"Wh-on-Earth" in Chinese Speakers' L2 English: Evidence of Dormant Features

Autor/in	Yuan, Boping
Titel	"Wh-on-Earth" in Chinese Speakers' L2 English: Evidence of Dormant Features
Quelle	In: Second Language Research, 30 (2014) 4, S.515-549 (35 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0267-6583
DOI	10.1177/0267658314544238
Schlagwörter	English (Second Language); Second Language Learning; Linguistic Input; Semantics; Morphology (Languages); Transfer of Training; Discourse Analysis; Task Analysis; Chinese; Native Language; Phrase Structure; Graduate Students; Foreign Countries; Scores; Student Characteristics; United Kingdom; International English Language Testing System + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? English as second language; English; Second Language; Englisch als Zweitsprache; Zweitsprachenerwerb; Sprachbildung; Semantik; Morphology; Morphologie; Training; Transfer; Ausbildung; Diskursanalyse; Aufgabenanalyse; China; Chinesen; Phrasenstruktur; Graduate Study; Student; Students; Aufbaustudium; Graduiertenstudium; Hauptstudium; Studentin; Ausland; Großbritannien; Language test; Language tests; Sprachtest; Englisch
Abstract	Adopting a decompositional approach to items in the lexicon, this article reports on an empirical study investigating Chinese speakers' second language (L2) acquisition of English "wh-on-earth" questions (i.e. questions with phrases like what on earth or "who on earth"). An acceptability judgment task, a discourse-completion task and an interpretation task were used in the study, and the results indicate that in Chinese speakers' L2 English, the form of "wh-on-earth" can be learned and stored in a native-like manner, but without being endowed with fully elaborated features. A distinction between active features and dormant features in L2 lexicon is made in the analysis, and it is argued that features transferred from learners' L1 to their L2 are likely to lose their vigour and vitality in their L2 lexicon and become dormant if there is no evidence in the target language input to confirm or disconfirm them. A typical consequence of a dormant feature is random behaviours of a related structure in L2 learners' production and interpretation. The results of the study show that semantic features, discourse features as well as morphosyntactic features can become dormant in L2 lexicon. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10