ERIC Number: EJ1433575
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2024-Jul
Pages: 15
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0267-6583
EISSN: EISSN-1477-0326
Scope Assignment in Quantifier-Negation Sentences in Tibetan as a Heritage Language in China
Yunchuan Chen; Tingting Huan
Second Language Research, v40 n3 p785-799 2024
Quantifier-Negation sentences allow an inverse scope reading in Tibetan but not in Chinese. This difference can be attributed to the underlying syntactic difference: the negation word can be raised at Logical Form in Tibetan but not in Chinese. This study investigated whether Chinese-dominant Tibetan heritage speakers know such difference. We conducted a sentence-picture matching truth value judgment task with 28 Chinese-dominant Tibetan heritage speakers, 25 baseline Tibetan speakers and 31 baseline Chinese speakers. Our baseline data first confirmed the difference between Tibetan and Chinese: the inverse scope reading is allowed in Tibetan but prohibited in Chinese. Our heritage participants' data showed a divergence: one group of heritage speakers allow the inverse scope reading in both Tibetan and Chinese while another group prohibit it in both languages. There is a third group of heritage speakers who are aware of the difference between Tibetan and Chinese. Our findings suggest that while it is possible for heritage speakers to attain nativelike knowledge of an interface phenomenon that differs in their two languages, they may also be subject to crosslinguistic influence and adopt one of two opposite strategies. Both strategies can minimize syntactic differences between their two grammars so an economy of syntactic representations in their repository of grammars can be achieved.
Descriptors: Sentence Structure, Sino Tibetan Languages, Native Language, Reading Processes, Contrastive Linguistics, Second Language Learning, Second Language Instruction, Syntax, Language Dominance, Transfer of Training, Grammar, Value Judgment, Task Analysis, Foreign Countries, Mandarin Chinese, College Students, Student Characteristics, Language Fluency
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: China
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A