"Tom Eats Slowly Cooked Eggs": Thematic-Verb Raising in L2 Knowledge

Abstract

White (e.g., 1990/1991) and Schwartz (e.g., 1993) suggested that parametric values that determine verb raising transfer into initial second-language (L2) representations. However, reaction-time research by Eubank and Grace (1996) suggested that this type of transfer does not appear; rather, the value determining raising is radically underspecified, allowing raising to occur optionally. These findings are problematic, however, because reaction times require so much extrapolation. In this article, we employ a truth-value task to reexamine native-language (NL) transfer among Chinese-speaking L2 learners of English—that is, where neither NL nor mature L2 permits verb raising. Findings confirm largely the Eubank and Grace findings, indicating optionality effects. Discussion includes a comparison with the earlier findings of Eubank and Grace and analysis of developmental and transfer-based explanations for the observed optionality effects. In the end, only an explanation involving an impairment to verbal features under I° appears to be supported.