Interlanguage Syntactic Structures Fundamentally Different from L1 English

Abstract

This paper argues that syntactic derivations and structures in L2 English are fundamentally different from those in L1 English, but similar to those in some other languages. The computational system for L2 learners may not function on a par with native speakers, particularly when moving the wh-phrase and related lexical items from their base positions to a clause-initial position. Consequently, L2 learners rely on alternative derivations that are more economical and necessitate less processing burden. When they intend to derive long-distance (LD) wh-questions such as Who do you think bought the clothes?, wh-scope marking such as *What do you think who bought the clothes? arises as a predominant alternative structure. On the other hand, when they intend to derive a pied-piping structure such as For which bus are you waiting? or a preposition stranding structure such as Which bus are you waiting for?, null-prepositional construction (NPCs) such as *Which bus are you waiting? arises a terminal structure for average L2 learners. Wh-scope marking and NPCs are ungrammatical in (L1) English, although quite viable in L2 English. However, these systematic ungrammatical L2 structures are legitimate in other natural languages, which leads us to claim that they are inevitable and in essence perfectly natural in the course of L2 acquisition due to economy reasons.