Abstract

In this seminar, I will present the experiment design of my ongoing PhD project, results and some preliminary summaries of a pilot study. My PhD research aims to examine the effect of L1 transfer in English and Korean speakers’ explicit and implicit knowledge of elliptical constructions. Three types of elliptical structures — Verb-Phrase ellipsis, object-ellipsis and sluicing (also known as TP-ellipsis) — are included in the current study. An oral elicited imitation test was designed to tap learners’ implicit knowledge and an untimed acceptability judgement test was chosen to test learners’ explicit knowledge. A pilot study was conducted among 16 participants and results show that the scope of ellipsis and the L1 effect are both factors influencing L2 acquisition of elliptical constructions.