This study looks at the acquisition of obligatory overt arguments in L2 English by adult L1 Chinesespeakers. We test a proposal made by Yuan (1997) which argues for initial full transfer of the Chinesefunctional category features into L2 English. They readjust the features of Infl as a result of contactwith English, which requires Chinese speakers’ grammars to have obligatory subjects. However,Chinese speakers continue to allow null objects in their English simply because positive evidence inrelation to the functional category features which allow null objects in Chinese is not available.The findings suggest that learners had more trouble in unlearning null embedded subjects thannull matrix subjects and objects in matrix and embedded positions. The results do not lend support toYuan’s claim that the recognition of the features of Infl in English triggers Chinese speakers to unlearnnull subjects while lack of positive evidence in relation to functional category features allow them tocontinue accepting null objects.
Relation:
Essex Graduate Student Papers in Language and Linguistics, 3, 59-70
