Acquisition Of Sluicing By L2 Chinese Learners

In this paper, we first made a brief introduction to the repair of wh-islands bysluicing and the shi-support involved. In light of these theoretical discussions, westudied the acquisition of sluicing by Japanese and English-speaking L2 learners ofChinese.In order to investigate their acquisitionof island repair and shi-support knowledge,we used grammaticality judgment test (GJT), which was supplemented with translationtasks and interviews, thus obtaining quantitative data from GJT and qualitative datafrominterviews.In our research, we found that (1) both Japanese and English group gave similarresponses to most ofthe sluicing types in question; (2) theyalso gave similar responsesto the majority of wh-argument sluicing structures that lack shi-support. The similarresponse patterns in both cases seem to demonstrate that UG is accessible to the twogroups of adult learners, which is consistent with previous findings on the similarpatternsofresponses to wh-islands bylearnersofdifferent backgrounds.However, our data also included some seemingly extraneous observations: (1)Coordinated construction sluicing with how extraction received different responses bythe two groups of learners; appositive sluicing with how extraction received differentresponses by the two groups of learners. (2) The Japanese-speaking group gave variedresponses to different wh-words extracted fromthe sentential subject sluicing structure.The English speaking group gave different responses to different wh-words extractedfromtheappositivesluicingstructures.The results suggest that the variations center on wh-words. Yuan (2006) and Ko(2006)notedthatthewh-words'different morph-syntactic featuresmaycontributetothe variations. We argued that these variations are reflective of the participants'immaturedevelopment of sluicing structure knowledge. Those deviant responses are caused byimperfect matchofwh-wordsandgrammaticalcategoriesinL2Chinese interlanguage.The generally similar responses given by the two groups of learners suggest thatUG is accessible to the learner of different L1 backgrounds. The variations are evidenceofthe immaturedevelopment fromUGaccess,astheyareexistent but onavaried basis,suggesting L2 learners'interlanguage begins from L1 and they would resort to UGproperties when L1s do not have corresponding features. The data analysis anddiscussionsare supportiveoftheFullTransfer/FullAccess model.