Genericity in L2 French and L3 English: a pragmatic deficit with a semantic consequence

This study investigates the acquisition of genericity in L2 French and L3 English. While some exponents become generic by assembling morphological, syntactic and discursive cues, definite singular nominals additionally require the well-established kind restriction. It is a pragmatic and language-specific constraint. The participants are L1 Arabic adults advanced in L2 French, L1 Arabic-L2 French adults advanced in L3 English, French controls and English controls. An acceptability judgement interpretation task shows that the learners develop nativelike interpretation of well-established kind definite generics that cluster morphological, semantic and discourse cues. However, they interpret non-well-established nominals generically in violation of the pragmatic restriction. Thus, a deficit in pragmatic knowledge leads to the semantic misinterpretation of non-generic nominals in the L2/L3 interlanguage. The study suggests that language-specific pragmatic properties are subject to differential acquisition compared to other properties, even if they all belong to the same external interface. The deficit is due to L1 Arabic transfer. The study claims that pragmatic properties that determine interpretation outcomes are eventually acquirable. Finally, the outcome of L3 acquisition may be another instance of L2 acquisition at the advanced stages. The L2 and L3 ultimate attainment grammar is similar, in terms of knowledge of genericity.