L1 effects in acquisition of the Japanese OPC by L1 English and L1 Spanish speakers

Abstract

This paper provides evidence for the Full Transfer/Full Access Hypothesis (FT/FA; Schwartz & Sprouse, 1994, 1996) through an investigation of the interpretation of the Japanese pronoun kare ‘he’ by intermediate and advanced L1 English and L1 Spanish speakers of L2 Japanese. The intermediate English group was not sensitive to the referential/quantified antecedent asymmetry in interpreting pronouns, while the intermediate Spanish group was. This difference is attributable to their L1s: English does not observe the Overt Pronoun Constraint (OPC), while Spanish, like Japanese, does. Moreover, the advanced English and Spanish groups showed evidence of the target-like grammar. As the OPC is underdetermined in input, these results suggest that Universal Grammar (UG) is operative in L2 acquisition, supporting the FT/FA.