An error analysis of plurality in L2 English by L1 Mandarin college students

Abstract

This dissertation demonstrates an error analysis of plurality (i.e. singular/base versus plural forms) of nouns and pronouns in L2 (second language) English made by L1 (first language) Mandarin college students. Guided by the Contrastive Interlanguage Analysis (CIA) approach (Granger, 1996), the Mandarin L2 English data is compared with an additional L1 Filipino / L2 English corpus alongside data from L1 English native speakers, with the findings suggesting that L1 transfer (rather than universal influence) is the main cause of plurality mistakes in L2 production. Plurality errors are annotated, quantified, and explained in a 100-text corpus of 56,000 words, in order to find the characteristics and sources of mistakes of plurality. The study also includes a comparison between spoken and written L2 production, identifying the register differences of plurality errors (e.g. speakers produce significantly more countable noun mistakes than writers, but significantly less frequent uncountable ones). Importantly, the mistakes found are explained in a detailed and systematic way via a model illustrating the discrepancies of noun phrase concepts between L1 Mandarin and English and how those differences affect L2 production in terms of plurality, with reference to markedness, generic-referencing nouns and the absence of the sense of grammatical countability in L1 Mandarin.