Scope-marking strategies in the acquisition of long-distance wh-movement in L2 English by adult Mongolian speakers

This study investigates whether more economical derivations predate less economical ones in the acquisition of long-distance (LD) wh-movement in second language (L2) English. Production data of LD wh-movement have been elicited from 97 adult Mongolian speakers in Ulaanbaatar. The participants were at the age between 19 and 23 (female = 94, male = 3, mean age = 20), who were classified into advanced and developing groups. While LD wh-movement was infrequently observed, wh-scope marking predominantly emerged, possibly because it dispenses with Internal Merge of the wh-phrase pied-piping Q across the clausal boundary. On the other hand, the developing group depended more on silent-scope marking, possibly because the wh-expletive might not have been available in their lexicon. Moreover, the advanced group initially displaced the least possible elements containing the wh-phrase when attempting to derive LD wh-movement, while the developing group could not even displace any elements but spelled-out the wh-phrase in situ. Overall, economy conditions in language acquisition turns out to govern the Mongolian-English interlanguage; hence, more economical derivations emerge at the onset as long as they are admissible, not necessarily grammatical.