ON THE STRUCTURE AND ACQUISITION OF TELICITY AND UNACCUSATIVITY IN VIETNAMESE

• Published in: Taiwan Journal of Linguistics Vol. 19; no. 2; pp. 1 - 32
• Main Authors: Phan, Trang, Duffield, Nigel
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Taipei 政治大學語言學研究所暨英國語文學系 01.01.2021; Crane Publishing Company
• Subjects: Aktionsart; Chinese languages; Grammatical aspect; Interlanguage; Judgment; Second language learning; Universal grammar; Vietnamese; Telicity; 漢語; 狀態; 使役動詞; Chinese; Vietnamese; Unaccusativity; 完整性; Aspect; 非賓格性; 越南語; Causatives
• ISSN: 1729-4649; 1994-2559
• DOI: 10.6519/TJL.202107_19(2).0001

In this paper, we investigate Chinese L2 learners' knowledge of two grammatical constraints in Vietnamese: the first, a constraint on the aspectual interpretation of accomplishment predicates, the second pertaining to alternations in the position of embedded subjects in mono-clausal làm causatives. Whereas the former constraint is shared by Vietnamese and Chinese, the two languages differ with respect to the latter. The results of three judgment tasks provide statistically reliable support for the idea that L2 interlanguage grammars are not ultimately limited by L1 patterns; given the absence of explicit teaching and only limited exposure to relevant structures, it is suggested that learners' performance may be guided by UG information.