The Acquisition of Dative Alternation and Markedness in Second Language Learning

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate English dative alternation in terms of markedness theory. In this regard, the markedness of two possible structures of dative alternation, [NP NP] vs. [NP PP], for- and to- dative verbs, and 12 native-origin and 6 nonnative-origin dative verbs are investigated among 50 university students whose L1 is Turkish and L2 is English. In order to collect data, a grammaticality judgement test and a picture-cued production test were used. The results revealed that [NP PP] structure is unmarked for Turkish learners of English. Furthermore, participants used the preposition to instead of for with for-dative vebs ­in prepositional dative structures in the production test.

Keywords

• Markedness,Dative alternation,Prepostional datives

Kaynakça

1. Berk, L. M. (1999). English syntax: From word to discourse. New York: Oxford University Press.
2. Callies, M. & Szeczesniak, K. (2008). Argument Realisation, information Status and Syntactic weight – A learner-corpus study of the dative alternation. In M. Walter & P. Grommes (Eds.), Fortgeschrittene Lernervarietäten Korpuslinguistik und Zweitsprachenerwerbsforschung (pp. 165–187). Tübingen: Niemeyer.
3. Chomsky. N. (1965). Aspects of the Theory of Syntax. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press
4. Chomsky, N. (1980). Rules and representations. Behavioral and brain sciences, 3(01), 1-15.
5. Chomsky, N. (1981a). Markedness and core grammar. In Theory of Markedness in Generative Grammar, eds. A. Belletti. L. Brandi, and L. Rizzi. Pisa: Scuola Normale Superiore.
6. Chomsky, N. (I98 I b). Lectures on Government and Binding. Dordrecht: Foris Publications.
7. Chomsky, N. (1982). Some concepts and consequences of the theory of government and binding (Vol. 6). MIT press.
8. Cook, V. J. (1976). A note on indirect objects. Journal of Child Language, 3(03), 435-437.

9. Davies, W. D. (1994). English Dative Alternation and Evidence for a Thematic Strategy in Adult SLA. Issues in Applied Linguistics, 5.1, 59-82.
10. Felix, S. W. (1988). UG-generated knowledge in adult second language acquisition. In Linguistic theory in second language acquisition (pp. 277-294). Springer Netherlands.
11. Fischer, S. D. (1972). The acquisition of verb-particle and dative constructions (Doctoral dissertation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology).
12. Fischer, S. (1976). Child language as a predictor of language change. Working Papers in Linguistics, 8(1).
13. Fotos, S. S. (1994). Integrating grammar instruction and communicative language use through grammar consciousness‐raising tasks. TESOL quarterly, 28(2), 323-351.
14. Goldsmith, J. (1980). Meaning and mechanism in grammar. Harvard studies in syntax and semantics, 3, 423-449.
15. Green, G. M. (1974). Semantics and syntactic regularity. Indiana University Press.
16. Greenbaum, S. (Ed.). (1977). Acceptability in language (Vol. 17). Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG.
17. Gropen, J., Pinker, S., Hollander, M., Goldberg, R., & Wilson, R. (1989). The learnability and acquisition of the dative alternation in English. Language, 203-257.
18. Inagaki, S. (1987). Japanese and Chinese learners’ acquisition of the narrow range rules for the dative alternation in English. Language Learning, 47, 637–669.
19. Le Compagnon, B. (1984). Interference and overgeneralization in second language learning: the acquisition of English dative verbs by native speakers of French. Language Learning, 34, 39-67.
20. Levin, B. (1993). English verb classes and alternations. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
21. Mazurkewich, I., & White, L. (1984). The acquisition of the dative alternation: Unlearning overgeneralizations. Cognition, 16(3), 261-283.
22. Oehrle, R. T. (1976). The grammatical status of the dative alternation in English (Doctoral dissertation, Doctoral dissertation, MIT).
23. Roeper, T., Lapointe, S., Bing, J., & Tavakolian, S. (1981). A lexical approach to language acquisition. Language acquisition and linguistic theory, 35-58.
24. Hawkins, R. (1987). Markedness and the acquisition of the English dative alternation by L2 speakers. Second Language Research, 29, 20-55.
25. Mazurkewich, I. (1981). Second language acquisition of the dative alternation and markedness: the best theory (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Université de Montréal.
26. Mazurkewich, I. (1984). The acquisition of the dative alternation by second language learners and linguistic theory and linguistic theory. Language Learning, 34, 91-109.
27. Mazurkewich, I. (1985). Syntactic markedness and language acquisition. Studies in second language acquisition, 7, 15-36.
28. Osgood, C. E., & Zehler, A. M. (1981). Acquisition of bi-transitive sentences: pre-linguistic determinants of language acquisition. Journal of Child Language, 8(02), 367-383.
29. Öz, Y. (2002). Markedness Theory in the Acquisition Order of Dative Alternation, by Turkish Adult Learners of English (Unpublished Master’s Thesis). Anadolu University.
30. Perpiñan, S. & Montrul, S. (2006). On binding asymmetries in dative alternation construction in L2 Spanish. In C. A. Klee & T. L. Face (Eds.), Selected Proceedings of the 7th Conference on the Acquisition of Spanish and Portuguese as First and Second Languages (pp. 135-148). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project.
31. Pinker, S. (1984). Visual cognition: An introduction. Cognition, 18(1), 1-63.
32. Snyder, W., & Stromswold, K. (1997). The structure and acquisition of English dative constructions. Linguistic Inquiry, 281-317.
33. Stayton, B. (1972). The acquisition of direct and indirect objects in English. Unpublished manuscript, University of Kansas.
34. Stowell, T. A. (1981). Origins of phrase structure (Doctoral dissertation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology).
35. Tanaka, S. (1987). The selective use of specific exemplars in second-language performance: The case of the dative alternation. Language Learning, 37, 63-88.
36. White, L. (1989). Universal grammar and second language acquisition (Vol. 1). John Benjamins Publishing.
37. Wilson, R., Pinker, S., Zaenen, A., & Lebeaux, D. S. (1981, October). Productivity and the dative alternation. In 6th Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development. October (pp. 9-11).
38. Wolfe-Quintero, K. E. (1992). The representation and acquisition of the lexical structure of English dative verbs: Experimental studies of native English speakers and Japanese and Chinese adult learners of English (Doctoral dissertation, University of Hawaii, Graduate Division).
39. Wolk, C., Wolfer, S., Baumann, P., Hemforth, B. & Konieczny, L. (2011). Acquiring English dative verbs: Proficiency effect in German L2 learners. In L. Carlson, C. Hölscher & T. Shipley (Eds.), Proceedings of the 33rd annual conference of the Cognitive Science Society, 2401-2406, Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society.