Unaccusativity in second language Japanese and English

要旨

This thesis investigates L2 acquisition of intransitive verb constructions in Japanese and English. Within the Generative framework, the Unaccusative Hypothesis has been proposed, which divides intransitive verbs into two syntactically distinct classes: unergatives and unaccusatives (Burzio 1986). The sole argument of unergative verbs is an Agent generated in subject position, whereas that of unaccusative verbs is a Theme or Patient base-generated in object position. While the unaccusative/unergative distinction at the level of Deep (D)-Structure holds universally, as derived by a universal principle called the Uniformity of Theta Assignment Hypothesis (UTAH, Baker 1988), languages differ as to where the underlying object of unaccusatives may be positioned at the level of Surface (S)-structure. In the case of English, it surfaces in the subject position where it receives Nominative Case. In the case of Japanese, on the other hand, it has been argued that the argument of unaccusative verbs remains in its base-generated object position and that Nominative Case is assigned within the Verb Phrase. Experimental studies are conducted to examine learners' knowledge of unaccusativity at the two levels, i.e. D-Structure and S-Structure. It is hypothesized that learners will show sensitivity to unaccusativity at D-Structure, but that they may not acquire the correct representation of unaccusativity in the L2 at S-Structure, at least in an earlier stage. The first two studies present the L2 acquisition of English by Japanese speakers. The next two studies are concerned with the L2 acquisition of Japanese by English speakers. Overall, results of the four studies confirm the hypotheses, and L2 learners appear to have problems where the L1 manifests a different representation from the L2. Nevertheless, it is observed that L2 learners behavior is not random even when difficulty arises, in that the L2 learners are often consistent with one class of verbs, but not with the other. Thus, it is suggested that the L2 acquisition of intransitive verb constructions is constrained by universal principles, such as the Unaccusative Hypothesis and the UTAH.

主題