Acquisition of preposition stranding and pied-piping in wh-questions by advanced level Turkish EFL learners Cover Image

Acquisition of preposition stranding and pied-piping in wh-questions by advanced level Turkish EFL learners
Acquisition of preposition stranding and pied-piping in wh-questions by advanced level Turkish EFL learners

Author(s): Burcin Yapıcı
Subject(s): Foreign languages learning, Syntax, Language acquisition, Turkic languages
Published by: Editura Universităţii din Bucureşti
Keywords: preposition stranding; pied-piping; wh-questions; EFL; L1 transfer;

Summary/Abstract: he study investigated the preference of Turkish EFL learners for preposition stranding and pied-piping in constructing wh-questions and whether they experience problems in the acquisition of null-preposition constructions. A 15-item elicited production test was given to 43 Turkish learners with an advanced English proficiency level. The participants were asked to make wh-questions out of the words that were put in mixed order. The results showed that there was no significant difference between preposition stranding and pied-piping in their preferences in constructing wh-questions; however, they erroneously omitted the prepositions in wh-questions. The results did not provide enough evidence to support the hypothesis that L1 transfer was responsible for the preference for preposition stranding or pied-piping and null-preposition constructions in wh-questions.

  • Issue Year: XXIII/2021
  • Issue No: 2
  • Page Range: 69-79
  • Page Count: 11
  • Language: English