The Acquisition of Subject Wh-questions by Japanese Learners of English

Abstract

This study theoretically explains how Japanese learners of English (JLEs) develop their knowledge of (short-distance) subject wh-questions in English. Although first language (L1) acquisition research on wh-questions in English shows that the subject wh-question is easier to acquire than the object wh-question (Stromswold, 1988; Tyack & Ingram, 1977), some second language (L2) acquisition studies suggest that it is more difficult for JLEs to acquire subject wh-questions than any other wh-questions (Shirahata & S. Ogawa, 2017; Shirahata et al., 2017). This study adopts the following two theoretical perspectives: i) a syntactic approach: the Cartographic approach (Rizzi, 1997), and ii) a semantic approach: the animate vs. inanimate contrast in the subject noun, and attempts to explain why subject wh-questions (subject who- and what-questions) are difficult for JLEs.

Participants were 45 first year university students in Japan, and they were divided into three proficiency groups (Low, Intermediate and Advanced levels). The test sentences included two types of subject wh-questions; Type 1: animate subject who-questions (e.g., Who bought this bag?); Type 2: inanimate subject what-questions (e.g., What changed Mary so much?). The data were collected through a multiple-choice task. The results indicate that JLEs at the initial stage are syntactically and semantically influenced by L1 Japanese properties. Then, at the intermediate stage, they overuse DO (YOU), and this may be caused by the use of a Focus head as a single probe for all wh-questions after receiving a certain amount of do-support from L2 input. With the progress of JLEs' acquisition of subject wh-questions, they gradually come to realize that Focus and Force Phrases are used in disjunctive environments, resulting in the correct use of subject wh-questions. Thus, we propose the JLEs' developmental stages for the acquisition of subject wh-questions.