Part of
Second Language Acquisition of TurkishEdited by Ayşe Gürel
[Language Acquisition and Language Disorders 59] 2016
► pp. 165–191
Edited by Ayşe Gürel
[Language Acquisition and Language Disorders 59] 2016
► pp. 165–191
Syntax/semantics/pragmatics of yes/no question in second language Turkish
This paper examines the second language (L2) acquisition of the syntax, semantics, and pragmatics of Turkish yes/no (yn) questions across learners of different proficiency. Employing three tasks, we tested the participants’ knowledge of the syntax of yn questions, the semantic interpretations they assign to the construction, and their mastery of the pragmatic constraints that govern the use of various points of yn questions. Although the results show that the participants’ performance in all three areas we tested is commensurate with their overall proficiency in Turkish, the pragmatic competence of L2 learners seems to lag behind their competence in both syntax and semantics. This points to difficulties that interface phenomena pose to L2 learners, relative to narrow syntax.
References
Anderson, B
2008 Forms of evidence and grammatical development in the acquisition of adjective position in L2 French. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 30: 1–29. 
Aygen, G
2007 Q-particle. Dil ve Edebiyat Dergisi 4: 1–30.
Belletti, A. & Leonini, C
2004 Subject Inversion in L2 Italian. In EUROSLA Yearbook 4, S. Foster-Cohen, M. Sharwood Smith, A. Sorace & M. Ota (eds), 95–118. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Belletti, A., Bennati, E. & Sorace, A
2007 Theoretical and developmental issues in the syntax of subjects: Evidence from near-native Italian. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 25: 657–689.
Chierchia, G
1999 Syntax-semantics interface. In MIT Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science,
Wilson, R.A. & F.C. Keil, 744–745. Cambridge MA: The MIT Press.
Chomsky, N
1995 The Minimalist Program. Cambridge MA: The MIT Press.
Coppieters, R
1987 Competence differences between native and near-native speakers. Language 63: 544–573.
Dekydtspotter, L. & Hathorn, J
2005 Quelque chose...de remarquable in English-French acquisition: Mandatory, informationally encapsulated computations in second language interpretation. Second Language Research 21: 291–323.
Dekydtspotter, L. & Sprouse, R
2001 Mental design and (second) language epistemology: Adjectival restrictions of wh-quantifiers and tense in English-French interlanguage. Second Language Research 17: 1–35.
Flynn, S
1983 A Study of the Effects of Principal Branching Direction in Second Language Acquisition: The Generalization of a Parameter of Universal Grammar from First to Second Language Acquisition. PhD dissertation, Cornell University.
1987 A Parameter-Setting Model of L2 Acquisition: Experimental Studies in Anaphora. Dordrecht: Reidel.
Franceschina, F
2001 Morphological or syntactic deficits in near-native speakers? An assessment of some current proposals. Second Language Research 17(3): 213–247.
Göksel, A. & Kerslake, C.C
2005 Turkish: A Comprehensive Grammar. London: Routledge.
Hagstrom, P
1998 Decomposing Questions. PhD dissertation, MIT.
2000 The movement of question particles. In NELS 30: Proceedings of the North East Linguistics Society, M. Hirotani, A. Coetzee, N. Hall & J.-Y. Kim (eds), 275–286.
Amherst MA: GLSA.
Hawkins, R. & Chan, C
1997 The partial availability of universal grammar in second language acquisition: The ‘failed functional features hypothesis.’ Second Language Research 13: 187–226.
Haznedar, B. & Schwartz, B.D
1997 Are there optional infinitives in child L2 acquisition? In Proceedings of the 21st Boston University Conference on Language Development (BUCLD), E. Hughes, M. Hughes & A. Greenhill (eds), 257–268. Somerville MA: Cascadilla Press.
Ionin, T. & Wexler, K
2002 Why is “is” easier than “-s”?: Acquisition of tense/agreement morphology by child L2-English learners. Second Language Research 18: 95–136.
Ioup, G
1984 Is there a structural foreign accent? A comparison of syntactic and phonological errors in second language acquisition. Language Learning 34: 1–17.
Iverson, M., Kempchinsky, P. & Rothman, J
2008 Interface vulnerability and knowledge of the subjunctive/indicative distinction with negated epistemic predicates in L2 Spanish. In EUROSLA Yearbook 8, L. Roberts, F. Myles & A. David (eds), 135–163. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Kamalı, B
2011 The Question Particle in Turkish: Consequences for the Interfaces. In Online complement to Proceedings of WCCFL 28, M. Byram Washburn, S. Ouwayda, Ch. Ouyang, B. Yin, C. Ipek, L. Marston & A. Walker (eds). [URL] (22 January, 2014).
Kornfilt, J
1997 Turkish. London: Routledge.
Lardiere, D
1998 Dissociating syntax from morphology in a divergent L2 end-state grammar. Second Language Research 14: 359–375.
2007 Ultimate Attainment in Second Language Acquisition: A Case Study. Mahwah NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Lewis, G
1967 Turkish Grammar. Oxford: OUP.
Liceras, J
1988 Syntax and stylistics: More on the pro-drop parameter. In Learnability and Second Languages: A Book of Readings, J. Pankhurst, M. Sharwood Smith & P. Van Buren (eds), 71–93. Dordrecht: Foris.
Lozano, C
2009. Selective deficits at the syntax-discourse interface. In Representational Deficits in SLA: Studies in Honor of Roger Hawkins [Language Acquisition and Language Disorders 47], N. Snape, Y.-K.I. Leung & M. Sharwood Smith (eds), 127–166. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Pérez-Leroux, A.T
& 1997 OPC effects in the L2 acquisition of Spanish. In Contemporary Perspectives on the Acquisition of Spanish, Vol. 1: Developing Grammars, A.T. Pérez-Leroux & W. Glass (eds), 149–165. Somerville MA: Cascadilla Press.
Pérez-Leroux, A.T. & Glass, W
1999 Null anaphora in Spanish second language acquisition: Probabilistic versus generative approaches. Second Language Research 15: 220–249.
Prévost, P. & White, L
2000 Missing surface inflection or impairment in second language acquisition? Evidence from tense and agreement. Second Language Research 16(2): 103–133.
Rothman, J
2009 Pragmatic deficits with syntactic consequences? L2 pronominal subjects and the syntax-pragmatics interface. Journal of Pragmatics 41: 951–973.
Slabakova, R
2010 Scalar implicatures in second language acquisition.Lingua 120: 2444–2462.
Sorace, A
2005 Selective optionality in language development. In Syntax and Variation: Reconciling the Biological and the Social [Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 265], L. Cornips & K. P. Corrigan (eds), 55–80. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
2006 Gradedness and optionality in mature and developing grammars. In Gradience in Grammar, G. Fanselow, C. Féry, R. Vogel & M. Schlesewsky (eds), 106–123. Oxford: OUP.
2011 Pinning down the concept of “interface” in bilingualism. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism 1(1): 1–33.
Sorace, A. & Filiaci, F
2006 Anaphora resolution in near-native speakers of Italian. Second Language Research 22: 339–368.
Sorace, A. & Serratrice, L
2009 Internal and external interfaces in bilingual language development: Beyond structural overlap. International Journal of Bilingualism 13(2): 195–210.
Tsimpli, I.-M. & Sorace, A
2006 Differentiating interfaces: L2 performance in syntax-semantics and syntax-discourse phenomena. In
Proceedings of the 30th Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development (BUCLD 30)
, D. Bamman, T. Magnitskaia & C. Zaller (eds), 653–64. Somerville MA: Cascadilla Press.
Valenzuela, E
2005 L2 Ultimate Attainment and the Syntax-Discourse Interface: The Acquisition of Topic Constructions in Non-Native Spanish and English. PhD dissertation, McGill University.
Valenzuela, E
2006 L2 endstate grammars and incomplete acquisition of the Spanish CLLD constructions. In Inquiries in Linguistic Development: In Honor of Lydia White, R. Slabakova, S. Montrul & P. Prévost (eds), 283–304. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
White, L
2011 Second language acquisition at the interfaces. Lingua 121: 577–590.