Challenging Prototype Descriptions: Perception of Noun Countability and Indefinite vs. Zero Article Use  

Oleh:

Yoon, Keumsil Kim

Jenis: Article from Journal - ilmiah internasional
Dalam koleksi: IRAL: International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching vol. 31 no. 4 (Nov. 1993), page 269-290.

Ketersediaan

Perpustakaan PKBB Nomor Panggil: 405/IRA/31 Non-tandon: tidak ada Tandon: 1

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Isi artikel

This paper addresses the difficulty of article acquisition by examining the perception of noun countability by native speakers of English and Japanese speakers of English. A review of the literature on the interlanguage variation in article use leads us to challenge the prototype descriptions of indefinite vs. zero article use based on noun countability as presented in many grammar books. This study was designed to test the hypothesis that native speakers and non-native speakers may have different perceptions of what constitutes countability and that this intuitive judgment of noun countability would affect the use of the indefinite vs. zero article in particular contexts. The subjects in this experiment were asked (1) to judge intuitively the nouns extracted from two essays in terms of countability and (i1) to supply articles as needed in the same essays where all articles had been deleted. The results (particularly, the analysis of instances of 'obligatory' indefinite article use) suggest a possible link between the indefinite vs. zero article suppliance by Japanese subjects and their earlier decisions as to the countability of a given noun. The discussion of the results includes fundamental questions centered around different perceptions of noun countability, in particular 'noncount' noun perception which seems to influence negatively on the use of the indefinite article.

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