generative Approaches to Language Acquisition North America (GALANA 2010) (pp. 27–36). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.Google Scholar
Hakuta, K.
(1976) A case study of a Japanese child learning English as a second language. Language learning, 26, 321–351. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hawkins, R., Al-Eid, S., Almahboob, I., Athanasopoulos, P., Chaengchenkit, R., Hu, J., Rezai, M., Jaensch, C., Jeon, Y., Jiang, A., & Leung, Y. K. I.
(2006) Accounting for English article interpretation by L2 speakers. EUROSLA Yearbook, 6, 7–25. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Huebner, T.
(1983) A longitudinal analysis of the acquisition of English. Ann Arbor, MI: Karoma.Google Scholar
Ionin, T.
(2003) Article semantics in second language acquisition. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. MIT.Google Scholar
(2006)  This is definitely specific: Specificity and definiteness in article systems. Natural Language Semantics, 14, 175–234. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ionin, T., Ko, H., & Wexler, K.
(2004) Article semantics in L2 acquisition: The role of specificity. Language Acquisition, 12, 3–69. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ionin, T., Zubizarreta, M. L., & Philippov, V.
(2009) Acquisition of article semantics by child and adult L2-English learners. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 12, 337–361. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ko, H., Ionin, T., & Wexler, K.
(2010) The role of presuppositionality in the second language acquisition of English articles. Linguistic Inquiry, 41, 213–254. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Le Bruyn, B., & Dong, X.
(2015) Definiteness: From L1 Mandarin to Mandarin L2 English. In T. Brochhagen, F. Roelofsen & N. Theiler (Eds.), Proceedings of the 20th Amsterdam Colloquium. Amsterdam: Institute for Logic, Language, and Computation (ILLC), University of Amsterdam.Google Scholar
to appear). L2-English definites and non-maximality. InLanguage Acquisition at the Interfaces: Proceedings of GALA 2015 (pp. 130–145). Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Le Bruyn, B., & Schutter, K.
(2017) Broadening our horizons: a case-study in L2 semantics. Ms. Utrecht University. [URL]
Le Bruyn, B., De Swart, H., & Zwarts, J.
(2016) From HAVE to HAVE-verbs: Relations and incorporation. Lingua, 182, 49–68. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lewis, D.
(1979) Scorekeeping in a language game. In R. Bäuerle, U. Egli, & A. von Stechow (Eds.), Semantics from different points of view (pp. 339–359). Berlin: Springer. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mosel, U., & Hovdhaugen, E.
(1992) Samoan reference grammar. Oslo: Scandinavian University Press.Google Scholar
Prince, E.
(1981) On the inferencing of indefinite-this NPs. In K. A. Joshi, B. Webber, & I. Sag (Eds.), Elements of Discourse Understanding (pp. 231–250). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Schwarz, F.
(2009) Two types of definites in natural language. Doctoral dissertation. University of Massachusetts, Amherst.Google Scholar
Snape, N., Leung, I. Y. -K. & Ting, H. -C.
(2006) Comparing Chinese, Japanese and Spanish speakers in L2 English article acquisition: Evidence against the Fluctuation Hypothesis? In M. Grantham O’Brien, C. Shea, & J. Archibald (Eds.), Proceedings of the 8th Generative Approaches to Second Language Acquisition Conference (GASLA 2006) (pp.132–139). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project.Google Scholar
Tarone, E., & Parrish, B.
(1988) Task related variation in interlanguage: The case of articles. Language learning, 38, 21–44. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Thomas, M.
(1989) The acquisition of English articles by first-and second-language learners. Applied Psycholinguistics, 10, 335–355. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Trenkic, D.
(2008) The representation of English articles in second language grammars: Determiners or adjectives? Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 17, 237–257. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tryzna, M.
(2009) Questioning the validity of the Article Choice Parameter and the Fluctuation Hypothesis. In M. del Pilar García Mayo & R. Hawkins (Eds.), Second language acquisition of articles: Empirical findings and theoretical implications (pp. 67–86). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar