Acquiring the scope of logical connectives and negation in Japanese as a second language

Abstract This study investigated the interpretations of Japanese negated disjunctions and conjunctions by L1-English and L1-Mandarin learners of L2-Japanese. Negated disjunctions and conjunctions have different interpretations in English as opposed to Japanese and Mandarin. The results of a Truth Value Judgment Task show that L1-Mandarin L2-Japanese learners had more target-like interpretations than L1-English L2-Japanese learners, suggesting L1 transfer. L1-English L2-Japanese learners had more difficulty with Japanese negated disjunctions than conjunctions, contrary to predictions based on learnability. L1-English L2-Japanese learners also had difficulty with another form of Japanese negated disjunction. From these results, I argue that the cognitive complexity of negated disjunctions is a potential delaying factor in the acquisition of their correct interpretations.