Abstract
This paper reports a second language study on Cantonese negative-wh- quantifiers which are morphologically composed of a negative morpheme mou and any wh-phrases (e.g. mou-bingo ‘nobody’, mou-matje ‘nothing’ and mou-bindou ‘nowhere’). Such morphological composition gave strong quantifiers with both non- existential and additional existential readings. It concludes to support Slabakova’s Bottleneck Hypothesis (2008) that form-meaning mappings associated with the functional morphology of Cantonese Neg-whQs is particularly difficult and predicted to be less likely acquirable for second language (L2) learners even at native-like level.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | Language at the University of Essex (LangUE) 2011 Proceedings |
Pages | 68-83 |
Publication status | Published - Apr 2012 |
Event | The 6th Language at the University of Essex Postgraduate Conference - Department of Language and Linguistics, University of Essex., Essex, United Kingdom Duration: 15 Jun 2011 → 16 Jun 2011 |
Conference
Conference | The 6th Language at the University of Essex Postgraduate Conference |
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Country/Territory | United Kingdom |
City | Essex |
Period | 15/06/11 → 16/06/11 |