The Acquisition of lsland Repair under Ellipsis by Japanese Learners of English

Abstract

This study investigates how Japanese learners of English acquire elliptical constructions where the violation of the wh-island constraint can be repaired. focusing on sluicing and VP-ellipsis. More specifically, this study compares the results of the grammaticality judgment task by Japanese learners of English with those by native speakers of English, using several sentence types as stimulus sentences: e.g., relative clause islands, derived position islands, COMP-trace effects, coordinate structure constraints, complement to nouns, and adjuncts. The results show that the acquisition pattern of Japanese learners of English is basically similar to that of native speakers of English.