Subject-Object Asymmetry in the Second Language Acquisition of English Relatives and Embedded Wh-Questions

• Published in: Journal of psycholinguistic research Vol. 45; no. 6; pp. 1389 - 1406
• Main Author: Kang, Hyun-Sook
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.12.2016; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Asymmetry; Behavioral Science and Psychology; Cognitive Psychology; English (Second Language); Female; Females; Form Classes (Languages); Humans; Hypotheses; Imitation; Korea; Korean; Language Acquisition; Learning; Male; Midwestern United States; Multilingualism; Native Language; Nouns; Psycholinguistics; Psycholinguistics - methods; Psychology; Reading Comprehension; Second Language Instruction; Second Language Learning; Sentences; Young Adult; questions; Elicited imitation; Korean speakers; English as a second language; Embedded; English relative clauses; Embedded wh-questions
• ISSN: 0090-6905; 1573-6555; 1573-6555
• DOI: 10.1007/s10936-015-9410-2

This study examined subject-object asymmetry and developmental sequence in the second language (L2) acquisition of three types of wh -extraction, i.e., English headed relatives, headless relatives, and embedded wh -questions. Sixty-four L1 Korean learners of English completed an elicited imitation task and a grammaticality judgment task. The learners demonstrated a subject advantage in the headed RCs and headless RCs, but an object advantage in the embedded wh -questions, which suggests that they treat embedded wh -questions differently from headed relatives and headless relatives despite the similarities in surface forms. The learners further demonstrated the order of developing headless RCs followed by embedded wh -questions, and subsequently headed RCs, which supports the primacy of headless relatives as a simple nominal in L2 development.