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Second Language Acquisition Theory: The legacy of Professor Michael H. Long
Edited by Alessandro G. Benati and John W. Schwieter
[Bilingual Processing and Acquisition 14] 2022
► pp. 143–176

Chapter 8
A calculus for L1 transfer

| University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa
The phenomenon of transfer plays a prominent role, either explicitly or implicitly, in most approaches to SLA, including Focus on Form and the Interaction Hypothesis – to name two lines of inquiry that lay at the heart of Mike Long’s scholarship. The central thesis of this chapter is that transfer is best seen as a processing-driven strategy: L2 learners transfer operations from their L1 to the L2, unless those operations are more costly in the L2 than in the L1. Much of the chapter is devoted to the application of this idea to phenomena that arise when adult native speakers of English, Japanese, Korean, Spanish and Catalan go about acquiring a second or third language, producing transfer effects that have been difficult to accommodate in traditional approaches to cross-linguistic influence.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.A brief overview
    • 2.1Linguistic emergentism
    • 2.2Transfer and processing cost
  • 3.Verb deletion in English and Japanese
    • 3.1English-speaking learners of Japanese
      • Participants
      • Method and materials
      • Results
    • 3.2Japanese-speaking learners of English
      • Participants
      • Method and materials
      • Results
    • 3.3Implications
  • 4.The interpretation of quantified NPs in English and Korean
    • 4.1English-speaking learners of Korean
      • Participants
      • Method and materials
      • Results
    • 4.2Korean-speaking learners of English
      • Participants
      • Method and materials
      • Results
    • 4.3Implications
  • 5.The interpretation of indefinite NPs in English and Japanese
    • 5.1The phenomenon
    • 5.2The interpretation of dareka by native speakers of English
      • Participants
      • Method and materials
      • Results
    • 5.3Implications
    • 5.4The Weakness Corollary
  • 6.The interpretation of null arguments in Japanese and Chinese
    • 6.1The phenomenon
    • 6.2The interpretation of Chinese pro by native speakers of Japanese
      • Participants
      • Method and materials
      • Results
    • 6.3Implications
  • 7.A note on third language acquisition
    • 7.1The phenomenon
    • 7.2The acquisition of English negation by Catalan and Spanish bilinguals
      • Participants
      • Method and materials
      • Results
    • 7.3Implications
  • 8.Concluding remarks
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 11 August 2022
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/bpa.14.08ogr
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2022. Emergentist Syntax and SLA: An Interview with William O’Grady. In Talking About Second Language Acquisition, ► pp. 123 ff. DOI logo

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