Date of Award
2018
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
M.A. in Modern Languages
Department
Modern Languages
First Advisor
Christopher Sapp
Second Advisor
Zhini Zeng
Third Advisor
Vance Schaefer
Relational Format
dissertation/thesis
Abstract
The current thesis investigates the acquisition of Chinese wh-questions by English l2 learners based on the syntactic differences between the two languages. I seek to find out how well do the l2 learners acquire the wh-questions, as measured by a grammaticality judgment task; what wh-words tend to pose difficulties for the acceptability of l2 learners; if l2 learners able to acquire the native-like word order of wh-questions in Chinese; if the results of the initial l2 learners in line with any hypotheses of the initial state. Through the analysis of the results, I will conclude that l1 English learners of l2 Chinese at the initial state fully transfer the features of wh-questions, while non-initial students are able to acquire wh-in situ feature with some types of wh-questions, in line with Schwartz & Sprouse's (1994, 1996) full transfer full access hypothesis.
Recommended Citation
Yi, Linfei, "Acquisition Of Chinese Wh-Questions By English L2 Learners" (2018). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 1083.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/etd/1083
Concentration/Emphasis
Emphasis: Languages, Specialization: German