The current study investigates second language acquisition of Chinese object ellipsis to probe the development of features transferred from learners' native language without robust confirming or disconfirming evidence in the second language (L2) input. It is argued that Chinese allows object ellipsis licensed by a verb with a [VCase] feature but…

This paper examines diasporic language ecology based on a sociolinguistic study of a Chinese complementary school (CCS) in Birmingham, England. The study applies a historical perspective to investigate local multilingual practices in relation to language ideology and identity. The discussion in this paper draws on "heteroglossia" to…

Studies adopting a Complex Dynamic Systems Theory framework have often fallen into one of two camps: those investigating variable linguistic subsystems (namely, CAF studies) and those concerned with non-linguistic variables displaying the characteristics of dynamic systems, with little concern for their connection to linguistic development.…

Pragmatic competence plays a very significant role in cross-cultural communication. In Chinese high school, many English teachers focus more on lexical and syntactic aspects of English. The aspect of pragmatics, however, is relatively neglected by high school English teachers. The aim of this research is to investigate pragmatic transfer in…

Studies in interlanguage pragmatics have shown that L2 learners' proficiency has an influence on the occurrences of L1 pragmatic transfer. However, questions remain whether the relationship between L1 pragmatic transfer and L2 proficiency is positive or negative. This paper is designed to study L1 pragmatic transfer in requests made by Chinese…

The present study adopted a cognitive linguistic framework--Talmy's (1985, 1991, 2000) typological classification of motion events--to investigate how second-language (L2) Chinese learners come to express motion events in a targetlike manner. Fifty-five U.S. university students and 20 native speakers of Chinese participated in the study. A…

This study examines the effectiveness of an output practice, i.e., Chinese-to-English translation, on promoting noticing and acquisition of a type of grammatical form, i.e., lexical phrases. It is confirmed that output is vital in facilitating learners' noticing and acquisition of the targeted linguistic forms.

In English and Chinese, questions with a "wh"-object and a universally quantified subject (e.g. "What did everyone buy?") allow an individual answer ("Everyone bought apples.") and a pair-list answer ("Sam bought apples, Jo bought bananas, Sally bought..."). By contrast, the pair-list answer is reportedly unavailable in Japanese and Korean. This…

While resumptive pronouns (RPs) are generally not allowed in English relative clauses, Chinese allows the use of RPs in indirect object position and genitive position but not in subject and direct object positions. Arabic languages allow RPs in direct object position as well as in indirect object position and genitive position, although not in…

Five papers on linguistics contained in this issue include the following: "Tones for Profoundly Deaf Tone-Language Speakers" (Teresa Y. C. Ching), a study using a simplified speech pattern approach to enhance perception of tonal contrasts in Cantonese; "Word Formation and the Limits of Analytic Equivalence" (Peter Crisp), a…

The series of articles in this volume were selected from among those presented at the 8th Annual International Conference on Pragmatics and Language Learning in April 1994. Articles include: "The Right Tool for the Job: Techniques for Analysis of Natural Language Use" (Georgia M. Green); "Sinclair & Coulthard Revisited: Global-…