Universal Grammar in Child Second Language Acquisition

Lakshmanan, Usha

doi:10.1075/lald.10

Cited by 73 publications

(49 citation statements)

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“…From the second half of the 1980s until the late 1990s, the null subject phenomenon was extensively studied in L2 acquisition (Hilles 1991;Lakshmanan 1991Lakshmanan , 1994Lakshmanan , 1995Vainikka and Young-Sholten 1994;White 1985White , 1986. These studies analyse the null subject as pro, and investigate the null subject phenomenon mainly from the following two perspectives: (a) the L2 acquisition of the 'cluster of properties' associated with pro-drop, i.e., null versus overt subjects, the availability of VS word order in declaratives, and the possibility of extracting subjects across overt complementizers; and (b) the relationship between null subjects and verb inflections.…”

Section: L2 Acquisiton Of Null Subjects: Existing Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The syntax and interpretation of embedded null subjects in Chinese, and their acquisition by English-speaking learners

Zhao¹

2011

EUROSLA

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This article reports an investigation of embedded null subjects in both L1 and L2 Chinese. Chinese null embedded subjects can refer either to a matrix subject or to a discourse entity. In the Government-Binding (GB) framework, these two possibilities resulted from the null subject being either pro or a variable. Neither pro nor a variable is compatible with the assumptions of the more recent Minimalist Program, however. This article proposes an alternative account for null embedded subjects in Chinese that is consistent with the Minimalist Program: deletion of the anaphor ziji and deletion of a topic under identity with appropriate antecedents. It then reports a study of knowledge of such deletion in the Chinese of L2 speakers. Although the existing literature has found that embedded null subjects are allowed by L2 learners of Chinese at early stages of development, no research has investigated whether they are interpreted in a target-like way by L2 speakers. A picture judgment task and a written interpretation task showed that English-speaking learners of high-intermediate proficiency in Chinese allow an embedded null subject to refer to the matrix subject, but not to a discourse entity. It is only at advanced proficiency that L2 speakers allow co-reference with both a matrix subject and a discourse entity. The implications of these results are discussed.

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Section: L2 Acquisiton Of Null Subjects: Existing Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The syntax and interpretation of embedded null subjects in Chinese, and their acquisition by English-speaking learners

Zhao¹

2011

EUROSLA

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“…Numerous studies have shown that child English L2 learners also display variable use of tense morphemes in their interlanguage (Dulay & Burt, 1973, 1974Gavruseva, 2002Gavruseva, , 2004Haznedar, 2001;Haznedar & Schwartz, 1997;Ionin & Wexler, 2002;Jia & Fuse, 2007;Lakshmanan, 1994;Paradis, 2005). The more particular question for our purposes is whether they show the (E)OI patterns as described above in their use of optional infinitives.…”

Section: Optional Infinitives and L2 Theoretical Accountsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The acquisition of tense in English: Distinguishing child second language from first language and specific language impairment

Paradis

Rice

Crago

et al. 2008

Applied Psycholinguistics

118

134

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This study reports on a comparison of the use and knowledge of tense-marking morphemes in English by first language (L1), second language (L2) and specifically language-impaired (SLI) children. The objective of our research was to ascertain whether the L2 children's tense acquisition patterns were similar or dissimilar to those of the L1 and SLI groups, and whether they would fit an (Extended) Optional Infinitive profile, or an L2-based profile, e.g., the Missing Surface Inflection Hypothesis. Results showed that the L2 children had a unique profile compared with their monolingual peers, which was better characterized by the Missing Surface Inflection Hypothesis. At the same time, results reinforce the assumption underlying the (Extended) Optional Infinitive profile that internal constraints on the acquisition of tense could be a component of L1 development, with and without SLI.Research documenting the developmental parallels between second language (L2) and first language (L1) acquisition of morphosyntax has been longstanding (e.g., Dulay & Burt, 1973, 1974 see Zobl & Liceras, 1994, for review). More recently, research comparing the morphosyntax of child L2 learners to same-aged L1 learners with specific language impairment (SLI) in French and Swedish has also showed striking similarities between these two groups (Crago & Paradis, 2003;Grüter, 2005;Håkansson 2001;Paradis & Crago, 2000Paradis, 2004). Paradis (2005) found evidence for SLI-like patterns in child English L2 learners' acquisition of grammatical morphology, but to date, no direct comparison of English L2 and SLI acquisition of morphosyntax has been undertaken. The presence of overlap in the linguistic characteristics between L2 and SLI is relevant for applied concerns, such as differential diagnosis of SLI in the L2 population. Overlap is also relevant for theoretical accounts aimed at characterizing only those features of impaired grammars to the exclusion of typicallydeveloping (TD) learner grammars, among same-aged peers.On one hand, morphosyntax related to functional categories might be expected to be vulnerable across acquisition contexts on linguistic theoretical grounds, since the functional layer of the grammar could be considered the locus of much crosslinguistic variation in language-particular grammars (Paradis & Prévost, 2004). Certainly the L2 versus TD L1 and L2 versus SLI comparative research supports this expectation. On the other hand, it is reasonable to assume Corresponding author: Johanne Paradis, Department of Linguistics, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, T6G 2E7, Canada. NIH Public Access Author ManuscriptAppl Psycholinguist. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2008 October 9. NIH-PA Author ManuscriptNIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author Manuscript that shared characteristics notwithstanding, at some level there should be differences between impaired and TD learner grammars. More specifically, Paradis & Crago (2000 suggested that both French SLI and L2 acquisition have the characteristics of an (Extended) Optional...

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“…Thus, studies that examine natural production data only, like the present study, may have the weakness that they assess the performance of a speaker rather than her (or his) linguistic competence. However, I assume, following Hyams (1986) and Lakshamanan (1994), that if a structure or construction is found to occur consistently in the production data, whether in the form of errors or of the absence of a target construction, it indicates that the learner is producing the form based on a certain underlying rule system. The goal of this study is, then, not to argue that the absence of when-questions in the production data means that the learners have not acquired when-questions yet, but to explore what makes the production of when-questions difficult both in L1 and L2 acquisition.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

When-questions in second language acquisition

Park

2000

Second Language Research

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It has been observed that when-questions are one of the last wh-questions produced by children learning English either as a first language (L1) or as a second language (L2). Explanations proposed for the late appearance of when-questions in L1 acquisition have been mostly based on cognitive factors. However, the cognition-based approach to when-questions faces problems in explaining L2 acquisition data, which show that L2 children who are cognitively more mature than L1 children follow the same developmental sequence. In this paper, I propose a possible explanation based on internal linguistic factors. According to Enç (1987), tense is a referential expression and temporal adverbials are antecedents of tense. I develop Enç's theory further and propose that in a when-question, tense is a bound variable, which is bound by the quantificational interrogative when. Thus, in order to produce when-questions, children must be at a stage where they understand bound variable readings. According to Roeper and de Villiers (1991), English-speaking children learn a bound variable reading approximately after 36 months, and the learning continues through the kindergarten years. The age at which a bound variable reading first appears corresponds to the point at which when-questions begin to occur. I propose that the complexity of the interaction between the quantificational when and tense, a bound variable, causes the delayed production of when-questions in developing grammars. I IntroductionCross-linguistic studies on the acquisition of wh-questions have shown that both L1 and L2 learners produce wh-questions in the sequential order of where, what > how, who > why > when (this indicates that where and what are acquired before how and who, which is acquired before why, etc.) (

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Universal Grammar in Child Second Language Acquisition

Cited by 73 publications

References 0 publications

The syntax and interpretation of embedded null subjects in Chinese, and their acquisition by English-speaking learners

The syntax and interpretation of embedded null subjects in Chinese, and their acquisition by English-speaking learners

The acquisition of tense in English: Distinguishing child second language from first language and specific language impairment

When-questions in second language acquisition

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