The acquisition of aspect in a second language: A bidirectional study of learners of English and Japanese

This dissertation investigates the second language (L2) acquisition of aspectual morphology within the framework of formal, truth-conditional semantics (Tarski, 1944; Davidson, 1969). We evaluate the relative contribution of the native language grammar and the input available to the learner in an effort to develop a comprehensive model of the L2 acquisition of aspect.; The focus is on the acquisition of the semantics of the forms that mark the progressive in English and Japanese. The two forms, be+ ing in English and te-iru in Japanese, interact differently with the lexical aspect of the verb phrase to which they attach. In English, the progressive denotes an event-in-progress interpretation regardless of the verb. In Japanese, achievements such as die are incompatible with a progressive interpretation, allowing only for a resultative interpretation of V+ te-iru(Jacobsen, 1992; McClure, 1995; Ogihara, 1998, 1999; Shirai, 2000, i.a.). The analysis that we adopt, McClure (1995), argues that the difference lies in the truth conditions of the aspectual operator PROD in the two languages.; In a controlled, bidirectional, experimental study we investigate the L2 acquisition of this crosslinguistic difference using two tasks: a grammaticality judgment task and an interpretation task. Adult learners from a range of proficiency levels are tested including a group of near-natives in the L2 English study. The results of the interpretation task suggest that learners have more difficulty preempting an interpretation that is not available in the L2, but is an option in the L1. Results also indicate that L2 learners have considerably less difficulty adding an interpretation to their L2 grammar that is not available in the native language. We argue that these results can be accounted for if we consider the role of the input available to the learner. Results also reveal that there are contexts where L2 learners follow developmental patterns similar to L1 learners.; We argue that a comprehensive model of the L2 acquisition of aspect must consider not only properties of the learner's grammar but also the role of input and how principles of learnability interact with the learners' grammatical representation in the course of development.