Japanese speakers' second language Chinese wh-questions: a lexical morphological feature deficit account

Abstract

In this article, an empirical study of how Chinese wh-questions are mentally represented in Japanese speakers' grammars of Chinese as a second language (L2) is reported. Both Chinese and Japanese are generally considered wh-in-situ languages in which a wh-word is allowed to remain in its base-generated position, and both languages use question particles to mark questions. It is assumed that C⁰ in wh-questions is essentially ambiguous and unvalued and that unvalued C⁰ must be valued. In Chinese, the wh-particle ne values C⁰ with [+Q, +wh] features, which licenses the wh-word in situ. As a result, no wh-movement is necessary and Subjacency becomes irrelevant. Japanese also employs question particles, such as ka or no. However, they are `defective' in the sense that they can only value the ambiguous C⁰ as [+Q] and they are unable to specify the question as to whether it is [+yes/no] or [+wh]. To value C⁰ as a head with [+wh], a wh-operator in a wh -word inside the sentence has to raise overtly to C⁰. The results of an acceptability judgement task show that although the Japanese speakers respond in a broadly target-like way, the lexical morphological feature [+wh] of the particle ne in their L2 Chinese lexicons is permanently deficient, which leads to variability in their intuitions about Chinese wh-questions. A lexical morphological feature deficit account for the results is proposed, and it is suggested that the lexical morphology—syntax interface can be a source of variability in L2 acquisition.