Helmut Zobl

The role of formal features in second language acquisition

Contents: Introduction: Formal Features in Linguistic Theory and Learnability: The View From Second Language Acquisition. Part I: Linguistic Theory and Learnability. L. Travis, The Role of Features in Syntactic Theory and Language Variation. C. Platzack, Uninterpretable Features and EPP: A Minimalist Account of Language Build-Up and Break-Down. A. Radford, Feature Correlations in Nominative Case-Marking in L1, L2 and Native English. D. Lardiere, Feature-Assembly in Second Language Acquisition. Part II: Determiner Phrase Related Features. I.M. Tsimpli, M. Mastropavlou, Feature-Interpretability in L2 Acquisition and SLI: Greek Clitics and Determiners. C. Jakubowicz, L. Roulet, Narrow Syntax or Interface Deficit? Gender Agreement in French SLI. T. Ionin, H. Ko, K. Wexler, The Role of Semantic Features in the Acquisition of English Articles by Russian and Korean Speakers. J.B. de Garavito, Acquisition of the Spanish Plural by French L1 Speakers: The Role of Transfer. Part III: Inflection Phrase and Aspect Phrase-Related Related Features. Section 1: Finiteness, Agreement, and Tense. L. White, Some Puzzling Features of L2 Features. R. Hawkins, G. Casillas, H. Hattori, J. Hawthorne, R. Husted, C. Lozano, A. Okamoto, E. Thomas, K. Yamada, The Semantic Effects of Verb Raising and Its Consequences in Second Language Grammars. P. Prevost, Knowledge of Morphology and Syntax in Early Adult L2 French: Evidence for the Missing Surface Inflection Hypothesis. I. Leung, The Verbal Functional Domain in L2A and L3A: Tense and Agreement in Cantonese-English-French Interlanguage. Section 2: Aspect. E. Gavruseva, On the Role of DP in the Acquisition of Finiteness in Child L2 English. A.T. Perez-Leroux, A. Cuza, M. Majzlanova, J.S. Naranjo, Non-Native Recognition of Iterative and Habitual Meanings of Spanish Preterite and Imperfect Tenses. R. Slabakova, S. Montrul, Aspectual Shifts: Grammatical and Pragmatic Knowledge in L2 Acquisition. L. Diaz, A. Bel, K. Bekiou, The Role of Morphological Features in the Acquisition of Spanish Aspectual Differences. Part IV: Complementizer Phrase-Related Features. S. Flynn, I. Winnitska, C. Foley, Complementizer Phrase Features in Child L1 and Adult L3 Acquisition. E. Valenzuela, On Complementizer Pharase Positions in L2 Spanish.

Evidence for Parameter-Sensitive Acquisition: A Contribution to the Domain-specific versus Central Processes Debate.

Much current work on L2 acquisition is defined by the hypothesis that adult learners embark on the acquisition task with a language faculty whose structure is significantly less modular that than of the L1 learner. The domain-specific system, which has available to it the principles and conditions of Universal Grammar, has been replaced by content-neutral, central processes and the learners L1 as the principal means by which an L2 can be internalized. An important corollary of this hypothesis is that acquisition will be piecemeal and will not evidence the effects associated with parameter setting. In this paper we attempt to demonstrate that adult L2 acquisition is module - and parameter-sensitive. The focus of the inquiry falls on the acquisition of the principle of structural government and the English language value of the agreement parameter by Japanese-speaking learners. Although the data supporting the claim come primarily from production, their analyses furnish compelling evidence that central processing, as it is currently understood, cannot account for the way attributes of these parametric choices cohere together.

Sources of Linguistic Knowledge and Uniformity of Nonnative Performance

Tacit linguistic knowledge derives from experience of the input data or from domain-specific principles without the interaction of experience. Recognition of constraint violations is generally deemed to call upon the second kind of knowledge source. This paper proposes that this epistemological distinction should be reflected in native speaker and nonnative speaker performance. More precisely, performance should be more uniform across the species where it engages knowledge without the interaction of experience. A review of six studies investigating nonnative speaker acceptability judgments supports the predicted asymmetry. The paper concludes that the observed asymmetry supports the modular position on nonnative linguistic knowledge.

Categorial distribution and the problem of overgeneration

Overgeneration raises in acute form the problem of how learners succeed in fixing the proper bounds of grammars on the basis of limited evidence. In this paper we look at an overgeneration found in the English production data of Japanese-speaking learners in which finite S (not introduced by Wh) occurs as a complement of P. An analysis is proposed whereby the acquisition of configurationality in the VP is the necessary antecedent knowledge to an eventual correction. It initiates an altered perception of complement category distribution, one which now includes a movement rule to a nonargument position. The inability of this rule to execute with PP expunges the overgeneration. The paper concludes with the suggestion that overgeneration is not as intractable a learnability problem if grammatical development consists of qualitative jumps in the perception of the input data rather than continuity with local modifications.