Information structure and dative word-order alternations in English and Korean : l1 children, l2 children, and l2 adults

Date
2014-08
Authors
Park, Kyae-Sung
Contributor
Advisor
Department
Instructor
Depositor
Speaker
Researcher
Consultant
Interviewer
Annotator
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
[Honolulu] : [University of Hawaii at Manoa], [August 2014]
Volume
Number/Issue
Starting Page
Ending Page
Alternative Title
Abstract
This dissertation investigates whether first language (L1) and second language (L2) learners adhere to the Given-before-New Principle, such that they tend to prefer a discourse-given entity prior to a discourse-new entity, focusing on dative word-order alternations in English (Prepositional Dative (PD) vs. Double Object Dative (DOD)) and in Korean (canonical [IO--DO] order vs. scrambled [DO--IO] order). This project explores, first, the (causal) relationship between knowledge of Theory of Mind (ToM)--the ability to attribute mental states to self and to others--and adherence to the Given-before-New Principle in L1 children and, second, the transferability of this principle in L2ers. Two novel oral contextualized preference tasks--NP Task and Pronoun Task--in English and in Korean were developed to test adherence to the principle. L1 data from the children (L1-English; L1-Korean; L2ers of English in their L1-Korean) yield mixed results regarding the relation between knowledge of ToM and compliance with the Given-before-New Principle. Ultimately, the very small number of [--ToM] children disallows any firm conclusions to be drawn. Unlike the adult natives who overwhelmingly comply with the Given-before-New Principle, L2 data from the adults (L1-Korean L2ers of English; L1-English L2ers of Korean) and from the children suggest that intermediate-to-advanced L2ers show a strong syntactic bias toward the default--the PD in English and the canonical [IO--DO] order in Korean, when the given-referent is a definite lexical NP. An aural acceptability judgment task verified that this bias in English L2ers is not due to incomplete lexico-syntactic knowledge of the dative alternation. The overall generalization, across all L2 groups, is that with a definite lexical NP as a given-referent, when the less basic construction aligning with [Given--New] competes with the more basic construction aligning with [New--Given], L2ers tend to choose the latter, i.e., the default. In contrast, when the given-referent is a pronoun, adult L2ers of English are more likely to prefer [Given--New] over [New--Given], in line with the Given-before-New Principle. We conclude that L2ers who have knowledge of the Given-before-New Principle in their L1 are unable to transfer it to their L2.
Description
Ph.D. University of Hawaii at Manoa 2014.
Includes bibliographical references.
Keywords
discourse
Citation
Extent
Format
Geographic Location
Time Period
Related To
Theses for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (University of Hawaii at Manoa). Second Language Acquisition.
Table of Contents
Rights
All UHM dissertations and theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission from the copyright owner.
Rights Holder
Local Contexts
Email libraryada-l@lists.hawaii.edu if you need this content in ADA-compliant format.