The acquisition of case marking by L1 Chabacano and L1 Cebuano learners of L2 Filipino: Influence of actancy structure on transfer

Recent development in Philippine linguistics distinguishes Chabacano as having the accusative actancy structure different from most ergative Philippine languages, such as Filipino. The implications from this difference directly concern the acquisition of case marking in Filipino by L1 Chabacano learners, particularly on the subject and object arguments in intransitive and transitive sentences. Fifty Chabacano and fifty Cebuano children (7 to 8 years old) were asked to describe transitive and intransitive actions in Filipino, and to judge the grammaticality of sentences with either correct or incorrect case markings of transitive and intransitive forms. The results showed positive transfer for the intransitive subject in both groups, and negative transfer for the transitive subject and transitive object among the Chabacano children who tended to overgeneralize case marking patterns in Chabacano when speaking in Filipino. Implications for Filipino L2 instruction for different L1 speakers in the Philippines are discussed