Expressing Causality in L2 Narrative

Causality can be expressed by various linguistics means crosslinguistically. This paper examines how causal relations are encoded in L2 English narratives. The English narratives of 168 Korean children and adults are analyzed. The results reveal a weak developmental pattern: causality is expressed implicitly at the early stages, then later by explicit markers such as conjunctions and lexical causative verbs. It is also observed that direct and indirect causation are distinguished and encoded differently by L2 learners of English, as is the case with L1 English speakers. The L2 learners do not produce many verb+path causative constructions, as opposed to the L1 speakers who produce diverse forms of this construction. Directions for future research, e.g. analysis of longitudinal and spoken data, are suggested.