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The Unlearning of Null Subjects in Cantonese Speaking Learners of English
This dissertation, "The Unlearning of Null Subjects in Cantonese Speaking Learners of English" by James, Strang, was obtained from The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong) and is being sold pursuant to Creative Attribution 3.0 Hong Kong License. The content of this dissertation has not been altered in any way. We have altered the formatting in order to facilitate the ease of printing and reading of the dissertation. All rights not granted by the above license are retained by the author.
The Unlearning of Null Subjects in Cantonese Speaking Learners of English.
James Strang
Abstract.
This dissertation examines the factors involved in the resetting of the null subject parameter of Cantonese speaking learners of English. It shows how null subject transfer differs between topic oriented languages such as Cantonese and pro-drop languages like Spanish. It then explores the evidence for triggers that has been suggested in studies of the null subject parameter in other topic oriented languages by Wakabayashi (2002), Yang (1998), Park (2004) and Yuan (1997). The problems that arise from the conflicting results of these studies are then compared to the results of my own study of four Cantonese speaking young learners of English, aged eight, nine, ten and eleven, whose oral language was recorded over a six week period and studied for the production of null subjects and possible triggers. The paper surprisingly 1concludes that unlike the previous studies, there is no evidence of parametric resetting but rather a non null subject parameter is acquired in a similar way to that proposed by Valian's 1991 study of first language non null subject acquisition. I suggest that the findings can be accounted for by the age difference of the participants in the different studies. I then discuss the implications of this and a number of questions that remain unaddressed by this study.
2
10.5353/th_b3165349
English language - Syntax
English language - Study and teaching - Cantonese speakers
The Unlearning of Null Subjects in Cantonese Speaking Learners of English.
James Strang
Abstract.
This dissertation examines the factors involved in the resetting of the null subject parameter of Cantonese speaking learners of English. It shows how null subject transfer differs between topic oriented languages such as Cantonese and pro-drop languages like Spanish. It then explores the evidence for triggers that has been suggested in studies of the null subject parameter in other topic oriented languages by Wakabayashi (2002), Yang (1998), Park (2004) and Yuan (1997). The problems that arise from the conflicting results of these studies are then compared to the results of my own study of four Cantonese speaking young learners of English, aged eight, nine, ten and eleven, whose oral language was recorded over a six week period and studied for the production of null subjects and possible triggers. The paper surprisingly 1concludes that unlike the previous studies, there is no evidence of parametric resetting but rather a non null subject parameter is acquired in a similar way to that proposed by Valian's 1991 study of first language non null subject acquisition. I suggest that the findings can be accounted for by the age difference of the participants in the different studies. I then discuss the implications of this and a number of questions that remain unaddressed by this study.
2
10.5353/th_b3165349
English language - Syntax
English language - Study and teaching - Cantonese speakers
86 pages, Paperback
Published January 26, 2017
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