The hierarchy of interpredicational semantic relations and second language acquisition

Abstract

The hierarchy of interpredicational semantic relations and second language acquisition The development of clause linkage in French as a second language has been an important research topic in the field of language acquisition. Several studies have focused on the development of specific complex structures, often based on the semantic relationship they establish between multiple events : complement clauses (Diessel & Tomasello 2001), indirect interrogatives (Eckman et al. 1989), temporal (Noyau & Vasseur 1986, Degand & Hadermann 2009) or causative subclauses (Benazzo 2004). Our contribution examines the emergence of different semantic relations between events or states, expressed by means of interclausal and interpredicational linkage. We would like to show how learners’ repertoire of productive semantic links evolves according to their age and level of competence while acquiring a second language. For this purpose, we have analyzed semi-spontaneous oral narratives produced by secondary school pupils in Flanders, learning French as a second language. Our research hypothesis will be based on the hierarchy of semantic interpredicational relations proposed within the framework of Role and Reference Grammar (Van Valin & LaPolla 1997, Van Valin 2005). This contribution focuses on several research questions related at once to the semantic nature of clause links and to their syntactic réalisation : do learners acquire semantically strong interpredicational relations before all others, and does this apply as well to those categories which are structurally complex and therefore perhaps more difficult to conceptualise ? Are different types of links more productive or produced earlier in development at different syntactic levels of juncture ? Do L2 learners’ narratives in French resemble those of native speakers of the same language ?