Universiteit Gent Faculteit Letteren & Wijsbegeerte Academiejaar 2012-2013 The acquisition of do-support by Belgian Dutch-speaking learners of English A study in the framework of Processability Theory Masterproef voorgelegd tot het bekomen van de graad van Master in de Taal- en Letterkunde: Twee talen Sarah Candry Promotor: Prof. Dr. Mieke Van Herreweghe Co-Promotor: Dr. Kristof Baten 2 Universiteit Gent Faculteit Letteren & Wijsbegeerte Academiejaar 2012-2013 The acquisition of do-support by Belgian Dutch-speaking learners of English A study in the framework of Processability Theory Masterproef voorgelegd tot het bekomen van de graad van Master in de Taal- en Letterkunde: Twee talen Sarah Candry Promotor: Prof. Dr. Mieke Van Herreweghe Co-Promotor: Dr. Kristof Baten 3 Acknowledgements I would like to thank everyone who has contributed to this master paper. Firstly, I would like to thank to my supervisor Prof. Dr. Mieke Van Herreweghe and my co-supervisor Dr. Kristof Baten for giving me the opportunity to conduct this study. Their useful comments and practical tips have been a tremendous help. I would also like to thank the participants who took part in the interviews and Jeroen Remy, Scouts Ieper and the Sint-Vincentiuscollege for providing participants. Special thanks go out to my parents for supporting me throughout my education. I would like to thank my father, my sister Charlotte, my brother Pieter and Yarim Vanherpe for reading through my master paper. 4 Table of Contents List of Figures ............................................................................................................................ 7 List of Tables .............................................................................................................................. 7 List of Abbreviations .................................................................................................................. 7 1. Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 8 2. Literature Study ................................................................................................................ 10 2.1. Concurrent theories of PT ........................................................................................ 10 2.2. Processability Theory ............................................................................................... 13 2.2.1. What is PT? ........................................................................................................ 13 2.2.1.1. Psycholinguistic basis .............................................................................. 15 2.2.1.2. Levelt’s model of language generation .................................................... 15 2.2.2. Language production and generation ................................................................. 16 2.2.2.1. Language production ................................................................................ 16 2.2.2.2. Incremental language generation.............................................................. 18 2.2.3. Lexical Functional Grammar.............................................................................. 20 2.2.3.1. UG in LFG ............................................................................................... 23 2.2.3.2. Feature Unification ................................................................................... 23 2.2.4. Language-specificity .......................................................................................... 25 2.2.5. The acquisition process: the “processability hierarchy” .................................... 26 2.2.6. Language development....................................................................................... 29 2.2.6.1. “Developmental trailers” .......................................................................... 30 2.2.7. Learner variation ................................................................................................ 30 2.2.7.1. Bad Choice Hypothesis ............................................................................ 33 2.2.7.2. Differences between learners of different ages ........................................ 34 2.2.8. L1 transfer .......................................................................................................... 35 2.2.9. Method ............................................................................................................... 36 2.2.10. Language instruction: “Teachability” ................................................................ 37 2.3. L1 transfer outside the PT context ........................................................................... 38 2.4. Do-support ................................................................................................................ 40 2.4.1. What is do-support? ........................................................................................... 40 2.4.2. The acquisition of do-support according to PT .................................................. 41 2.4.3. Previous studies .................................................................................................. 42 3. Methodology .................................................................................................................... 46 3.1. Participants ............................................................................................................... 46 3.2. Interviews ................................................................................................................. 46 3.2.1. Adjustments made to the interviews .................................................................. 48 3.3. Materials ................................................................................................................... 49 3.4. Data analysis ............................................................................................................ 49 3.4.1. Structures ............................................................................................................ 50 3.4.1.1. SVO .......................................................................................................... 50 3.4.1.2. Neg+Verb ................................................................................................. 51 3.4.1.3. Do-Fronting .............................................................................................. 51 3.4.1.4. 3rd person sg ............................................................................................. 51 3.4.1.5. Do-2nd, Neg-do2nd and Aux-2nd ............................................................ 52 3.4.1.6. Codes ........................................................................................................ 52 3.4.2. Sentences without auxiliary ‘do’ ........................................................................ 53 4. Results .............................................................................................................................. 54 4.1. Implicational Scale ................................................................................................... 54 4.1.1. Group 1 ............................................................................................................... 59 4.1.2. Group 2 ............................................................................................................... 62 5 4.1.3. Group 3 ............................................................................................................... 63 4.2. Mistakes ................................................................................................................... 64 4.2.1. Negation ............................................................................................................. 64 4.2.2. Inversion ............................................................................................................. 65 4.2.3. Codes .................................................................................................................. 66 4.3. L1 transfer ................................................................................................................ 68 4.4. Emphatic ‘do’ ........................................................................................................... 69 5. Discussion ........................................................................................................................ 70 5.1. Processability ........................................................................................................... 70 5.2. Do-support ................................................................................................................ 70 5.3. Implications for language instruction ....................................................................... 71 5.4. Common European Framework of Reference for Languages .................................. 74 6. Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 76 6.1. The acquisition of do-support .................................................................................. 76 6.2. Language instruction and the CEFR ........................................................................ 78 6.3. Further research ........................................................................................................ 79 Appendices ..............................................................................................................................