The Acquisition of Tense-Aspect Marking in Japanese as a Second Language

Researchers have argued that the developmental sequence of tense-aspect morphology in second language (L2) acquisition follows a universal pattern (the Aspect Hypothesis; e.g., Robison, 1995). Although such a tendency fits the acquisition of typologically similar languages (English, French and Spanish), the universal claim requires testing against non-Indo European languages. This study tested the Aspect Hypothesis using L2 Japanese (JSL) data. Experiment 1 showed that in oral production data, 3 learners of JSL showed stronger association of achievement verbs and past marking (-ta), and of activity verbs and progressive/durative marking (-te i-), than native speakers. Experiment 2 showed that in an acceptability judgment test of tense-aspect forms, 17 learners of JSL had more difficulty correctly judging the acceptability of the progressive/durative marker (-te i-) with achievement verbs than with activity verbs. The results extend the applicability of the Aspect Hypothesis to a non-Indo-European language

Biology · Language acquisition · Linguistics · Past tense · Test (biology) · Verb · Language Development and Disorders · Philosophy · Psychology · Reading and Literacy Development · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation

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