Illicit Object Drop by Japanese-speaking Learners of English - A Performance Account

摘要

This study investigates illicit object drop by Japanese-speaking learners of English (JLEs). Although several studies (e.g., Wakabayashi Negishi, 2003) have observed that JLEs frequently drop objects in obligatory contexts, why they produce such errors is still under debate. Using a forced-choice pointing task (Jiang Haryu, 2014, 2016; Noble et al., 2011), we investigate to what extent transfer from Japanese (which allows extensive null arguments) is responsible for JLEs' object drop errors. The results show that LI transfer has little effect on object drop. This is consistent with the proposal that it is processing difficulties that cause illicit object drop by L2 learners (Zyzik, 2008).