Because the Japanese language does not have a robust plural morpheme system, it is morphologically incongruent with English. As such, L1 Japanese learners of L2 English are argued to be unable to fully acquire English plural morphemes. While previous studies have revealed limitations in L2 processing, recent studies have revealed that advanced-learners are sensitive to incongruent morphology. However, these studies have largely investigated processing within English as a second language context. As such, the present study investigated the sensitivity to inflectional number agreement in English by Japanese learners of English in Japan using the Lexical Maze Task. The results revealed that these learners were sensitive to violations in number agreement for both plural (this *dogs) and null (these *cat) morphemes. However, further analysis revealed that this was modulated by English proficiency. While participants with higher English ability were found to reveal greater sensitivity to ungrammatical morphemes, it was found that this was only the case for the ungrammatical plural (this *dogs). The ungrammatical null (these *cat) was instead revealed to evoke longer responses times by low proficiency learners, and high proficiency learners showed no sensitivity. This might be explained by a greater lexical variability among more advanced learners. Accordingly, this study demonstrates that despite morphological incongruence, non-advanced Japanese learners of English in Japan can acquire the English plural -S morpheme.
Andersen, R. W. (1984). The One to One Principle of Interlanguage Construction. Language Learning, 34, 77-95. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-1770.1984.tb00353.x
Baayen, R. H., Davidson, D. J., & Bates, D. M. (2008). Mixed-Effects Modeling with Crossed Random Effects for Subjects and Items. Journal of Memory and Language, 59, 390-412. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2007.12.005
Baayen, R. H., Dijkstra, T., & Schreuder, R. (1997). Singulars and Plurals in Dutch: Evidence for a Parallel Dual-Route Model. Journal of Memory and Language, 37, 94-117. https://doi.org/10.1006/jmla.1997.2509
Bailey, N., Madden, C., & Krashen, S. D. (1974). Is There a “Natural Sequence” in Adult Second Language Learning? Language Learning, 24, 235-243. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-1770.1974.tb00505.x
Bates, D. M., Mächler, M., Bolker, B., & Walker, S. (2014). Fitting Linear Mixed-Effects Models Using lme4. arXiv preprint arXiv:1406.5823.
Bley-Vroman, R. (1990). The Logical Problem of Foreign Language Learning. Linguistic Analysis, 20, 3-49.
Bryant, W. H. (1984). Typical Errors in English Made by Japanese ESL Students. Japanese Association of Language Teachers Journal, 6, 1-18.
Brysbaert, M., & New, B. (2009) Moving beyond Kucera and Francis: A Critical Evaluation of Current Word Frequency Norms and the Introduction of a New and Improved Word Frequency Measure for American English. Behavior Research Methods, 41, 977-990. https://doi.org/10.3758/BRM.41.4.977
Chen, L., Shu, H., Liu, Y., Zhao, J., & Li, P. (2007). ERP signatures of subject-verb agreement in L2 learning. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 10, 161-174. https://doi.org/10.1017/S136672890700291X
Clahsen, H., & Felser, C. (2006a). Grammatical Processing in Language Learners. Applied Psycholinguistics, 27, 3-42. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0142716406060024
Clahsen, H., & Felser, C. (2006b). How Native-Like Is Non-Native Language Processing? Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 10, 564-570. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2006.10.002
Clahsen, H., Felser, C., Neubauer, K., Sato, M., & Silva, R. (2010). Morphological Structure in Native and Nonnative Language Processing. Language Learning, 60, 21-43. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9922.2009.00550.x
Dulay, H. C., & Burt, M. K. (1974a). Errors and Strategies in Child Second Language Acquisition. Tesol Quarterly, 8, 129-136. https://doi.org/10.2307/3585536
Dulay, H. C., & Burt, M. K. (1974b). Natural Sequences in Child Second Language Acquisition. Language Learning, 24, 37-53. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-1770.1974.tb00234.x
Ellis, N. C. (2002). Frequency Effects in Language Processing: A Review with Implications for Theories of Implicit and Explicit Language Acquisition. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 24, 143-188. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0272263102002024
Ferreira, F., & Clifton, C. J. (1986). The Independence of Syntactic Processing. Journal of Memory and Language, 25, 348-368. https://doi.org/10.1016/0749-596X(86)90006-9
Forster, K. I. (2010). Using a Maze Task to Track Lexical and Sentence Processing. The Mental Lexicon, 5, 347-357.
Fox, J., Weisberg, S., Friendly, M., Hong, J., Andersen, R., Firth, D., & Taylor, S. (2018). Package “Effects”. R Package Version 4.0-3. http://cran.r-project.org/package=effects
Gibson, E. (2000). The Dependency Locality Theory: A Distance-Based Theory of Linguistic Complexity. In A. Marantz, Y. Miyasita, & W. O’Neil (Eds.), Image, Language, Brain: Papers from the First Mind Articulation Project Symposium (pp. 95-126). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Gillon-Dowens, M., Guo, T., Guo, J., Barber, H., & Carreiras, M. (2011). Gender and Number Processing in Chinese Learners of Spanish-Evidence from Event Related Potentials. Neuropsychologia, 49, 1651-1659. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2011.02.034
Gillon-Dowens, M., Vergara, M., Barber, H. A., & Carreiras, M. (2010). Morphosyntactic Processing in Late Second-Language Learners. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 22, 1870-1887. https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn.2009.21304
Goldschneider, J. M., & DeKeyser, R. M. (2001). Explaining the “Natural Order of L2 Morpheme Acquisition” in English: A Meta-Analysis of Multiple Determinants. Language Learning, 51, 1-50. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9922.00147
Hawkins, R., & Chan, C. Y. H. (1997). The Partial Availability of Universal Grammar in Second Language Acquisition: The “Failed Functional Features Hypothesis”. Second Language Research, 13, 187-226. https://doi.org/10.1191/026765897671476153
Hawkins, R., & Liszka, S. (2003). Locating the Source of Defective Past Tense Marking in Advanced L2 English Speakers. In R. Van Hout, A. Hulk, F. Kuiken, & R. J. Towell (Eds.), Language Acquisition and Language Disorders (Volume 30, pp. 21-44). Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company.
Hopp, H. (2010). Ultimate Attainment in L2 Inflection: Performance Similarities between Non-Native and Native Speakers. Lingua, 120, 901-931. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lingua.2009.06.004
Hopp, H. (2012). Grammatical Gender in Adult L2 Acquisition: Relations between Lexical and Syntactic Variability. Second Language Research, 29, 33-56. https://doi.org/10.1177/0267658312461803
Hopp, H. (2016). Learning (Not) to Predict: Grammatical Gender Processing in Second Language Acquisition. Second Language Research, 32, 277-307. https://doi.org/10.1177/0267658315624960
Hosoi, H. (2005). Japanese-Tachi Plurals. In R. T. Cover, & Y. Kim (Eds.), Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society (Volume 31, pp. 157-168). Berkeley: Berkeley Linguistics Society.
Jiang, N. (2004). Morphological Insensitivity in Second Language Processing. Applied Psycholinguistics, 25, 603-634. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0142716404001298
Jiang, N. (2007). Selective Integration of Linguistic Knowledge in Adult Second Language Learning. Language Learning, 57, 1-33. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9922.2007.00397.x
Jiang, N., Novokshanova, E., Masuda, K., & Wang, X. (2011). Morphological Congruency and the Acquisition of L2 Morphemes. Language Learning, 61, 940-967. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9922.2010.00627.x
Keating, G. D. (2009). Sensitivity to Violations of Gender Agreement in Native and Nonnative Spanish: An Eye-Movement Investigation. Language Learning, 59, 503-535. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9922.2009.00516.x
Keating, G. D. (2010). The Effects of Linear Distance and Working Memory on the Processing of Gender Agreement in Spanish. In B. VanPatten, & J. Jegerski (Eds.), Research in Second Language Processing and Parsing (pp. 113-134). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/lald.53.05kea
Krashen, S. (1977). Some Issues Relating to the Monitor Model. On Tesol, 77, 144-158.
Krashen, S. D., Sferlazza, V., Feldman, L., & Fathman, A. K. (1976). Adult Performance on the SLOPE Test: More Evidence for a Natural Sequence in Adult Second Language Acquisition. Language Learning, 26, 145-151. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-1770.1976.tb00266.x
Kurafuji, T. (2004). Plural Morphemes, Definiteness, and the Notion of Semantic Parameter. Language and Linguistics, 5, 211-242.
Kuznetsova, A., Brockhoff, P. B., & Christensen, R. H. B. (2017). lmerTest Package: Tests in Linear Mixed Effects Models. Journal of Statistical Software, 82. https://doi.org/10.18637/jss.v082.i13
Larsen-Freeman, D. E. (1976). An Explanation for the Morpheme Acquisition Order of Second Language Learners. Language Learning, 26, 125-134. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-1770.1976.tb00264.x
Lenth, R., Singmann, H., Love, J., Buerkner, P., & Herve, M. (2018). Package “Emmeans”. R Package Version 4.0-3. http://cran.r-project.org/package=emmeans
Luk, Z. P. S., & Shirai, Y. (2009). Is the Acquisition Order of Grammatical Morphemes Impervious to L1 Knowledge? Evidence from the Acquisition of Plural-s, Articles, and Possessive’s. Language Learning, 59, 721-754. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9922.2009.00524.x
McDonald, J. L. (2006). Beyond the Critical Period: Processing-Based Explanations for Poor Grammaticality Judgment Performance by Late Second Language Learners. Journal of Memory and Language, 55, 381-401. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2006.06.006
Meisel, J. (1991). Principles of Universal Grammar and Strategies of Language Learning: Some Similarities and Differences between First and Second Language Acquisition. In L. Eubank (Ed.), Point Counterpoint: Universal Grammar in the Second Language (pp. 231-276). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/lald.3.12mei
Montrul, S., & Slabakova, R. (2003). Competence Similarities between Native and Near-Native Speakers. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 25, 351-398. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0272263103000159
Portin, M., & Laine, M. (2001). Processing Cost Associated with Inflectional Morphology in Bilingual Speakers. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 4, 55-62. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1366728901000128
Portin, M., Lehtonen, M., & Laine, M. (2007). Processing of Inflected Nouns in Late Bilinguals. Applied Psycholinguistics, 28, 135-156. https://doi.org/10.1017/S014271640607007X
Prévost, P., & White, L. (1999). Accounting for Morphological Variation in Second Language Acquisition: Truncation or Missing Inflection? In M.-A. Friedemann, & L. Rizzi (Eds.), The Acquisition of Syntax (pp. 202-235). London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315839899
Prévost, P., & White, L. (2000). Missing Surface Inflection or Impairment in Second Language Acquisition? Evidence from Tense and Agreement. Second Language Research, 16, 103-133. https://doi.org/10.1191/026765800677556046
R Core Team (2017). R: A Language and Environment for Statistical Computing. Vienna: R Foundation for Statistical Computing. http://www.R-project.org/
Rastle, K., Harrington, J., & Coltheart, M. (2002). 358,534 Nonwords: The ARC Nonword Database. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 55, 1339-1362. https://doi.org/10.1080/02724980244000099
Sagarra, N., & Herschensohn, J. (2011). Proficiency and Animacy Effects on L2 Gender Agreement Processes during Comprehension. Language Learning, 61, 80-116. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9922.2010.00588.x
Schachter, J. (1988). Second Language Acquisition and Its Relationship to Universal Grammar. Applied Linguistics, 9, 219-235. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/9.3.219
Schmidt, R. W. (1983). Interaction, Acculturation and the Acquisition of Communicative Competence. In N. Wolfson, & E. Judd (Eds.), Sociolinguistics and Language Acquisition (pp. 137-174). Rowley, MA: Newbury House.
Schwartz, B. D., & Sprouse, R. A. (1996). L2 Cognitive States and the Full Transfer/Full Access Model. Second Language Research, 12, 40-72. https://doi.org/10.1177/026765839601200103
Song, Y. (2015). L2 Processing of Plural Inflection in English. Language Learning, 65, 233-267. https://doi.org/10.1111/lang.12100
Tono, Y. (2000). A Computer Learner Corpus Based Analysis of the Acquisition Order of English Grammatical Morphemes. In L. Burnard, & T. McEnery (Eds.), Rethinking Language Pedagogy from a Corpus Perspective (pp. 123-132). Frankfurt: Peter Lang.
Tono, Y. (2009). Corpus-Based Research and Its Implications for Second Language Acquisition and English Language Teaching (pp. 155-173). A New Look at Language Teaching and Testing English as Subject and Vehicle.
Wen, Z., Miyao, M., Takeda, A., Chu, W., & Schwartz, B. D. (2010). Proficiency Effects and Distance Effects in Nonnative Processing of English Number Agreement. In K. Franich, K. M. Iserman, & L. L. Keil (Eds.), Proceedings of the 34th Boston University Conference on Language Development (pp. 445-456). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.
White, L., & Genesee, F. (1996). How Native Is Near-Native? The Issue of Ultimate Attainment in Adult Second Language Acquisition. Second Language Research, 12, 233-265. https://doi.org/10.1177/026765839601200301
Yip, V., & Matthews, S. (2000). Syntactic Transfer in a Cantonese-English Bilingual Child. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 3, 193-208. https://doi.org/10.1017/S136672890000033X