Full text loading...
GBP
-
Syntactic effects of feature-driven movement in Russian speakers’ L2 Chinese grammars
- Source: Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism, Volume 3, Issue 4, Jan 2013, p. 389 - 414
-
Abstract
Availability of wh-topicalization in Chinese raises a question as to whether a wh-topic in L2 Chinese is derived by feature-driven movement and, if it is, whether such movement is subject to syntactic constraints. The current study tests the sensitivity of very advanced Russian speakers’ L2 Chinese wh-topicalization to a complex NP island and reconstruction, which are taken as a diagnostic of movement. The results of an acceptability judgement test and a multiple choice interpretation test show that L2 Chinese grammars are constrained by a complex NP island and reconstruction, which provides empirical evidence that L2 Chinese wh-topicalization involves movement driven by an uninterpretable [+Top] feature.
© 2013 John Benjamins Publishing Company