DOI: 10.36347/sjahss.2020.v08i04.005

Pages: 197-202

The study of second language acquisition and problems surrounding this field has received attention from scholars in recent times. These studies have however paid less attention to the problem of quantification and interpretation of quantifier expressions by second language learners in Nigeria. As a result, this study adopts a truth-value judgment task and insights from Chomsky’s principles and parameters approach to examine the interpretation of ambiguous quantifier expressions among Nigerian undergraduates. From our study, second language learners usually make preference for a narrow interpretation. This preference is as a result of lexical bias, structural position as well as the linguistic system of learners’ first language. The right input from the second language, as our study revealed, can resolve issues emanating from these ambiguities. An understanding of the processing system of learner’s L1 is necessary to reducing narrow interpretations and should be given proper attention by language scholars.