Articles and Telicity: The Grammar of Early and Intermediate L2 Learners of English

Abstract

In a sentence like Tom ate an apple/apples, (a)telicity of the event expressed by the verb phrase is determined by number and definiteness features of the object. This article discusses the second language (L2) acquisition of such formal features in terms of L1 transfer and semantic/pragmatic computation, based on the interpretation of telicity by Japanese learners of English (JLEs). It is known that JLEs find it difficult to interpret telicity of a sentence with definite plurals like the apples (Kaku, 2009; Kimura, 2014; Wakabayashi & Kimura, 2018). It has also been shown that elementary JLEs are insensitive to number and definiteness features in interpreting telicity (Kimura, 2014; Wakabayashi & Kimura, 2018). Previous studies have explained these facts in terms of computational complexity with definite plurals or the absence of relevant functional categories in the developing interlanguage grammar. Highlighting problems with those studies, this article offers an alternative proposal: Following Filip (2008), who proposes that telicity is derived by scalar implicature, it is argued that the insensitivity to formal features by elementary learners arises from a failure in the application of scalar implicature. Further, it is also argued that the difficulty intermediate learners have with the interpretation of definite plurals lies in lexical learning of formal features (definiteness) because of the lack of the lexical item the in their first language (L1).