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SUMMARY:How English Native Speakers Learn to Express Caused Motion in Fren
 ch - Dr Henriёtte Hendriks\, RCEAL University of Cambridge
DTSTART:20071113T160000Z
DTEND:20071113T173000Z
UID:TALK8362@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Napoleon Katsos
DESCRIPTION:Research on linguistic diversity has revived a number of debat
 es concerning universal and language-specific determinants in language acq
 uisition. The present paper addresses some of these questions in relation 
 to the expression of caused motion. In this domain languages fall into two
  typologically different families (Talmy\, 2000)\, in which 1) Manner/Caus
 e are typically encoded in verbal roots and Path in satellites (to walk\, 
 hop\, skip… roll the ball… across\, up\, down…)\, or 2) Path is expr
 essed in main verbs and information generally encoded in less compact cons
 tructions (traverser en courant ‘to run across’\, traverser en faisant
 -rouler ‘to go across by making-roll’).  \n\nWe will examine the impli
 cations of this typological contrast for second language acquisition. Seve
 ral groups of adult speakers (English native speakers\, French native spea
 kers - and English learners of French at three proficiency levels) were as
 ked to describe animated cartoons in which an agent acted upon an object i
 n a certain Manner causing its displacement according to a certain Manner 
 and Path (e.g.\, push a ball so that it rolls down a hill). At lower profi
 ciency levels some of the learners’ responses relied on Path verbs\, but
  did not explicitly express all of the information (e.g.\, intransitive en
 trer ‘enter’). Other responses relied on Manner verbs with satellites 
 that unsuccessfully attempted to indicate location changes (e.g.\, marcher
 /pousser dans ‘to walk/push in’\, marcher à travers ‘to walk across
 ’). With increasing proficiency speakers used more complex constructions
 \, but whereas French natives expressed Path in main verbs and Manner in g
 erunds (e.g.\, monter en poussant ‘to ascend pushing’)\, learners freq
 uently did the reverse (e.g. pousser en montant ‘to push ascending’). 
 Regardless of proficiency\, many responses clearly had a non-native flavou
 r\, despite the fact that they were not ungrammatical. Such results consti
 tute a real challenge for language teachers. More generally\, the discussi
 on highlights the implications of typological constraints for models of se
 cond language acquisition and teaching. 
LOCATION:GR-06/07\, English Faculty Building
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