L3 acquisition of the German determiner phrase: The role of L1 Japanese and L2 English

The second language (L2) acquisition of determiner phrase (DP) properties not present in a learner's first language (L1) has been shown to be problematic, with learners exhibiting variability in the suppliance of forms. This book extends the investigation from L2 acquisition into the field of third language (L3) acquisition, by examining Japanese L1 speakers with L2 English, acquiring L3 German, using a variety of written and oral tasks. The features or properties under investigation are grammatical gender and number agreement (on nouns, articles and attributive adjectives), definiteness on articles, and the suppliance or omission of articles. The data obtained are considered in relation to the role of the L2 proficiency, and also in relation to current hypotheses, such as Full Transfer/Partial Access (Hawkins & Chan, 1997) and Full Transfer/Full Access (Schwartz & Sprouse, 1994, 1996), linking to the Missing Surface Inflection Hypothesis (Prévost & White, 2000); the Prosodic Transfer Hypothesis (Goad & White, 2004); and the proposal of Distributed Morphology (Harley & Noyer, 1999). This book will find appeal with generative linguists interested in both L2 and L3 acquisition.