Copula processing and grammar development in JSLA

Judith Preston UMass-Boston/Educational Testing Service September 12, 2011 jlpresto@gmail.com

Study objectives
- define the morphosyntactic environments in which the Japanese copula emerges based on linguistic research - integrate a set of emergence criteria stemming from formal research into a hierarchy of grammatical procedures based on a processability theory approach (PT, Pienemann, 1998) - apply those criteria in empirical analyses of JSLA based on profiling adult Japanese L2 learner spontaneous speech

Study overview
1. Review literature related to Japanese copula 2. Implement hierarchical language processing model based on PT 3. Analyze spontaneous speech of adult JSLA participants

Research question
Question: Can PTs theory-model accurately predict the order of emergence of target grammatical contexts involving the copula in the spontaneous speech of adult L2 learners of Japanese?
Hypothesis: If the various grammatical processing procedures involving the copula are constrained by morphosyntactic environments based on a procedural call hierarchy, then a PT approach to the study of empirical data based on spontaneous speech production by adult learners of JSL will show that a) longitudinally, the order of emergence of target criteria will follow the procedural grammar hierarchy of the language b) cross-sectionally, the emergence of target morphosyntax of higher stages in the hierarchy implies emergence of each lower-stage for every sample

Definition of copula targeted in the JSLA study

The copula is treated as a verbal (V) morpheme that affixes to non-inflecting categories N/NA in predicative environments (SUBJ); A verbal morpheme (V) that combines with a host noun or nominal adjective to head a clause (S or S)

Literature review (1)

Initial review C-structure syntax: Nakau (1973) Konomi (1991) Murasugi (1991) Morphology: Sells (1997) Semantics: Narahara (2002)

Copula inflection system

Narahara (2002, p. 74)

Literature review (2)

Additions -f-structure in syntactic tier analysis: Attia (2008), Nordlinger & Sadler (2006), Dalrymple, Dilvik & Halloway King (2004) -HPSG lexical sharing: Kim, Sells, & Westcoat (2004)*
*Note correct publication date. See references.

Single and double tier analyses

See Attia (2008)

Single tier analysis for Japanese

Adjective PREDs in Japanese (Dalrymple et al., 2004)

Lexical sharing
Kim, Sells & Westcoat (2004) Discussing the Korean copula, the authors explain how atoms (smaller than words) combine to form words. The projected lexical item is sharedit belongs to more than one constituent which then may combine with higher-up syntactic constituents.

Lexical sharing and the copula in Japanese

Lexical sharing (following Kim, Sells & Westcoat: 2004) can account for pre-N and pre-C affixes on host nouns heading Japanese S and S clauses.
-na/-no/-datta in pre-N -na/-datta in pre-nominalizer (NMLZ) -da/-datta, and pre-complementizer da/datta forms of the copula

Example: sensei-da-kedo (teacher-COP-however) is a word and sentence at once. sensei is only a word, but in combination here a subject is subcategorized for as a result of sharing the syntactic properties of atoms that are inherited. C indicates the sentence may combine with another sentence (but it does not have to). e.g. sensei -da -kedo N V C

Abstract examples (1)-(6): proposed emergence criteria

4 obligatory contexts 1 sometimes obligatory 1 non-obligatory context

Categorial heads of S
Lexical Category S headed by lex: PRED(LFG)/ HEAD(HPSG)/ dictionary form iku(SUBJ) go/goes X goes S headed by lex share: pre-complementizer (C) (e.g. kara because, -kedo but) iku-kara go-because (it is) because X goes S headed by lex share: pre-nominalizer (NMZ) (e.g. no, -koto) iku-no (+alpha) go-NMZ (it is) (that) X goes; Xs going S headed by lex share: pre-Noun (eg. -tokoro place, -kodomo child) iku-kodomo go-child (those are) the children (who are) going; the child that goes

Verb (inflected)

Adjective (inflected)

takai(SUBJ) expensive X is expensive

takai-kara expensive-because (it is) because X is expensive

takai-no (cf. no one)

takai-tokoro expensive-place (its an) expensive place

Nominal Adjective

benri(SUBJ) convenient X is handy

benri-da-kedo convenient-COP-however (however, its convenient)

benri-na-no convenient-COP-NMZ

benri-na-tokoro convenient-COP-place

Noun

sensei (SUBJ) teacher X is a teacher

sensei-da-kara teacher-COP-because because X is a teacher

sensei-na-no teacher-COP-NMZ (its that) X is a teacher

sensei-no-kodomo otousan-ga teacher-COP-kodomo the child whose father is a teacher

Stage 2: categories and canonical structures

1. Otousan-ga sensei-desu 2. Otousan (-ga) sensei ?3. Sensei, otousan (-wa) etc.

Canonical structures with nominal word in predicate

N N V N N

Category-based canonical structure

PRED SUBJ TOP FIN

teacher<(SUBJ)> [ ] [PRED father] +

Obligatory and forbidden contexts for Japanese copula affix

Obligatory on N/NA: pre-C (complementizer) headed S pre-NMZ headed S noun-modifying S as interrogative -ka heading S Non-obligatory: Preceding some to-headed C Preceding -ka headed S Forbidden: verb-headed S -i adjective headed S preceding interrogative main clause

Non-obligatory when the complementizer (C) -to heads a GF sharing N/NA lex that is predicated as main clause dependent (argument) in A-G.

Copula optional and obligatory contexts in S

Obligatory when C is not main clause dependent: when N/NA preceding adverbial (-to) modifier or conjunction-sharing S modifiers such as -kara/-kedo/-ga/-shi (etc.)

A. Otousan-ga sensei da to omou B. Otousan-ga sensei to omou C. Ima oshigoto da to omou D. Koko-wa chuushajou-to omou E. Koko-wa chuushajou-da-to omou F. Kore-wa benri to itta G. Kore-wa benri-da-to itta (f. *Kore-wa atarashii da to omou)

A. B.
C.

Toukyou-da to shibuya-ga ii Otousan-wa amerika da kedo kodomo-wa nihon. Otousan-wa america da/datta kedo.

Non-obligatory A. Otousan-wa sensei (da/datta) B. Otousan-wa sensei (da) ka wakaranai.

Preston, Judith. 2011. Copula processing and grammar development in Japanese second language acquisition. Paper presentation, 11th PALA (Processing Approaches to Language Acquisition) International Symposium. University of Innsbruck, September 12.

References
Attia, Mohammed. (2008) . A unified analysis of copula constructions in LFG. Proceedings of the LFG08 Conference. (Miriam Butt and Tracy Holloway King (Eds). Stanford: CSLI Publications Dalrymple, Mary, Helge Dyvik & Tracy Holloway King. 2004. Copular complements: Closed or open? Proceedings of the LFG04 Conference. (Miriam Butt and Tracy Holloway King (Eds). Kim, Jong-Bok, Peter Sells & Michael Westcoat. 2004. Korean copula constructions: A lexical sharing approach. Proceedings of the 13th Japanese-Korean Linguistics Conference. Stanford: CSLI. Konomi, Emiko. 1994. The Structure of the Nominal Predicate in Japanese. Ithica, NY: Cornell University dissertation. Murasugi, Keiko. 1991. Noun Phrases in Japanese and English: A Study in Syntax, Learnability and Acquisition. Storrs, CT: UConn dissertation. Nakau, Minoru. 1973. Sentential Complementation in Japanese. Tokyo: Kaitakusha. Narahara, Tomiko. 2002. The Japanese Copula: Forms and Functions. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Nordlinger, Rachel, and Sadler, Louisa. 2006. Verbless clauses: revealing the structure within. In Architectures, Rules and Preferences: A Festschrift for Joan Bresnan (2007). Jane Grimshaw, Joan Maling, Chris Manning, Jane Simpson and Annie Zaenan (Eds). Stanford: CSLI Publications. Pienemann, Manfred. 1998. Language Processing and Second Language Development. Studies in Bilingualism, 15. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Sells, Peter. 1997. The expression of the Japanese copula: The survival of the weakest. Ms. [14 pp.] Stanford University, Department of Linguistics.