Hiromasa Ohba , Joetsu University of Education, Japan

1. Acquisition of Relative Clauses and Wh-questions in English by Japanese Speakers: The Application of the Latent Rank Theory HiromasaOhba, Joetsu University of Education, Japan Naoki Sugino, Ritsumeikan University, Japan KojiroShojima, The National Center for University Entrance Examinations, Japan Kenichi Yamakawa, Yasuda Women’s University, Japan Yuko Shimizu, Ritsumeikan University, Japan Michiko Nakano, Waseda University, Japan 2nd Combined Conference of the ALAA-ALANZ, December 2, 2011, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia.

2. INTRODUCTION - One of the interesting topics in second language (L2) acquisition research has been to account for how syntactic knowledge develops over time (Hawkins, 2001). - Why some grammatical properties are acquired earlier than others and why some grammatical properties remain difficult even for advanced L2 learners?

3. INTRODUCTION This study investigates: (1) the acquisition of relative clause and wh-question constructions in English by native speakers of Japanese. (2) whether Japanese EFL learners are sensitive to the constraints on wh-movement which are not involved in their native language, Japanese, when they construct relative clauses and wh-questions in English which are both generated utilising overt wh-movement.

4. INTRODUCTION - One of the biggest problems in the field of L2 acquisition is what kind of test and data analysis can tell us a real L2 developmental process. - We analyse the data obtained from a grammaticality judgementtest on how adult JapaneseEFL learners interpret English relative clause and wh-question constructions, using a new test theory, Latent Rank Theory (LRT) (Shojima, 2008, 2009).

5. Syntactic Background - Within the syntactic theory (Chomsky, 1995,1998), overt movement is only allowed when it ismotivated by the presence of a strong formal feature to check. - In wh-question and relative clause formation, it is assumed that English and Japanese vary in the featurespecifications of functional category C (Complementiser) which determine how their properties are realised.

6. Syntactic Background Relative clause formation English: the strong feature [+R] in C drives relative-operator movement, as in (3). Japanese: an adjunct/predication type relation with no operator, and no feature-driven movement is required due to the lack of the operator and the feature [+R], as in (4) (see Takeda, 1999 for details). (3) The book [whichi [John bought ti]] was interesting. (4) [[John-gakatta] hon]-waomosirokatta John-Nom bought book-Top interesting was ‘The book which John bought was interesting.’

7. Syntactic Background Wh-question formation English: the strong features [+wh, +Q] in C force wh- operator movement and subject- auxiliary inversion, as in (5). Japanese: a [wh] feature in Japanese is not strong, so that it does not drive wh-operator movement, as in (6), although a [Q] feature has the same property as in English. (5) [What]iarej [you tj reading ti]? (6) Anata-wanani-o yondeimasu ka? You-Top what-Acc readingareQ ‘What are you reading?’

8. Syntactic Background Constraints on wh-movement (the Subjacency condition) (7) The Complex Noun Phrase (NP) Island Constraint (weak island) *This is the car whichi we heard [the news that Toru bought ti]. *Whati does James believe [the fact that Alison saw ti at work]? (8) The Embedded Question Island, Wh-island, Constraint (weak island) *This is the CD whichi Peter knows [where Tom bought ti]. *Whichi book did she ask John [when he read ti]? (9) The Relative Clause Island Constraint (strong island) *This is the bicycle whichi the police caught [the man who stole ti]. *Whati does Jane visit [the architect who designed ti for her friend]? (10) The Subject Island Constraint (strong island) *This is the ghost whichi [a picture of ti] frightened the children. *Whoi does the teacher believe [a story by ti] amuses the children? (11) The Adjunct Island Constraint (strong island) *This is the homework whichi Ann went to school [before she did ti]. *Whoi did Alison go to work [after she took ti to school]?

9. Latent Rank Theory (LRT) 62 pts 61pts Test scores 30pts Tests do not have sufficient “resolution” to continuously evaluate human ability on a continuous scale.

10. Ordinal scale based on LRT Test scores Latent Rank 5 Ability to do X5 Ability to do X4 Latent Rank 2 Ability to do X3 Latent Rank1 Tests are at best capable of ranking test takers into 5 to 20 ranks. Ability to do X2 Ability to do X1

11. The Study Participants: 740 university-level Japanese EFL learners Materials: grammaticality judgment tests Relative clause constructions The boy whom I kicked yesterday broke the window. (wh-operator: 9 items) The picture that you are looking at was painted by Picasso. (complementiser that: 4 items) The friend they lent money to bought a very big house. (null operator: 3 items) *The woman who that is singing on the stage is my wife. (doubly-filled complementiser: 4 items) *The classmate that you don’t like him is very unkind. (resumptive pronoun: 4 items)

12. Wh-question constructions Whatdid your girlfriend want to talk about? (8 items) *Whose house Sandy’s father is going to build? (no subject-auxiliary inversion: 8 item) Relative cluase and wh-question constructions violating the subjacency condition (12) Extraction from complex NP a. *This is the car which we heard the news that Toru bought. b. *Which car did he believe the claim that John stole? (13) Extraction from embedded question, wh-island a. *This is the CD which Peter knows where Tom bought. b. *Which book did she ask John when he read?

13. Relative cluase and wh-question constructions violating the subjacency condition (14) Extraction from relative clause a. *This is the bicycle which the police caught the man who stole. b. *What did he interview the teacher who wrote? (15) Extraction from sentential subject a. *This is the ghost which a picture of frightened the children. b. *What did a discussion of occur during the meeting? (16) Extraction from adjunct a. *This is the homework which Ann went to school before she did. b. *Who did the earthquake occur while you were talking with?

14. The Study Procedure: judgments made on a 5-point scale (1-5) converted into 1-4 points if ungrammaticalif grammatical Converted score Raw score Converted score 0 point ← 5 (definitely possible) → 4 points 1 point ← 4 (probably possible) → 3 points 2 points ← 3 (not sure) → 2 points 3 points ← 2 (probably impossible) → 1 point 4 points ← 1 (definitely impossible) → 0 point

15. RESULTS - The learners were categorised into 10 latent ranks. - With scores above 2.50

16. Table 1 Results

17. Table 2 Sentence types learners ineach rank can respond correctly

22. Conclusion - A learner in a higher rank judged correctly in more test items. - There were several items in which, as the learners’ ranks went up, parallel increase was observed in the probabilities of both correct and incorrect responses. This implies that even for advanced-level L2 learners, acquisition of some types of relative clause and wh-question constructions poses unique difficulty. - Japanese advanced-level EFL learners might have different processing strategies of relative clauses and wh-question formation from native speakers of English (non-UG).