The Acquisition of Japanese Nominal Modifying Constructions

This books looks into how L2 learners of Japanese acquire nominal modifying constructions such as adjectival clauses, nominal complements and relative clauses. Hanako Fujino reviews some of the theoretical discussions regarding these constructions and provides new pieces of evidence that shed light on their nature.

Special attention is drawn to a phenomenon by which learners occasionally insert a non-target-like no between the modifying clause and the head noun. This phenomenon is interesting not only because it is observed among the different modifying constructions, but also because it is exhibited by learners of different L1s and because Japanese children also show a similar phenomenon during L1A. By focusing on the diachronic changes that the adnominal form – an inflectional form common to nominal modifying clauses – has gone through, Fujino puts forth an account based on phonological grounds.