scholarly journals THE ROLE OF IS IN THE ACQUISITION OF FINITENESS BY ADULT TURKISH LEARNERS OF DUTCH

2009 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-92 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ineke van de Craats
Keyword(s):  
Universal Grammar ◽  
First Language ◽  
Production Data ◽  
Inflectional Morphology ◽  
Verb Movement ◽  
The World ◽  
Germanic Languages ◽  
Minimalist Theory ◽  
By Products

This article deals with the interlanguage of adult second language (L2) learners acquiring finiteness. Due to the inaccessibility of bound inflectional morphology, learners use free morphology to mark a syntactic relationship as well as person and number features separately from the thematic verb, expressed by a pattern like the man is go. Results from longitudinally collected production data of Turkish learners of Dutch are reported and present evidence for the claim that (a) verb movement and production of inflectional morphology develop separately in various developmental steps and (b) finite forms in nonfinite contexts (and vice versa) are by-products of this development. Moreover, all is-patterns in different Germanic languages can be explained by the application of minimalist theory of verb movement and recent views on morphology. Is-patterns that correspond neither to the first language nor to the L2—a poverty-of-the-stimulus problem—turn out to be possible in other languages of the world and are constrained by Universal Grammar.

Positive Evidence and Preemption in the Second Language Classroom

1993 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 181-204 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martha Trahey ◽  
Lydia White
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Universal Grammar ◽  
First Language ◽  
Negative Evidence ◽  
Parameter Setting ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
Verb Movement ◽  
Language Programs ◽  
Positive Evidence ◽  
Language Classroom

In this paper we show that supplying positive evidence in the second language (L2) classroom does not necessarily trigger the appropriate L2 value of a parameter of Universal Grammar. The parameter we investigate is the verb movement parameter of Pollock (1989), which accounts for the fact that English and French adverbs differ as to where they occur in relation to the verb: In French the verb raises past the adverb, allowing the order SVAO but not SAV, whereas in English the verb does not raise, allowing SAV but not SVAO. Fifty-four francophone children (aged 11) in intensive English-as-a-second-language programs in Quebec, Canada, were exposed to a 2-week input flood of specially prepared materials containing English adverbs used naturalistically. No form-focused instruction or negative evidence on adverb placement was provided. Subjects were pretested immediately prior to the input flood, posttested immediately afterward, and again 3 weeks later, on four different tasks. On all tasks there is a change between pretest and posttest behavior, namely, a dramatic increase in use of the English SAV order but little or no decline in incorrect usage of SVAO. Results are also compared to groups reported in White (1991a, 1991b); the subjects in the present study differ from both groups in the previous studies. The results of the present study suggest that positive evidence does not serve to preempt the first language parameter setting in this case; acquiring the correct English SAV order did not lead to loss of incorrect SVAO. Implications of this result for theories of preemption and parameter setting in L2 acquisition are discussed.

The L2 Basic Variety as an I-language

1997 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 374-385 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jürgen M. Meisel
Keyword(s):  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Universal Grammar ◽  
Inflectional Morphology ◽  
Functional Categories ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
Language Faculty ◽  
Essential Properties ◽  
Language Capacity

The Basic Variety, as defined by Klein and Perdue (this volume), is understood as an instantiation of the essential properties of the human language capacity, and although, as the ‘initial fossilization point’ of adult second language acquisition, it lacks crucial features of fully fledged languages, the claim is that the BV is a natural language in the sense that it is constrained by principles of Universal Grammar (UG). In this discussion I raise a few points which may cast some doubt on the claim that the BV is an I-language. At the core of this debate, as far as (morpho)syntactic issues are concerned, one finds the problem of determining the role of functional categories in BV grammar. Crucially, in L2 acquisition in general and in the BV in particular, one does not find the same kind of developmental relation between the acquisition of overt inflectional morphology and word order patterns as is evidenced in L1 development. I conclude that neither UG nor the universal component of the language faculty, as envisaged by Klein and Perdue, can account adequately for the essential properties of L2 interlanguages, including the BV. One important reason is that, rather than relying on structure-dependent operations, as in L1 development, L2 learners resort to strategies referring to sequential ordering of surface strings. If this is correct, L2 varieties are a mix of both UG-constrained and non-grammatical cognitive processes.

Head Movement and Morphological Strength

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan-Wouter Zwart
Keyword(s):  
Head Movement ◽  
Inflectional Morphology ◽  
Verb Movement ◽  
Verbal Inflection ◽  
Verb Placement ◽  
Time Gap ◽  
The Rich ◽  
State Of Affairs ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Germanic Languages

In the Principles and Parameters framework of Generative Grammar, the various positions occupied by the verb have been identified as functional heads hosting inflectional material (affixes or features), which may or may not attract the verb. This gave rise to a hypothesis, the Rich Agreement Hypothesis (RAH), according to which the verb has to move to the relevant functional head when the corresponding inflectional paradigm counts as “rich.” The RAH is motivated by synchronic and diachronic variation among closely related languages (mostly of the Germanic family) suggesting a correspondence between verb movement and rich agreement. Research into this correspondence was initially marred by the absence of a fundamental definition of “richness” and by the observation of counterexamples, both synchronically (dialects not conforming to the pattern) and diachronically (a significant time gap between the erosion of verbal inflection and the disappearance of verb movement). Also, the research was based on a limited group of related languages and dialects. This led to the conclusion that there was at best a weak correlation between verb movement and richness of morphology. Recently, the RAH has been revived in its strong form, proposing a fundamental definition of richness and testing the RAH against a typologically more diverse sample of the languages of the world. While this represents significant progress, several problems remain, with certain (current and past) varieties of North Germanic not conforming to the expected pattern, and the typological survey yielding mixed or unclear results. A further problem is that other Germanic languages (Dutch, German, Frisian) vary as to the richness of their morphology, but show identical verb placement patterns. This state of affairs, especially in light of recent minimalist proposals relocating both inflectional morphology and verb movement outside syntax proper (to a component in the model of grammar interfacing between narrow syntax and phonetic realization), suggests that we need a more fundamental understanding of the relation between morphology and syntax before any relation between head movement and morphological strength can be reliably ascertained.

Some thoughts on the contrastive analysis of features in second language acquisition

2009 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 173-227 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donna Lardiere
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Universal Grammar ◽  
First Language ◽  
Contrastive Analysis ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Mapping Parameter ◽  
Lexical Items

In this article I discuss the selection and assembly of formal features in second language acquisition. Assembling the particular lexical items of a second language (L2) requires that the learner reconfigure features from the way these are represented in the first language (L1) into new formal configurations on possibly quite different types of lexical items in the L2. I illustrate the nature of the problem by comparing the assembly and expression of features involved in plural-marking in English, Mandarin Chinese and Korean, and situate this comparison with respect to specific claims of the Nominal Mapping Parameter and within a discussion of parameter (re)setting more generally. I conclude with a few even more general thoughts on the role of Universal Grammar (UG) in (second) language acquisition.

Second Language Acquisition and Universal Grammar

1990 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 121-133 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lydia White
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Potential Role ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Universal Grammar ◽  
First Language ◽  
Generative Grammar ◽  
L2 Acquisition

In this article, the motivation for Universal Grammar (UG), as assumed in the principles and parameters framework of generative grammar (Chomsky, 1981a, 1981b), is discussed, particular attention being paid to thelogical problemof first language acquisition. The potential role of UG in second language (L2) acquisition is then considered. Three different positions are reviewed: (a) the claim that UG is not available to L2 learners; (b) the claim that UG is fully available; and (c) the claim that the L2 learner's access to UG is mediated by the mother tongue. This raises the issue of what kind of evidence can be used to decide between these three positions. Recent experimental research which argues for one or another of these positions by investigating the L2 status of the Subjacency Principle is reviewed, and the implications of this research are discussed.

scholarly journals V-to-I Movement in the Absence of Morphological Cues:Evidence from Adult and Child Northern Norwegian

Nordlyd ◽  
10.7557/12.41 ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristine Bentzen
Keyword(s):  
Preliminary Data ◽  
Strong Correlation ◽  
First Language ◽  
Movement Pattern ◽  
Close Correlation ◽  
The Other ◽  
Inflectional Morphology ◽  
First Language Acquisition ◽  
Verb Movement ◽  
Verbal Inflection

Several people have pointed out that there seems to be a close correlation between inflectional morphology and verb movement (see e.g. Kosmeijer 1986, Holmberg & Platzack 1988). The nature of this correlation has been claimed to go in both directions. Vikner (1994, 1995) and Rohrbacher (1999) have both suggested that the verb can only move to an inflectional head if the morphology is rich enough. Bobaljik (1995), Thráinsson (1996), and Bobaljik & Thráinsson (1998), on the other hand, argue that the correlation goes in the other direction, i.e. that rich inflection is a reflection of verb movement, rather than the cause for it. A correlation between morphology and verb movement has also been suggested in first language acquisition (Santelmann 1995 on Swedish, Clahsen et al. 1996 on German, Déprez & Pierce 1993, and Meisel 1994 on French). Several of these studies indicate that children use inflectional morphology as a cue for verb movement in the acquisition process, and that they employ verb movement as soon as they acquire verbal inflection. In this paper I will present new data from a dialect of Northern Norwegian which challenge the strong correlation between verb movement and inflectional morphology in both the adult language and in the acquisition of this dialect. More specifically, this dialect appears to have optional independent V-to-I movement despite the fact that the inflectional morphology is very poor. With respect to the acquisition of this dialect, preliminary data from one subject seem to indicate that children to some extent overgeneralise this verb movement pattern into constructions where adult speakers would not allow it.

The effect of modality on a grammaticality judgement task

1997 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 34-65 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victoria A. Murphy
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Universal Grammar ◽  
First Language ◽  
Auditory Task ◽  
Visual Condition ◽  
Language Groups ◽  
English Second Language ◽  
Wh Questions

Typical experiments investigating the accessibility and/or role of principles of Universal Grammar (UG) in adult second language acquisition (SLA) use a written grammaticality judgement (GJ) task to infer knowledge of principles of UG. This investigation examined whether subjects would judge sentences differently in the aural modality from the visual. It was hypothesized that subjects in the aural condition would be less accurate and slower at judging sentences than subjects in the visual condition. Four language groups were tested: ESL (English second language), FSL (French second language), L1.E (English first language) and L1.F (French first language). Subjects were assigned to either an aural or a visual condition. The target sentences presented to the subjects were declarative sentences involving embedded questions, as well as ungrammatical wh-questions which violated Subjacency. The presentation times for all sentences were matched across conditions. Accuracy and reaction time to grammaticality judgement were measured. The hypothesis that subjects would be slower and less accurate in the aural condition than the visual one was supported. Furthermore, subjects were less accurate and slower to judge violations of Subjacency than other sentences, in both modalities. The detrimental effects of the auditory task on judgements were most pronounced for the L2 learners. These results are discussed in the context of the informativeness and validity of outcomes derived from GJ tasks, and the ways in which they are presented.

Directions of influence in first and second language acquisition research

1993 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 140-152 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan H. Foster-Cohen
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Individual Variation ◽  
Universal Grammar ◽  
First Language ◽  
First Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Research ◽  
Learner Strategies

This article explores ways in which studies in second language acquisition (SLA) research can illuminate first language acquisition research. The discussion revolves around the issues of learner strategies, individual variation, the acquisition of late learned structures, bilingualism, the role of Universal Grammar (UG) and the fate of obsolete knowledge in acquisition. It is argued that second language research in these (and other) areas can provide fresh insights into familiar problems and raise issues not commonly given consideration in first language acquisition studies.

Mental design and (second) language epistemology: adjectival restrictions of wh-quantifiers and tense in English-French interlanguage

2001 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurent Dekydtspotter ◽  
Rex A. Sprouse
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Optimal Design ◽  
Design Problem ◽  
Universal Grammar ◽  
First Language ◽  
Optimal Solution ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
Basic Principles ◽  
Minimalist Theory

This study addresses the issue of second language (L2) epistemology assuming Chomsky’s (1995) discussion of the place of Universal Grammar (UG) in mental design: i.e., the optimal solution to the mental design problem for language in the sense of Minimalist theory. Aspects of interpretation of continuous and discontinuous interrogatives of the form qui de AP (‘who (of) AP’) in first language and L2 acquisition appear to follow from principles of economy in mental design and language-dependent hypotheses. We argue that such knowledge is guaranteed to arise in the absence of relevant input only if a grammar is a realization of language-dependent hypotheses and basic principles of grammar, but crucially not if it consists of a set of (derivative) grammatical theorems not constrained by principles of optimal design.

Syntax Acquisition

2013 ◽  
pp. 925-952
Author(s):  
Jill de Villiers ◽  
Peter de Villiers
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Cognitive Development ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Universal Grammar ◽  
Inflectional Morphology ◽  
Complex Sentences ◽  
Key Points ◽  
Syntax Acquisition ◽  
Movement Rules

The fundamental questions to be asked about syntax acquisition concern whether the child’s knowledge is abstract and principled in nature, or piecemeal and highly input- and frequency-dependent. Generative linguists following Chomsky argue that universal grammar dictates development from the start, and propose that grammar development is limited by twin considerations of modularity and continuity. A brief review is provided of the arguments and empirical evidence about these matters at various key points in the course of development: the first two-word sentences, the acquisition of inflectional morphology, movement rules, and complex sentences. The role of developing syntax in cognitive development is highlighted to uncover what advantages grammar might convey. Models of learning are introduced, comparing the concepts that learning is statistical versus algebraic, and connectionist models to the ideas of natural selection among multiple grammars.

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