Tania Ionin

The Composition of Complex Cardinals

This paper proposes an analysis of the syntax and semantics of complex cardinal numerals, which involve multiplication (two hundred) and/or addition (twentythree). It is proposed that simplex cardinals have the semantic type of modifiers (AEAEe, tae, AEe, taeae). Complex cardinals are composed linguistically, using standard syntax (complementation, coordination) and standard principles of semantic composition. This analysis is supported by syntactic evidence (such as Case assignment) and semantic evidence (such as internal composition of complex cardinals). We present several alternative syntactic analyses of cardinals, and suggest that different languages may use different means to construct complex cardinals even though their lexical semantics remains the same. Further issues in the syntax of numerals (modified numerals and counting) are discussed and shown to be compatible with the proposed analysis of complex cardinals. Extra-linguistic constraints on the composition of complex cardinals are discussed and compared to similar restrictions in other domains.

Transfer effects in the interpretation of definite articles by Spanish heritage speakers

This study investigates the role of transfer from the stronger language by focusing on the interpretation of definite articles in Spanish and English by Spanish heritage speakers (i.e., minority language-speaking bilinguals) residing in the U.S., where English is the majority language. Spanish plural NPs with definite articles can express generic reference (Los elefantes tienen colmillos de marfil), or specific reference (Los elefantes de este zoologico son marrones). English plurals with definite articles can only have specific reference (The elephants in this zoo are brown), while generic reference is expressed with bare plural NPs (Elephants have ivory tusks). Furthermore, the Spanish definite article is preferred in inalienable possession constructions (Pedro levanto la mano “Peter raised the hand”), whereas in English the use of a definite article typically means that the body part belongs to somebody else (alienable possession). Twenty-three adult Spanish heritage speakers completed three tasks in Spanish (acceptability judgment, truth-value judgment, and picture–sentence matching tasks) and the same three tasks in English. Results show that the Spanish heritage speakers exhibited transfer from English into Spanish with the interpretation of definite articles in generic but not in inalienable possession contexts. Implications of this finding for the field of heritage language research and for theories of article semantics are discussed.

Acquisition of article semantics by child and adult L2-English learners

This paper examines article use in the L2-English of adult and child speakers of Russian, an article-less language. In earlier work on articles in adult L2-English, Ionin, Ko and Wexler (2004) proposed that speakers of article-less L1s fluctuate between dividing English articles on the basis of definiteness vs. specificity, as a result of direct access to semantic universals. The present paper examines whether similar fluctuation is present for child L2-English learners. Results of an elicitation study with L1-Russian child and adult learners of English show that both groups of learners exhibit sensitivity to definiteness as well as specificity. At the same time, it is found that the behavior of child L2-learners is more consistent with natural language data than that of adult L2-learners. It is proposed that both children and adults have domain-specific knowledge of semantic universals, but that adults, unlike children, also use explicit strategies. This proposal is considered in light of the literature on explicit vs. implicit knowledge.

A bidirectional study on the acquisition of plural noun phrase interpretation in English and Spanish

This paper investigates how learners interpret definite plural noun phrases (e.g., the tigers ) and bare (article-less) plural noun phrases (e.g., tigers ) in their second language. Whereas Spanish allows definite plurals to have both generic and specific readings, English requires definite plurals to have specific, nongeneric readings. Generic readings in English are expressed with bare plurals, which are ungrammatical in Spanish in preverbal subject position. Two studies were conducted in order to investigate the role of first language transfer in this domain in both English → Spanish and Spanish → English directions. Study 1 used a meaning-focused task to probe learners’ interpretation of definite plural nour phrases, whereas Study 2 used a form-focused task to examine learners’ judgments of the acceptability of definite and bare plurals in generic versus specific contexts. First language transfer was attested in both directions, at lower proficiency levels, whereas more targetlike performance was attested at higher proficiency levels. Furthermore, learners were found to be more successful in learning about the (un)grammaticality of bare plurals in the target language than in assigning the target interpretation to definite versus bare plurals. This finding is shown to be consistent with other studies’ findings of plural noun phrase interpretation in monolingual and bilingual children.

That’s not so different from the: Definite and demonstrative descriptions in second language acquisition:

This article investigates how adult Korean-speaking learners of English interpret English definite descriptions (the book, the books) and demonstrative descriptions (that book, those books). Korean lacks articles, but has demonstratives, and it is hypothesized that transfer leads learners to (initially) equate definites with demonstratives. Following J Hawkins (1991), Roberts (2002) and Wolter (2006), it is assumed that definite and demonstrative descriptions have the same central semantics of uniqueness, but differ in the domain relative to which uniqueness is computed: while the book denotes the unique book in the discourse, that book denotes the unique book in the immediately salient situation. A written elicited production task and a picture-based comprehension task are used to examine whether Korean-speaking learners of English are aware of this distinction. The results indicate that learners distinguish definites and demonstratives, but not as strongly as native English speakers; low-proficiency learners are particularly likely to interpret definite descriptions analogously to demonstrative descriptions, in both tasks. These results pose interesting conceptual and methodological questions for further research into the second language acquisition of article semantics.

The Role of Presuppositionality in the Second Language Acquisition of English Articles

This article investigates the role of presuppositionality (defined as the presupposition of existence) in the second language (L2) acquisition of English articles. Building upon the proposal in Wexler 2003 that young English-acquiring children overuse the with presuppositional indefinites, this article proposes that presuppositionality also influences article (mis)use in adult L2 acquisition. This proposal is supported by experimental results from the L2 English of adult speakers of Korean, a language with no articles. The experimental findings indicate that presuppositional indefinite contexts trigger overuse of the with indefinites in adult L2 acquisition, as in child L1 acquisition (cf. Wexler 2003). The effects of presuppositionality are teased apart from the effects of other semantic factors previously examined in acquisition, such as scope (Schaeffer and Matthewson 2005) and specificity (Ionin, Ko, and Wexler 2004). The results provide evidence that overuse of the in L2 acquisition is a semantic rather than pragmatic phenomenon. Implications of these findings for overuse of the in L1 acquisition are discussed. This article also has implications for the study of access to Universal Grammar in L2 acquisition, as well as for the number and type of semantic universals underlying article choice crosslinguistically.

Genericity Distinctions and the Interpretation of Determiners in Second Language Acquisition.

English uses three types of generic NPs: bare plurals ( Lions are dangerous), definite singulars ( The lion is dangerous), and indefinite singulars ( A lion is dangerous). These three NP types are not interchangeable: definite singulars and bare plurals can have generic reference at the NP-level, while indefinite singulars are compatible only with sentence-level genericity. This study investigates whether L1-Russian and L1-Korean L2-English learners, whose article-less L1s do not morphologically encode the distinction between the two types of genericity, can distinguish between the different types of English generics. The results of a written acceptability judgment task with intermediate/advanced L2-learners showed that the learners exhibited sensitivity to the two types of genericity. They were target-like on their interpretation of bare plural and indefinite singular generics, but had not acquired the interpretation of definite singular generics. Theoretical implications of these findings are discussed.

Pragmatic Variation Among Specificity Markers

This chapter examines the semantics and pragmatics of two markers of epistemic specificity: reduced indefinite this in English (Prince E, On the inferencing of indefinite-this NPs. In: Joshi A, Webber B, Sag I (eds) Elements of discourse understanding, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 231–250, 1981) and reduced odin “one” in Russian. It is shown that while the two markers have many properties in common, they are subject to subtly different pragmatic requirements. It is proposed that while indefinite this carries a felicity condition of noteworthy property (Ionin T, Nat Lang Semant 14:175–234, 2006), reduced odin carries a felicity condition of identifiability (cf. Farkas D, Varieties of indefinites. In: Jackson B (ed) Proceedings of SALT 12, Ithaca, Cornell University/CLC Publications, Ithaca, 2002b). Empirical consequences of this distinction are discussed, and crosslinguistic evidence from German and Hebrew is brought in to show that both types of felicity conditions are attested on specificity markers crosslinguistically.

An experimental study on the scope of (un)modified indefinites

This paper reports on three experiments which investigate the availability of long-distance scope for different types of indefinite expressions, in order to test the predictions of different semantic theories of indefinite scope. The main findings of the experiments are: (i) local, narrow-scope readings are preferred for a indefinites, whereas long-distance scope is preferred for a certain indefinites; and (ii) long-distance scope is more readily available to bare one indefinites than to modified at least/exactly one indefinites, but modified numeral indefinites nevertheless allow long-distance scope more readily than universal quantifiers. While the first finding is consistent with theories that link scope and epistemic specificity (since a certain indefinites are often analyzed as markers of specificity), the second finding suggests that long-distance scope is also available to non-specific, quantificational indefinites. It is shown that the findings are problematic for choice-function theories of indefinite scope, and are more consistent with long-distance scopeshifting, or with accounts that link scope and topicality.

DST vs. UG: Can DST account for purely linguistic phenomena?

The article “A Dynamic Systems Theory approach to second language acquisition” by De Bot, Lowie and Verspoor discusses Dynamic Systems Theory (DST), and in particular the benefits of studying second language acquisition (SLA) within the DST framework. The article explains the main characteristics of DST, and goes on to show how various aspects of SLA can be treated from a DST perspective. In particular, the article proposes that the DST framework allows an investigation of how various social and cognitive aspects of SLA interact.