Chapter 1 Introduction 1
1.1 Goals of research 1
1.2 Research background 3
1.3 Key research questions 10
1.4 Organization of the book 11
Chapter 2 Semantic and Pragmatic Analysis of English Articles:An Overview 14
2.1 Introduction 14
2.2 Semantic analysis of English articles 15
2.2.1 Definiteness and English articles 16
2.2.2 Specificity and English articles 24
2.2.3 Semantic complexity of English articles 30
2.3 Pragmatic analysis of English articles 32
2.3.1 The context-driven nature of semantic features 33
2.3.2 P-sets(Hawkins,1978,1991) 38
2.3.3 Relationship between semantic features and contextual factors 42
2.4 Summary 44
Chapter 3 L1 and L2 Acquisition of English Articles:A Critical Review 46
3.1 Introduction 46
3.2 Tasks facilitating the acquisition of English articles 47
3.3 L1 developmental studies 49
3.3.1 Maratsos's(1976)egocentricity account 50
3.3.2 Wexler's Lack of Maximality Presupposition account 52
3.3.3 The specific/non-specific effect account 55
3.4 Studies of L2-English article acquisition 60
3.4.1 Semantic Wheel and the classification of NP types 60
3.4.2 L2 article acquisition studies under the Bickertonian framework 62
3.4.3 Jarvis's(2002)study from a discourse perspective 65
3.4.4 Fluctuation Hypothesis and Syntactic Misanalysis Account 68
3.5 Comments on previous research 75
3.6 Summary 78
Chapter 4 Interaction and L2-English Article Acquisition:Questions and Hypotheses 80
4.1 Introduction 80
4.2 Interaction under the emergentist framework 81
4.2.1 Emergentism in SLA 82
4.2.2 Interaction:importance and ignorance 86
4.2.3 Outlining the interactions to be studied 89
4.3 Exploring interaction in detail 91
4.3.1 Interaction of different semantic features 92
4.3.2 Interaction of different contextual factors 94
4.3.3 Interaction of semantic features with contextual factors 98
4.4 Research questions and hypotheses 113
4.5 Summary 116
Chapter 5 Study 1:Elicited Production 117
5.1 Introduction 117
5.2 Predictions 118
5.3 Methodology 122
5.3.1 Participants 122
5.3 2 Materials and procedures 122
5.3.3 Data coding procedures 128
5.4 Results 130
5.4.1 The forced elicitation task 130
5.4.2 The written interview 137
5.5 Discussion 150
5.5 1 The role of specificity in L2 article choices 150
5.5.2 Different effects of contextual factors 157
5.5.3 Interaction of semantic features with contextual factors 160
5.6 Summary 163
Chapter 6 Study 2:Acceptability Judgment 165
6.1 Introduction 165
6.2 Background and predictions 166
6.2.1 Background 166
6.2.2 Predictions about uniqueness 167
6.2.3 Predictions about hearer knowledge 170
6.2.4 Predictions about specificity 171
6.3 Methodology 173
6.3.1 Participants 173
6.3 2 Task and materials 174
6.3.3 Procedure 181
6.4 Results 182
6.4.1 Computing uniqueness 183
6.4.2 Uniqueness vs. existence 185
6.4.3 Hearer knowledge 188
6.4.4 Specific vs. non-specific 190
6.5 Discussion 193
6.5.1 The asymmetry of performance in different contexts 195
6.5.2 The influence of partitivity 197
6.5.3 Influence of specificity in article comprehension 199
6.5.4 Semantic knowledge contributes to context sensitivity 203
6.6 Summary 205
Chapter 7 General Discussion and Conclusions 207
7.1 Introduction 207
7.2 Major findings 208
7.3 General discussion 210
7.3.1 Effects of specificity and partitivity on L2 learners'knowledge of definiteness 210
7.3.2 Factors influencing L2 learners'context-sensitivity 214
7.3.3 Interaction of semantic features with contextual factors 219
7.4 Conclusions 224
7.4.1 The Interaction Account:a summary of the study 224
7.4.2 Implications of the present study 226
7.4.3 Limitations and suggestions for further research 232
7.5 Summary 235
References 236
Appendixes 262
Appendix A Article-choice Test(Version 1) 262
Appendix B Article-choice Test(Version 2) 269
Appendix C The Answer Sheet of Article-choice Test 276
Appendix D The Consent Form for Study 2 278
Appendix E Test Items of Study 2 280
Appendix F L2 Learners'Mean Rating of Items in Study 2 285
Appendix G Native Speakers'Mean Rating of Items in Study 2 288