L2 Acquisition of psych-predicates in adnominal clauses by English-speaking learners of Japanese

Abstract

This paper investigates whether English-speaking learners of Japanese are aware of the properties of Japanese psychological (psych) verbs, and the interplay of L2 acquisition of Japanese psych verbs and learners’ background such as the length of residence (LOR) and the grammar test scores (GTS). An experimental study was conducted to investigate such issues, in which a total of 53 English-speaking learners and 30 Japanese native speakers participated. A total of 10 Japanese SE verbs were presented in two different types of adnominal clauses: “dictionary form”, and “te-iru form”, combined with two types of arguments (Experiencer/Theme). The main purpose of the study is to ascertain whether or not L2 learners of Japanese with different LOR and GTS experiences, perform differently in their argument selections involving psych-predicates in Japanese. The results show that GTS predicts learners’ performance better than LOR. Two possible reasons are provided to explain the obtained data.