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SUMMARY:Existential quantifiers and polarity in L2 interlanguage: applying
  the Feature Reassembly Hypothesis - Kook-hee Gil and Heather Marsden\, Un
 iversity of Sheffield
DTSTART:20110215T160000Z
DTEND:20110215T173000Z
UID:TALK28499@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Chris Cummins
DESCRIPTION:Lardiere's recent Feature Reassembly hypothesis about second l
 anguage (L2)\nacquisition argues that the L2 acquisition process involves 
 reconfiguring the sets of\nlexical features that occur in the native langu
 age (L1) into feature bundles appropriate\nto the L2 (Lardiere (2005\, 200
 8\, 2009)). We identify two tasks that L2 learners face\nunder this propos
 al\, namely\, mapping and feature reassembly\, and make specific\npredicti
 ons based on these tasks about the acquisition of wh-existentials and pola
 rity\nitems in L2 Chinese by English and Japanese speakers and L2 English 
 by Korean\nand Chinese speakers. The different L1s and L2s fall into two d
 istinct classes of\nexistential quantifier: in Chinese\, Japanese and Kore
 an wh-words serve as existential\nquantifiers (in addition to their wh-int
 errogative function)\, whereas English any is\nmorpho-phonologically disti
 nct from English wh-words. However\, Chinese shares\nwith English the fact
  that its existential quantifiers are polarity sensitive\, whereas\nthose 
 in Korean and Japanese are not. Using recent\, independent sets of L2 rese
 arch\nfindings\, we examine the Feature Reassembly hypotheses by testing o
 ur predictions\nagainst the results from the L2 studies. The prediction fo
 r the mapping task is born out\nin general\, while the prediction for the 
 feature reassembly is only partially supported.\nThe results also highligh
 t the strong effect of the L1's morpho-lexical properties in the\nmapping 
 process as well as in the process of feature reassembly. We conclude with\
 nimplications for further research.
LOCATION:GR-06/07\, English Faculty Building
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