Pronominal interpretations in L2 Japanese
-
Carlos L. Pimentel
and
Mineharu Nakayama
Abstract
This paper investigates L2 learners’ interpretations of Japanese overt and empty pronouns by utilizing a truth value judgment task. The results show evidence contrary to Kanno’s (1997, 1998) claims that JFL learners have knowledge that Japanese overt pronouns cannot have quantifier antecedents from an early stage of learning. The results of the present study show evidence that JFL learners display knowledge of the coreferential readings of Japanese pronouns from an early stage of learning. However, this does not appear to be the case for the bound variable readings. In contrast, advanced learners show knowledge that overt pronouns cannot have bound variable readings. From these results we argue that: (1) it takes time to acquire the knowledge that overt pronouns cannot refer to quantifiers and (2) the JFL learners employed an L1 transfer strategy in the interpretation of Japanese overt pronouns.
© 2017 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Journal of Japanese Linguistics Vol. 28 (2012). Contents
- Introduction
- Diversity and uniformity of grammar: When ungrammatical expressions become grammatical
- Benjamin Smith Lyman as a phonetician
- Deictic and anaphoric uses of the Japanese demonstratives ko-so-a
- Three uses of kata ‘person’ in Japanese
- An investigation into the interaction between intentionality and the use of transitive/ intransitive expression: A contrastive study of Japanese and Marathi
- Zibun and locality in L2 Japanese
- Pronominal interpretations in L2 Japanese
Articles in the same Issue
- Journal of Japanese Linguistics Vol. 28 (2012). Contents
- Introduction
- Diversity and uniformity of grammar: When ungrammatical expressions become grammatical
- Benjamin Smith Lyman as a phonetician
- Deictic and anaphoric uses of the Japanese demonstratives ko-so-a
- Three uses of kata ‘person’ in Japanese
- An investigation into the interaction between intentionality and the use of transitive/ intransitive expression: A contrastive study of Japanese and Marathi
- Zibun and locality in L2 Japanese
- Pronominal interpretations in L2 Japanese
