Wh-movement in the L2 Learner's Initial Syntax

This article reports a bi-directional interlanguage study designed to investigate the initial state of L2 acquisition with regard to English and Korean wh-questions. Based on the UG system in line with the minimalist theory, it was hypothesized that the L2 initial state is characterized by the most economical form of syntax in which no overt wh-movement to Spec-CP is assumed. Results of the early interlanguage study showed that 1) L1 Korean learners of L2 English predominantly produced wh-questions with the fronted wh-word, but without productive wh-movement to the Spec-CP position; and 2) L1 English learners of L2 Korean overwhelmingly produced wh-questions with the wh-word remaining in-situ. These results were interpreted as supporting the minimalist account of the L2 initial grammar in that no overt syntactic wh-movement were adopted in early interlanguages of both English and Korean regardless of the learner's L1.