How students acquire things you never teach them

1
How students acquire things you never teach them

• Robert Kluender
• Department of Linguistics, UCSD
• UCCLLT Workshop on
• Grammar and Language Teaching
• June 20, 2004

2
Is L2 acquisition like L1 acquisition?

• The results of critical period research
• there is a definite decline in ultimate
  attainment with age across childhood
• it affects L1A more than L2A
• unclear how much of it is biological
• phonology correlates better with AoA than
  morphosyntax (but accentless non-native speakers
  seem to exist)

3
Is L2 acquisition like L1 acquisition?

• Often it is assumed that L2A differs from L1A
  most in terms of implicit learning
• However, there is also very clear evidence of
  implicit learning in L2A

4
What would constitute proof?

• The best evidence for implicit learning in L1A is
  reorganization
• We identify L1 reorganization by a temporary
  increase in systematic errors, the U-shaped
  learning curve
• Is there any evidence for a U-shaped learning
  curve in L2 acquisition?

5
The strange case of unaccusatives

• Why unaccusative verbs are a good test case for
  implicit learning
• they are found in every language, i.e. are a
  well-attested linguistic universal
• they behave systematically
• they are not theory-dependent
• nobody knows about them, so they cant possibly
  be explicitly taught

6
An aside/exhortation from my
hobbyhorse soapbox bully pulpit
7
An aside/exhortation from my
hobbyhorse soapbox bully pulpit

• Stop drilling! (BVP)

8
An aside/exhortation from my
hobbyhorse soapbox bully pulpit

• Stop drilling for UG! (RK)

9
An aside/exhortation from my
hobbyhorse soapbox bully pulpit

• Stop drilling for Universal Grammar!

10
An aside/exhortation from my hobbyhorse
soapbox bully pulpit

• Stop drilling for L2 evidence of wh-movement
  constraints !

11
An aside/exhortation from my
hobbyhorse soapbox bully pulpit

• Even assuming that they are part of Universal
  Grammar, wh-movement constraints are a moving
  target as to
• their overall status in the theory
• their current theoretical formulation
• Accumulating evidence that they are instead a
  processing phenomenon

12
The strange case of unaccusatives

• native speakers are naturally unaware of this
  phenomenon in their 1st language
• its never taught to them in school
• 2nd language learners are never exposed to it,
  because 2nd language teachers dont know about
  it, either
• 2nd language learners acquire it nonetheless

13
What are unaccusative verbs?

• the unfortunate name stems from Perlmutter
  (1977), who
  first discussed the phenomenon
• unaccusatives are intransitive verbs
• whose subject is the undergoer (also called
  patient or theme) rather than the agent of
  the action

14
Two types of intransitive verbs

• unergative verbs
• subject is AGENT
• She left.
• She lay down.
• She hid.

• unaccusative verbs
• subject is UNDERGOER
• She arrived.
• She fell.
• She disappeared.

15
Some unaccusative verbs have transitive
counterparts

• transitive form
• The heat melted the butter.
• unaccusative form
• The butter melted.
• transitive form
• The children broke the vase.
• unaccusative form
• The vase broke.

16
Some unaccusative verbs have transitive
counterparts

• transitive form
• The heat melted the butter.
• unaccusative form
• The butter melted.
• transitive form
• The children broke the vase.
• unaccusative form
• The vase broke.

17
Tests for unaccusativity agentive -er
suffixation in English

• She arrived.
• She fell.
• She disappeared.

• arriver
• faller
• disappearer

18
Tests for unaccusativity

• Italian auxiliary selection in
• passato prossimo
• (Lei) è arrivata / caduta / sparita.
• she is arrived fallen disappeared
• ha arrivata / caduta / sparita.
• has arrived fallen disappeared

19
Tests for unaccusativity

• Italian passive and reflexive verbs also take
  essere (to be) as auxiliary in
  passato prossimo
• This means that all undergoer subjects take
  essere as auxiliary in Italian passato
  prossimo

20
Tests for unaccusativity

• Of all the Romance languages,
• Italian has best retained the Latin distinction
  between esse and habere,
• French has retained it to some degree but lost
  other parts of it,
• while the other Romance languages have lost it
  altogether

21
Tests for unaccusativity

• German and Dutch make very similar distinctions
  in the perfect tenses (e.g. Sie ist hingefallen
  in German)
• The distinction used to exist in
  English, but now is found only in archaic usage
  (e.g. Christian hymns)
• Joy to the world, the Lord is come
• Alleluia, He is risen

22
Another appeal for the inclusion of linguistic
knowledge in L2 teaching

• Consider how torturous it is using traditional
  grammar to explain which verbs take be as
  auxiliary in perfect tenses of European
  languages,
• and then consider how much easier your life might
  be in this regard if you referred to the L2
  literature on unaccusative verbs (Sorace 1993a)

23
Tests for unaccusativity

• Italian ne-cliticization
• transitive verbs
• Mario ha letto molte lettere
• Mario has read many letters
• Mario ne ha letto molte
• Mario ofthem has read many

24
Tests for unaccusativity

• Italian ne-cliticization
• intransitive (unergative) verbs
• Hanno lavorato molte persone
• have worked many persons
• Ne hanno lavorato molte
  
• ofthem have worked many

25
Tests for unaccusativity

• Italian ne-cliticization
• intransitive (unaccusative) verbs
• Sono arrivate molte persone
• are arrived many persons
• Ne sono arrivate molte
  
• ofthem are arrived many

26
Tests for unaccusativity

• Italian ne-cliticization
• transitive verbs
• Mario ha letto molte lettere
• Mario has read many letters
• Mario ne ha letto molte
• Mario ofthem has read many

27
Generalizations from our tests

• English unaccusatives do not allow agentive -er
  suffixation because they do not take agent
  arguments
• only verbs with undergoer subjects (unaccusative,
  passive, and reflexive) take essere as auxiliary
  in Italian
• only verbs with undergoer arguments (i.e.
  transitive objects unaccusative subjects) allow
  Italian ne-cliticization

28
Preliminary conclusions

• Unaccusative verbs have undergoer subjects
• Remarkably enough, L2 learners unconsciously seem
  to pick up on this

29
The unaccusative hierarchy (Sorace 1993a/2000)

• change of location selects BE
• change of state/condition
• continuation of a pre-existing state
• existence of state/condition
• change of state-transitive counterpart
• uncontrolled process
• controlled process (motional)
• controlled process (non-motional)
• selects HAVE

30
The unaccusative hierarchy (Sorace 2000)

• arrive, fall selects BE
• change of state/condition
• continuation of a pre-existing state
• existence of state/condition
• change of state-transitive counterpart
• uncontrolled process
• controlled process (motional)
• controlled process (non-motional)
• selects HAVE

31
The unaccusative hierarchy (Sorace 2000)

• arrive, fall selects BE
• become, disappear, die
• continuation of a pre-existing state
• existence of state/condition
• change of state-transitive counterpart
• uncontrolled process
• controlled process (motional)
• controlled process (non-motional)
• selects HAVE

32
The unaccusative hierarchy (Sorace 2000)

• arrive, fall selects BE
• become, disappear, die
• stay, remain
• existence of state/condition
• change of state-transitive counterpart
• uncontrolled process
• controlled process (motional)
• controlled process (non-motional)
• selects HAVE

33
The unaccusative hierarchy (Sorace 2000)

• arrive, fall selects BE
• become, disappear, die
• stay, remain
• be, seem
• change of state-transitive counterpart
• uncontrolled process
• controlled process (motional)
• controlled process (non-motional)
• selects HAVE

34
The unaccusative hierarchy (Sorace 2000)

• arrive, fall selects BE
• become, disappear, die
• stay, remain
• be, seem
• break, melt, sink
• uncontrolled process
• controlled process (motional)
• controlled process (non-motional)
• selects HAVE

35
The unaccusative hierarchy (Sorace 2000)

• arrive, fall selects BE
• become, disappear, die
• stay, remain
• be, seem
• break, melt, sink
• blush, tremble, shine
• controlled process (motional)
• controlled process (non-motional)
• selects HAVE

36
The unaccusative hierarchy (Sorace 2000)

• arrive, fall selects BE
• become, disappear, die
• stay, remain
• be, seem
• break, melt, sink
• blush, tremble, shine
• run, dance, swim
• controlled process (non-motional)
• selects HAVE

37
The unaccusative hierarchy (Sorace 2000)

• arrive, fall selects BE
• become, disappear, die
• stay, remain
• be, seem
• break, melt, sink
• blush, tremble, shine
• run, dance, swim
• talk, work
• selects HAVE

38
The unaccusative hierarchy(Sorace 1993a)

• The hierarchy embodies the fact that the notion
  of dynamic change, whose most concrete
  manifestation is change of location, is at the
  root of unaccusativity, and identifies verbs of
  directed motion as core cases for
  essere/être-selection.
• (Sorace 1993a 81)

39
L2 sensitivity to semantic aspects of
unaccusativity (Sorace 1993b)

• Subjects
• English/French near-native speakers of Italian
  in Italy, no Italian origins
• began learning after age 15 (18-27), average 9
  years of exposure (5-15)
• Materials and Procedure
• acceptability judgements on auxiliary
  selection with unaccusative verbs

40
L2 sensitivity to semantic aspects of
unaccusativity (Sorace 1993b)
41
L2 sensitivity to semantic aspects of
unaccusativity (Sorace 1993b)

• L2 speakers were sensitive to unaccusative
  hierarchy categories
• Only native speakers had significantly different
  judgements between the two auxiliaries in every
  category
• L2 speakers had significantly different
  judgements between auxiliaries only at the high
  end of the hierarchy (two highest categories)

42
L2 sensitivity to semantic aspects of
unaccusativity (Sorace 1993b)
43
L2 sensitivity to unaccusativity

• L2 learners are sensitive to the unaccusative
  hierarchy and the semantic
  distinctions between verb subtypes that it
  represents
• Is this only because these are highly advanced,
  near-native learners?

44
Is there any evidence for a U-shaped learning
curve in L2A?

• L2 learners passivize unaccusatives
• He was arrived early.
• My mother was died when I was just a baby.
• This problem is existed for many years.
• Most of people are fallen in love and marry
  with somebody.

45
Unaccusative passivization errors (Oshita
1998/2000)
46
Unaccusative passivization errors(Oshita
1998/2000)
47
Is there any evidence for a U-shaped learning
curve in L2A?

• Learners are never exposed to these errors in
  input from native speakers
• They occur in the output of ESL students of
  diverse L1 backgrounds
• They appear only at advanced or high intermediate
  levels of L2 instruction
• Even at this level, L2 usage of unaccusatives is
  90 error-free

48
Why these particular errors?

• Recall that unaccusative verbs pattern with
  passive verbs in Italian with regard to auxiliary
  selection, as both have undergoer subjects
• Passive verbs in English also have undergoer
  subjects, and require passive verbal morphology

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Why these particular errors?
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Why these particular errors?
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Why these particular errors?
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Why these particular errors?
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Why these particular errors?
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Why these particular errors?
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Why these particular errors?
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Why these particular errors?
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Why these particular errors?
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Why these particular errors?

• By hypothesis, when learners recognize that there
  is an undergoer (patient) in subject position,
• they associate this with passive morphology on
  the verb (be),
• and therefore passivize the verb
• even if it is not needed, as is the case with
  unaccusative verbs (Oshita 1998/2000)

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Why these particular errors?

• Note that this is a perfectly reasonable mistake
  to be making
• it shows unconscious sensitivity to the presence
  of undergoer arguments in subject position,
• and analogizes a known morpho-syntactic pattern
  for such subjects.
• This is pretty sophisticated presumably this is
  why it occurs late.

60
Is this a U-shaped learning curve?

• Oshita (1998/2000) claims that it is
• But there was no empirical evidence
• The data show the middle of a slump, but no early
  error-free period, and no subsequent
  recovery
• So is this a U-shaped learning curve or just a
  nose dive that learners never pull out of?

61
Follow-up Klieman Kluender

• Corpus study of writing samples from advanced ESL
  students in the Chinese Learner English Corpus
• 6 unaccusative passivization rate
• passivization more than twice as frequent as
  other unaccusative errors
• more errors at intermediate levels, but same of
  passivization errors

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Percentage of passivization errors
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Percentage of passivization errors
64
Follow-up Klieman Kluender

• Spoken/written production, error
  detection in Russian L2
  speakers of English
• modified ILR OPI
• no differences in spoken elicitation, but errors
  only at level 2 and below
• ability in error detection significantly
  different by proficiency level

65
Error detection by proficiency level
66
Follow-up Klieman Kluender

• Spoken/written production, error
  detection in Russian L2
  speakers of English
• no differences in spoken elicitation, but errors
  only at level 2 and below
• ability in error detection significantly
  different by proficiency level

67
Follow-up Klieman Kluender

• Spoken/written production,
  error detection in Russian
  L2 speakers of English
• no differences in spoken elicitation, but errors
  only at level 2 and below
• ability in error detection significantly
  different by proficiency level
• written production errors only at level 2 and
  below

68
Follow-up Klieman Kluender

• Clear evidence for recovery at level 3
• But is this merely circular evidence?
• No unaccusative passivization errors because
  no systematic errors of grammar at level
  3 and above?
• But unaccusativity is not targeted by, or even on
  the radar screen of OPI
• In any case, the problem goes away

69
But is it a U-shaped learning curve?

• Its at least a J-shaped learning curve
• Still no reliable data from early L2A Initial
  attempts to use the same procedures on
  low-proficiency Russian learners failed
• At a minimum, there is evidence for implicit
  learning and reorganization

70
Summary L2
sensitivity to unaccusativity

• L2 learners are sensitive to semantic verb
  subtype distinctions on the unaccusative
  hierarchy (auxiliary selection in Italian)
• L2 learners show sensitivity to the fact that
  unaccusative verbs take undergoer
  subjects by overgeneralizing passive morphology
  (passivization errors in English)

71
What would constitute proof?

• The best evidence for implicit learning in L1A is
  reorganization
• We identify L1 reorganization by a temporary
  increase in systematic errors, the U-shaped
  learning curve
• Is there any evidence for a U-shaped learning
  curve in L2 acquisition?

72
Is L2 acquisition like L1 acquisition?

• L2 acquisition of unaccusativity
• an indisputable language universal
• implicit learning with no explicit input
• overgeneralization
• low error rates
• eventual recovery