Syntax-pragmatics Interface in L2 Learning - The Case of Obligatory Adjuncts in English

Syntax-pragmatics Interface in L2 Learning

  This paper examines non-native speakers"knowledge of syntax-pragmatics interface rules, focusing on the obligatory adjunct rule developed by Goldberg and Ackerman (2001). The main argument of their analysis is that the short passive, middle, and cognate object constructions need obligatory adjuncts to satisfy the requirement that each utterance should include information focus to be licit. In order to investigate whether learners of L2 English exhibit the knowledge of information focus in identifying obligatory adjuncts, an acceptability judgment questionnaire consisting of 27 pairs of sentences was constructed based on Goldberg and Ackerman. Forty-eight non-native speakers and 12 native speakers were asked to provide their judgments on the acceptability of these sentences on the Likert scale of 1 (very unnatural) to 4 (very natural). The results are the following: 1) overall the native speakers preferred sentences with an adjunct over those without, with some minor variations depending on the verbs and adjuncts involved. 2) among the non-native speakers, the high level group"s judgments were more or less consistent with what Goldberg and Ackerman predicted, which is attributed to the influence of formal instruction. 3) both the native and non-native speakers exhibited more categorical judgments on the sentences involving the subcategorization restriction than on those involving the obligatory adjunct rule, a result consistent with the findings of previous research in that native speakers" pragmatic knowledge is more variable than their syntactic knowledge, which may lead to a slower development of pragmatic knowledge in L2 learning.