Investigation into clarifying the mechanism of the development of grammatical competence by adult Japanese learners of English

成人二语学习者对普遍语法的掌握程度是二语习得研究中的一个持续争论的问题。针对这一问题的最新研究主要集中在功能范畴的形式特征上，这些功能范畴在L1中没有被激活。本研究延续了这一研究思路，考察日语使用者是否能习得驱动wh-疑问句中wh-移位的形式特征（features [+wh，+Q]）和关系从句（feature [+R]），但在日语中不实例化，使用UG的以下两个原则：为了测试日语使用者是否已经习得了英语中的[+wh，+Q]和[+R]形式特征，因此，敏感的SP和GBP的影响，语法判断任务与五点量表管理的五个不同水平的成人日语发言者，以及英语母语控制。这个测试有一组违反邻接关系的语法和非语法关系从句。为了验证母语（L1）的潜在影响，另一组日语使用者被要求进行另一项语法判断任务，即使用日语中与英语中违反邻接关系的句子对应的句子。结果，正确判断的可能性随着熟练程度的增加而增加。而成年日本英语学习者在达到高水平时，对关系从句的理解与本族语者相同，中级水平的疑问句和高级水平的特殊疑问句。这意味着，高级日本英语学习者可以习得英语中的wh-疑问句和关系从句中的特征驱动的wh-移动，尽管他们在判断某些违反相邻关系限制的句子为不符合语法时受到母语的影响。

A continuing debate in L2 acquisition research is the extent to which adult second language (L2) learners have access to Universal Grammar (UG). Recent research addressing this matter has focussed on formal features of functional categories which are not activated in the L1. This study continues this line of enquiry by investigating whether Japanese speakers can acquire formal features which drive wh-movement in wh-questions (features [+wh, +Q]) and relative clauses (feature [+R]) in English, but are not instantiated in Japanese, using the following two principles of UG : Subjacency Principle (SP) and Generalised Blocking Principle (GBP).To test whether Japanese speakers have acquired the formal features [+wh, +Q] and [+R] in English, and hence are sensitive to SP and GBP effects, a grammaticality judgement task with a five-point scale was administered to five different proficiency levels of adult Japanese speakers, as well as to English native controls. This test had a set of grammatical and ungrammatical relative clauses violating Subjacency. To check the potential effect of the participants' first language (L1), a different group of Japanese speakers were given another grammaticality judgement task with Japanese equivalents of sentences violating Subjacency in English.As a result, there was a proficiency-related increase in possible correct judgement, and adult Japanese learners of English showed the same understanding of relative clauses as native speakers when they reached the high-intermediate level and also of wh-questions when they arrived at the advanced level. This means that advanced Japanese learners of English can acquire feature-driven wh-movement in wh-questions and relative clauses in English, although they were affected by L1 in judging some sentences violating Subjacency constraints as ungrammatical.