Abstract
The purpose of this study is to investigate the second language acquisition of information structure in English dative constructions by the speakers of Japanese. Data from acceptability judgments were collected in Japanese from Japanese monolingual speakers, and in English from English native speakers, Japanese advanced learners of English (JSAs) and Japanese novice learners of English (JSLs). Japanese is seen to prefer new-given order in responses to questions asking about the dative (who-dative questions); in responses to questions asking about the accusative (what-accusative questions), there is no such preference. English consistently prefers given-new order. In responses to who-datives, both JSAs and JSLs do not transfer the new-given order from their L1; they acquire the target-like ordering. Transfer effects surface in the environment where no distinction of information ordering exists in their L1, in response to what-accusatives.
