The Interpretability Hypothesis: evidence from wh-interrogatives in second language acquisition

Abstract

The second language acquisition (SLA) literature reports numerous studies of proficient second language (L2) speakers who diverge significantly from native speakers despite the evidence offered by the L2 input. Recent SLA theories have attempted to account for native speaker/non-native speaker (NS/NNS) divergence by arguing for the dissociation between syntactic knowledge and morpho(pho)nology. In particular, Lardiere (1998), Prévost and White (2000), and Goad and White (2004) claim that highly proficient learners have knowledge of the abstract syntactic properties of the language but occasionally fail to associate them with the correct morphological or phonological forms. On the other hand, theories that support partial availability of Universal Grammar (UG) (Tsimpli and Roussou 1991; Hawkins and Chan, 1997) argue for a problem in the syntax: while UG principles and operations are available in SLA, the formal features of the target language that are not instantiated in the L1 or have a different setting, cause learnability problems. This article discusses acquisitional data in the light of the Interpretability Hypothesis (Tsimpli and Mastropavlou, 2007), which is a reformulation of the SLA theory suggested by Tsimpli and Roussou (1991) in minimalist terms. It is argued that a minimalist approach to SLA can be implemented to specify the status of the features that are least accessible to re-setting in the SLA process, given (1) constraints on their learnability and (2), their setting in the L1 grammar. The phenomenon discussed concerns the use of the resumptive strategy in wh- subject and object extraction by intermediate and advanced Greek learners of English. It is proposed that the acceptability rate of pronouns in the extraction site is conditioned by the Logical Form (LF) interpretability of the features involved in the derivation. Hence, the interpretable features of animacy and discourse-linking are hypothesized to be involved in the analysis of English pronouns by Greek L2 learners, while the first language (L1) specification of resumptive pronouns as clusters of uninterpretable Case and Agreement features resists resetting.

Morphological variability in second language learners: An examination of electrophysiological and production data.

“…Examining Morphological Variability in L2 Learners 56 An additional question that we examined concerns the relation between the L2ers' knowledge of lexical gender and their ability to compute gender agreement in online comprehension and production, in order to better adjudicate between proposals which argue for a deficit at the level of syntactic agreement (e.g., Tsimpli and Dimitrakopoulou, 2007) and proposals which argue for problems at the level of lexical assignment and retrieval (Grüter et al, 2012;Hopp, 2013;Prévost and White, 2000).…”

“…Under this account, it is in spoken production where L2ers might show reliance on default morphology and where variability with gender agreement is more likely to emerge, due to the burden associated with lexical retrieval (Grüter et al, 2012;Hopp, 2013). In contrast, representational accounts, such as the Interpretability Hypothesis (e.g., Tsimpli and Dimitrakopoulou, 2007) and McCarthy (2008), predict variability across the board (albeit for different reasons).…”

“…With respect to the acquisition of grammatical gender by speakers of gender-free languages, one potential strategy would be phonological rhyming between noun endings and inflectional forms (Hawkins, 2001;White et al, 2004). This position is well represented by the Interpretability Hypothesis (Tsimpli and Dimitrakopoulou, 2007), for which it is novel syntactic features (i.e., those which make no semantic contribution to the interpretation of a lexical item) that become Examining Morphological Variability in L2 Learners 8 inaccessible in adult L2 acquisition. For syntactic agreement, this would be the case with number and gender information on determiners and adjectives.…”

Unveiling linguistic competence by facilitating performance

“…Proposals claiming a deficit in knowledge for adult L2 learners have been formulated based on L2 learners' performance errors (e.g., Bley-Vroman, 1990;Clahsen & Muysken, 1986;Eubank, 1993Eubank, /1994Eubank, , 1994Hawkins & Chan, 1997;Hawkins & Hattori, 2006;Hawkins & Liszka, 2003;Tsimpli, 2003;Tsimpli & Dimitrakopoulou, 2007). This approach often links competence deficits with critical period effects reflecting learners' maturational changes, as, for instance, in a claim made by Beck (1999, p. 316): "The morphosyntactic features that require or prohibit thematic verb raising become impaired during the course of maturation."…”

Imperfect Acquisition of a Related Variety? Residual Clefting and What It Reveals about (Gradient) Bilectalism

“…Relevant research in SLA has shown that, as regards formal grammatical properties and operations in the narrow syntax, near-native competence can be reached despite the fact that these are often underdetermined by input (Tsimpli et al, 2004;Lozano, 2006Lozano, , 2008Lozano, , 2016Sorace and Filiaci, 2006;Tsimpli and Sorace, 2006;Tsimpli and Dimitrakopoulou, 2007;Tsimpli and Mastropavlou, 2007;Sorace and Serratrice, 2009). 16 By contrast, syntactic focus movement involves operations not only in the narrow syntax but, crucially, at the syntax-discourse interface: in Greek syntactic focus movement involves an (interpretable)…”