ABSTRACT
The chapter by Hawkins at al. begins by noting that previous investigations of verb raising have only considered the syntactic reflexes (i.e., whether the verb moves to T) and have not looked at its semantic consequences. Where raising exists, a sentence in the simple present is compatible with an event/progressive interpretation. In a language like Modern English, which does not have (main) verb raising, such an interpretation is not possible; the simple present always invites a generic habitual interpretation as shown by the grammaticality of John eats a donut every morning versus the ungrammatically of *John eats a donut right now. The investigation required the subjects to judge the appropriateness of several continuations in contexts that bias either for a progressive or a generic interpretation. Subjects for this study were highly advanced learners of English, split between L1s that have no verb raising (Japanese and Chinese) and L1s that do (Arabic, French, German, and Spanish). Production shows that the progressive/habitual interpretation is mastered by all subjects, but the underlying competence that leads to that distinction is different depending on the group. Japanese and Chinese speakers differ from the native control and the v-raising groups in that they are less willing to accept eventive readings with achievement predicates than with activities. The native control group and the v-raising group are different in that the latter accepts the progressive as having an habitual interpretation, a result that was not expected and which is explained as lack of knowledge that the progressive is an independent category. The authors conclude, similar in spirit to Tsimpli and Mastropauvlou, that uninterpretable features not present in the L1 cannot be successfully incorporated into the L2 grammar due to critical period effects.
