Sensitivity to missing plural marking in L2 English

This article examines whether the second language (L2) acquisition of English plural marking by learners from Generalized Classifier first languages (L1s) is affected by L1 transfer. Mandarin Chinese, Japanese and Korean exhibit micro-variation with regard to contexts in which plural markers are required, optional, or disallowed. This article lays out the predictions for L1 transfer from these three languages to English, based on the micro-variation, and under different theoretical approaches to transfer (the Feature Reassembly Hypothesis of Lardiere and the Morphological Congruency Hypothesis of Jiang et al.). The article then reviews seven studies that use online processing tasks in order to gauge whether L1 Mandarin / L1 Japanese / L1 Korean L2 English learners are sensitive to the omission of plural marking in English. The findings of these studies are discussed in light of the predictions based on micro-variation; the article lays out directions for possible future studies that would directly address L1 transfer in this domain

Classifier (UML · Feature (linguistics · Mandarin Chinese · Negative transfer · Plural · Second-language acquisition · EFL/ESL Teaching and Learning · Phonetics and Phonology Research · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation

• Linguistic distance and crosslinguistic influence

  Open Access•L White•Second language Research•2025

  Incluir item

• Linguistic distance and crosslinguistic influence in the L2 and L3 acquisition of morphosyntax

  Open Access•Theodora Alexopoulou, Kook-Hee Gil•Second language Research•2026

  Incluir item

• Meaning in the Second Language

  Roumyana Slabakova•Meaning in the Second Language•2008

  Incluir item

• Word Order and Nominative Case in Non-Native Language Acquisition

  Bonnie D Schwartz, Rex A Sprouse•Language Acquisition Studies in…•1994

  Incluir item

• On the Transfer of Parametric Values in L2 Development

  Lynn Eubank•Language Acquisition•1993

  Incluir item

• Direct Access to X’-Theory

  Anne Vainikka, Martha Young-Scholten•Language Acquisition Studies in…•1994

  Incluir item

• Gender and number agreement in nonnative Spanish

  Open Access•Lydia White, Elena Valenzuela et al.•Applied Psycholinguistics•2004

  Incluir item

• Article Semantics in L2 Acquisition

  Tania Ionin, Heejeong Ko et al.•Language Acquisition•2004

  Incluir item

• Morphological insensitivity in second language processing

  Open Access•Nan Jiang•Applied Psycholinguistics•2004

  Incluir item

• Plurality in a Classifier Language

  Open Access•P Li, Yen-Hui Audrey Li•Journal of East Asian Linguistics•1999

  Incluir item

• What transfers (or doesn’t) in the second language acquisition of English articles by learners from article-less native languages

  Open Access•Tania Ionin, Sea Hee Choi et al.•Linguistic Approaches to…•2022

  Incluir item

• The activation of grammaticalized meaning in L2 processing

  Open Access•Nan Jiang, Guiling Hu et al.•International Journal of…•2017

  Incluir item

• Some thoughts on the contrastive analysis of features in second language acquisition

  Open Access•Donna Lardiere•Second language Research•2009

  Incluir item

• L1 Korean and L1 Mandarin L2 English learners’ acquisition of the count/mass distinction in English

  Open Access•Sea Hee Choi, Tania Ionin et al.•Second language Research•2017

  Incluir item

• The role of the native language in the use of the English nongeneric definite article by L2 learners

  Open Access•Anna Chrabaszcz, N Jiang•Second language Research•2014

  Incluir item

• Natural Sequences in Child Second Language Acquisition 1

  Open Access•Heidi C Dulay, Heidi Dulay et al.•Language Learning•1974

  Incluir item

• Plural-marking in L2 Korean

  Open Access•Sun Hee Hwang, Donna Lardiere•Second language Research•2013

  Incluir item

• L2 cognitive states and the Full Transfer/Full Access model

  Open Access•Bonnie D Schwartz, Rex A Sprouse•Second language Research•1996

  Incluir item

• The early stages in adult L2 syntax

  Open Access•Anne Vainikka, Martha Young-Scholten•Second language Research•1996

  Incluir item

• L2 Processing of Plural Inflection in English

  Open Access•Yoonsang Song•Language Learning•2015

  Incluir item

• Sources of linguistic knowledge in the second language acquisition of English articles

  Open Access•Tania Ionin, Maria Luisa Zubizarreta et al.•Lingua•2008

  Incluir item

• Quantification in Mandarin Chinese

  Open Access•Robert Iljic•Linguistics•1994

  Incluir item

• Morphological Congruency and the Acquisition of L2 Morphemes

  Open Access•Nan Jiang, Eugenia Novokshanova et al.•Language Learning•2011

  Incluir item

• Selective Integration of Linguistic Knowledge in Adult Second Language Learning

  Open Access•Nan Jiang•Language Learning•2007

  Incluir item

• Is There a "Natural Sequence" in Adult Second Language Learning

  Open Access•Nathalie Bailey, Carolyn Madden et al.•Language Learning•1974

  Incluir item

• Reference to Kinds across Language

  Open Access•Gennaro Chierchia•Natural Language Semantics•1998

  Incluir item