FORMS OF EVIDENCE AND

GRAMMATICAL DEVELOPMENT IN THE

ACQUISITION OF ADJECTIVE POSITION
IN L2 FRENCH
Bruce Anderson
CHALLENGES IN FORMAL ACCOUNTS OF ADJECTIVE
POSITION IN ENGLISH VERSUS FRENCH
the word-order patterns
In English the adjective comes before the noun
In French either post-N; pre-N or in both positions
Post-N (la voiture rouge la rouge voiture the red car)
Pre-N (le petit elephant lelephant petit the small elephant)
Both positions - (le bijou cher le cher bijou the expensive jewel- the
cherished jewel
la valise lourde la lourde valise the heavy suitcase
the correlation between position and interpretation in French
the instantiation of these position-interpretation correlates is guaranteed
in the case of native language (L1)
ADJECTIVE POSITION AND REPRESENTATIONAL FORMATS

The basic proposal of generative accounts of adjective position is the surface

position of the noun with respect to other elements. ( articles, adjectives,
genitives).
To account the fact that French, like Enlish, allows for pre-N order attributive
adjectives as well as post-N order, adjuction to the higher functional projection
NumP rather than NP, is posited.
Thus, for une petite voiture rouge a little red carboth languages are claimed
to share a common representational format in which petite and little are
adjoined to NumP, where rouge and red are adjoined to NP; both adjectives
appear before the noun in English (and in order little > red), whereas noun
movement separates the two in French, with petite preceding the noun and
rouge following it.
ADJECTIVE POSITION AND AVAILABLE EVIDENCE
Gass (1997) defined prior knowledge as consisting of L1
knowledge, existing L2 knowledge, language universals, &
knowledge of other languages.
Only the first two will be addressed in this study.
Since language universals have already been discussed in terms
of domain-specific representational format and knowledge of
other languages does not apply to the experimental population
of this study.
Explicit Rules
Most adjectives in French are in post-N, although few are Pre-N.
According to the textbook used by the second-year university-level students who
participated in the study, a number of adjectives change meaning depending on
whether theyre placed after or before a noun.
In general, an adjective placed after the noun retains its basic, concrete meaning
while adjective placed before the noun is used in an abstract or figurative manner.
a. ancient former versus old, ancient
b. cher- dear, well loved versus expensive
c. grand great versus tall, large
Learners might therefore be expected to accept as grammatical an adjective in post-
N position and ungrammatical in pre-N position.
Explicit Rules
It is noteworthy in most pedagogical treatments, no explicit rules are
given relating to possibility of both pre-N & post-N adjective positions for
adjectives other than those that have particular English-based meaning
differences.
Example: lourde heavy in (3b)
Important gap: Pedagogical treatment of adjective position in French as
Anderson (2002, 2007b) found that roughly 60% of the 205 most
frequently adjectives across a number of text genres in French are
regularly attested in both positions.
Classroom Input Frequency
Anderson (2002, 2007b) has an observation in L2 French classes at different
levels in the university setting to determine quantity and quality of input on
adjective position.
The observation throughout the undergrad curriculum the explicit rules just
summarized are rarely contradicted by examples of unexpected pre-N and
post-N position despite the fact that adjectives occurred in the classroom
input from 42 times per 50-min class period in a 1st year introductory course to
156 times per class in 4th year civilization course for French majors.
Finally, Anderson (2002, 2007b) demonstrated that very few adjectives showed
variation in position.
L1 Knowledge
L1 and L2 grammars do not produce mutually exclusive word-order strings.
Instances of post-N position in English include the types of uses exemplified: (7-10)
(7) Poetic use: The River Wild (film title)
(8) After indefinite pronouns: something blue; someone charming
(9) In complex or heavy adjective phrases: a box too heavy to lift on your own; a
car small enough to fit in any parking space
(10) In reduced relative clauses or small clauses: We delivered the flowers (while
they were) fresh. (Bouldin, p.30)
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
& METHODOLOGY
 Research Questions
Whether classroom L2 French learners, like native French
speakers, come to demonstrate knowledge of the position-
interpretation correlates of French adjective position and if so;
What point during grammatical development they do so;
Whether learners demonstrate knowledge of these correlates
earlier in the course of development
 Study Populations
157 participants (divided in 6 groups)
1. Monolingual English-speaker control group 30 freshmen students enrolled in a
course on English composition
2. Learners group 100 English-speaking students of French at a Midwestern
American university
2nd year 29 ; 3rd year 24 ; 4th year 27 (undergrad students)

3. Graduate Students at the same institution ;

4. Graduate students from other institution; &
5. Secondary Education Teachers 20
(Advanced group)

6. French-speaker control group - 27

 Task Design and Tokens
A two-part acceptability judgment task was administered via computer in a controlled setting ( university computer lab)
on two different days spaced a week apart.
Participants completed Web-based form: biographical information 7 previous experience with French and other foreign
language.
Participants read a page of instructions; provide judgment of each test sentence by clicking buttons marked fine, odd, or
cannot decide in response to the prompt This particular sentence sounds _________ in the context.
Context sentence pairs involving the position of only in English were used as an example ( e.g., Only Tom likes spinach vs.
Tom only likes spinach)
Total number of context-sentence pair tokens was 104, randomly divided between 2 tasks of 52 context-sentence tokens
each.
The contexts were written in English
Eight sentences with pre-N adjective position and 8 sentences with post-N adjective position were presented in a context
favoring a general intersective interpretation and nonintersective interpretation, for a total of 32 tokens randomized
across the two tasks.
Scoring
Participants responses were recorded by a Web-based testing service.
Fine and odd answers for each of the 4 conditions were converted into
percentage: 9e.g., post-N position in and itersective/nonitersective context
Intersective: 87.5% converted rate (fine); 12.5 % (odd) = 100% (7/8 tokens)
Nonitersective: 25% converted rate (fine); 75% (odd) = 100% (2/8 tokens)
Net difference: 52.5% - therefore, paired samples t tests were run to determine
whether this net difference between conditions reached significance within each
study group.
RESULTS
Native-French-Speaker Control Group
The task was moderately sensitive to the interpretive distinctions.
Pre-N position with nonintersective interpretation, preferred 75-47% over an
intersective interpretation
Post-N position with an intersective interpretation, preferred 59-14% over a
nonintersective interpretation
The data related to nonitersective interpretation is much more robust: clearly
favored in pre-N position at, 75%, and clearly disfavored in post-N position, at
14%.
 One could argue that the intersective contexts the
adjective cher expensive belovedas an example.
In other words, a piece of jewelry worth $100,000
might still be beloved not because of its segmental
value, which the intersective context tried to mitigate
against, but because of the wealth it bestows on its
owner.
Native-English-Speaker Control Group
Adjectives are accepted in pre-N (79%) and rejected in
post-N (12%) and 8% for the a noninterselective
interpretation, a nonsignificant difference (p= .195).
Such rates provides a clear picture of the acceptability
(=grammatically) of pre-N and concomitant rejection
(=ungrammatical) of post-N position.
Learner Groups
Intersective-nonitersective distinction: Learner results
There is no stastically difference in means in either position on the
part of the 2nd & 3rd year learners (favor of acceptance is from 51%-
64%)
By the fourth year level, a significant and nativelike difference
appears only in post-n position (70% for inter & 39% noninter
interpretations)
Advance level significant Frenchlike distinction is made in both pre-
N (82% noninter; 36% inter and post-N (76% inter; 12% noninter)
DISCUSSION &
IMPLICATIONS
Results of the present study show the following:

1. Second language French learners, like native French speakers, acquire

the position interpretation.
2. On the basis of aggregate group data, such correlates would appear to
be a gradual and late-acquired property, given the stastistically
significant distinctions based on interpretation in both adjective position
do not rise in the data until the postgraduate level.
Position-interpretation correlates for the adjectives in the instruction set
do not appear to be acquired any earlier than the adjectives in the
noninstruction set.
Norris and Ortegas (2000) meta-analysis of research on
the effectiveness of pedagogical intervention
convincingly showed a stronger and more durable effect
for explicit evidence (focus-on-forms), rule presentation,
correction, feedback, etc.) in combination with input
than for input alone, as provided during implicit,
meaning oriented interventions.