Implicational Patterns in Interlanguage Syntax Variation

Abstract

In this paper, the acquisition of Swedish syntax of negation by adult second‐language learners has been studied. Insights into the route of acquisition have been gained through a close examination of the learners' variation in their placement of the negative element, i.e., the way in which some learners variably place the negation before and after the finite verb. This type of variation has previously been seen as random and irregular, but through application of devices for the study of variable data, such as implicational scales (DeCamp 1971), variable rules (Labov 1969) and linguistic continua (DeCamp 1971, Bickerton 1975), it has been possible to discover regular patterns in the variation. Such regularities have previously been found in sound system acquisition by second‐language learners (L. Dickerson 1975, W. Dickerson 1976). The route of acquisition has been found to be highly regular for the group of 160 subjects who were examined in this study, and furthermore, independent of differences in background factors of the learners, such as length of education and knowledge of foreign languages. Most interestingly, the route of acquisition has also been found to be the same for learners with different source languages. Thus the findings reported in this paper suggest that the process of acquisition of grammatical structures is a regular and dynamic one, in that there is a successive and continuous transition from one state to another. The behavior of a group of backsliders in the same syntactic area has also been studied. It is found that what is acquired last is also the first to be given up. These findings are in agreement with the Jakobsonian view of a natural sequence in language acquisition and language loss.

Processability in Scandinavian Second Language Acquisition

“…According to PT this should take place at a stage before the learner is ready to process interclausal information-that is, before the acquisition of correct Neg placement in subordinate clauses. Earlier research (for Swedish see Bolander, 1988;Colliander, 1993;Hyltenstam, 1977;Håkansson & Dooley Collberg, 1994; for Danish see Holmen, 1990;Lund, 1996Lund, , 1997) also indicated that learners commonly acquire postverbal Neg placement before differentiating placement in main and subclauses. We carried out the tests in a parallel fashion in Copenhagen, Oslo, Lund, and Stockholm, being careful to use identical procedures in the four locations.…”

The role of the second language in third language acquisition: the case of Germanic syntax

“…Ginger AUX NEG spoken 'Ginger hasn't spoken. ' In his study of adult L2 learners of Swedish, Hyltenstam (1977;1978) found systematic variation in the placement of negation in relation to the verb in a formal written test: correct placement was first acquired in main clauses with non-thematic verbs. In a second stage, correct placement in main clauses with thematic verbs was acquired.…”

“…And, it also indicates that it is easier to place negation pre-verbally (in the subordinate clause) with respect to thematic verbs than with respect to auxiliaries. Relying on the results of Hyltenstam (1977;1978), Pienemann and Håkansson (1999) build a hypothesis as to how acquisition of negation can be accounted for within the implicational order suggested by PT. This is illustrated in Table 1.…”

A Unifiedapproach Toward the Development of Swedish as L2

“…In his work on the L2 acquisition of Swedish word order, Hyltenstam (1977Hyltenstam ( , 1978 also found a universal sequence in the acquisition of negative placement. The developmental pattern consists of five stages and is the same for all learners irrespective of L1.…”

“…Table 18 summarizes the main studies on the acquisition of Swedish subjectverb word order and negative placement. The first study on L2 acquisition of Swedish word order was carried out by Hyltenstam (1977Hyltenstam ( , 1978, who identified a universal sequence in the acquisition of word order. The data for this study were collected by means of a cloze test that was designed to elicit a range of contexts for inversion and negation.…”