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- Title
Verb Semantics and Argument Structure Defining L2 Learners' Dative Alternation Preferences.
- Authors
Uçkun, Berrin
- Abstract
Dative alternation in English as an L2 has been investigated either as a function of the semantic subclass of the dative verb or the information structure of the dative arguments. The present study adopts both approaches in examining the grammaticality judgments of adult learners who come from a case-marked free word-order L1 background. The findings of the two studies complement each other in giving a more complete account of the learners' interlanguage. In the absence of predictors that govern dative constituents, participants showed a greater preference for prepositional datives, as well as sensitivity to the semantic conflation class of the dative verb. When structured with discourse information, dative arguments led participants to make native-like decisions of dative word order. The results are indicative of L1 influence, as well as the acquisition of L1 parameters of English dative alternation. The length of exposure to the target language did not prove to be significant.
- Subjects
ENGLISH as a foreign language; SEMANTICS; ENGLISH language -- Verb
- Publication
Linguistics Journal, 2015, Vol 9, Issue 1, p23
- ISSN
1718-2301
- Publication type
Article