Laurent Dekydtspotter

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

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.

The Interpretation of Quantification at a Distance in English-French Interlanguage: Domain Specificity and Second-Language Acquisition

In this article, we report results of an interpretive task showing that both native speakers of French and English-speaking classroom learners of French exhibit knowledge of the event sensitivity associated with quantification at a distance (QAD). We argue that such knowledge seems reliably acquirable only if both first-language (L1) and second-language (L2) acquisition are subject to domain-specific constraints. We consider two sources for such domain-specific knowledge: the native grammar and Universal Grammar. We also consider the acquisition of the interpretive properties of QAD under domain-general learning in which syntax is a categorial extension of interpretive operations to linguistic categories. Without syntax-specific computational principles restricting the application of such operations, it appears that, given the nature of the input, domain-general assumptions do not guarantee that the QAD word order maps to the interpretation it actually receives. We argue that in both L1 and L2 acquisition of French, the interpretation of QAD is constrained by (on the most parsimonious account, the same) domain-specific principles because in both cases the input the language acquirer receives grossly under-determines the grammatical knowledge attained. This suggests that syntax-specific computational principles must restrict the hypothesis space.

SYNTACTIC AND PROSODIC COMPUTATIONS IN THE RESOLUTION OF RELATIVE CLAUSE ATTACHMENT AMBIGUITY BY ENGLISH-FRENCH LEARNERS

This study investigates the manner in which syntax, prosody, and context interact when secondand fourth-semester college-level EnglishFrench learners process relative clause (RC) attachment to either the first noun phrase (NP1) or the second noun phrase (NP2) in complex nominal expressions such as le secretaire du psychologue qui se promene (au centre ville) “the secretary of the psychologist who takes a walk (downtown).” Learners’ interpretations were affected by the length of the RC, specifically its phonological weight. Effects of intonation contour were found only in a subset of learners. In a response time (RT) experiment that manipulated contexts, fourth-semester learners showed a final bias for NP1 attachment in interpretation but an initial RT bias for NP2 attachment. Second-semester learners also produced a NP2 attachment bias in RTs, but no asymmetry in interpretation was found. We argue that the processing of RC attachment by English-French learners requires a task-specific algorithm that implicates autonomous syntactic and prosodic computations and specific interactions among them.

Direct mapping of acoustics to phonology: On the lexical encoding of front rounded vowels in L1 English– L2 French acquisition

It is well known that adult US-English-speaking learners of French experience difficulties acquiring high /y/–/u/ and mid /œ/–/ɔ/ front vs. back rounded vowel contrasts in French. This study examines the acquisition of these French vowel contrasts at two levels: phonetic categorization and lexical representations. An ABX categorization task (for details, see Section IV) revealed that both advanced and intermediate learners categorized /œ/ vs. /ɔ/ and /y/ vs. /u/ differently from native speakers of French, although performance on the /y/–/u/ contrast was more accurate than on the /œ/–/ɔ/ contrast in all contexts. On a lexical decision task with repetition priming, advanced learners and native speakers produced no (spurious) response time (RT) facilitations for /y/–/u/ and /œ/–/ɔ/ minimal pairs; however, in intermediate learners, the decision for a word containing /y/ was speeded by hearing an otherwise identical word containing /u/ (and vice versa), suggesting that /u/ and /y/ are not distinguished in lexical representations. Thus, while it appears that advanced learners encoded the /y/–/u/ and /œ/–/ɔ/ contrasts in the phonological representations of lexical items, they gained no significant benefit on the categorization task. This dissociation between phonological representations and phonetic categorization challenges common assumptions about their relationship and supports a novel approach we label ‘direct mapping from acoustics to phonology’ (DMAP).

The Universal Parser and interlanguage: domain-specific mental organization in the comprehension of combien interrogatives in English-French interlanguage

From the perspective of Fodor’s (1983) theory of mental organization and Chomsky’s (1995) Minimalist theory of grammar, I consider constraints on the interpretation of French-type and English-type cardinality interrogatives in the task of sentence comprehension, as a function of a universal parsing algorithm (Universal Parser) and hypotheses embodied in a French-type vs. English-type functional lexicon respectively. I argue on the basis of the interpretation of cardinality interrogatives in English-French interlanguage that second language comprehension appears to require this view of mental organization in which a universal parsing algorithm interacts with an interlanguage lexicon. Specifically, I argue that the Minimalist view of mental organization in the area of grammar provides some insight into the basis of these constraints in mental functioning.

Interlanguage A-bar dependencies: binding construals, null prepositions and Universal Grammar

This article argues that the ‘null prep’ phenomenon discussed by Klein (1990; 1993; 1995) and Jourdain (1996) is a special case of a more general phenomenon in second language acquisition: the reliance on the A-bar binding strategy discussed by Rizzi (1990) and Cinque (1990). This strategy is employed even where both the L1 and the target language rely (primarily) on movement analyses. We present an analysis of additional English–French interlanguage data, complementing our analysis of Kleins and Jourdains data. We argue that apparent categorial mismatches in A-bar chains may result from Preposition Incorporation. Although both movement analyses and binding construals are squarely within the UG-constrained hypothesis space, we suggest that learners may be driven to (nonmovement) binding construals to account for A-bar dependencies for reasons associated with online computational complexity, under the assumption that a nonmovement construal derived by Merge alone is less costly than one derived by Move (Chomsky, 1995).

Quelque chose … de remarquable in English-French acquisition: mandatory, informationally encapsulated computations in second language interpretation

We discuss the results of an experiment that investigates English-French learners’ interpretation of quantifiers with detachable restrictions. Such quantifiers are ungrammatical in English. We investigate aspects of interpretation that rely on a highly idiosyncratic interface between grammar and general principles of conversational cooperation in native French. We show that a learning-theoretic challenge of the most severe kind arises in English-French acquisition unless second language acquisition is constrained by very specific relations between syntactic, semantic and pragmatic modules. We therefore argue that the emergence of knowledge of interpretation in English-French interlanguage suggests mandatory, informationally encapsulated computations. This supports Schwartz’s (1986; 1987; 1999) contention that inter-language knowledge is constrained by a mental organization in which Universal Grammar provides the contents of a largely universal processor devoted to language.

On the Contrastive Analysis of Features in Second Language Acquisition: Uninterpretable Gender on Past Participles in English-French Processing.

Lardieres discussion raises important questions about the use of features in second language (L2) acquisition. This response examines predictions for processing of a feature-valuing model vs. a frequency-sensitive, associative model in explaining the acquisition of French past participle agreement. Results from a reading-time experiment support the feature-valuing model.

Inhibitive and facilitative priming induced by traces in the processing of wh-dependencies in a second language

Two experiments involving picture classifications investigated priming behavior in the context of wh-movement at clause edge and in indirect object position, respectively. In Experiment 1, intermediate L1-Chinese L2-English learners produced slower classification times (inhibitions) at clause edge, apparently induced by the computation of intermediate traces, whereas faster classification times (facilitations) were detected in native speakers (NSs). In Experiment 2, advanced L1-English L2-French learners produced facilitations apparently induced by the computation of traces in indirect object position. Learners’ priming pattern differed from the priming pattern produced by NSs, however. We argue that the patterns found suggest structural computations interacting with distinct activation modes in the maintenance of discourse referents, plausibly resulting from the automaticity of lexical access, or lack thereof.

Transitivity in the Process of Intransitive Clauses: A Category-Based Prediction in Low-Intermediate Learners of English.

We document weak garden paths after intransitive verbs, modulated by intransitivity type, in the treatment of DP 1 V intransitive DP 2 V 2 sequences as in As the journalist arrived the editor postponed the meeting in first language (L1) and second language (L2) sentence processing. In a noncumulative moving-window experiment, 25 English native speakers and 22 low-intermediate Korean learners of English with no naturalistic exposure read critical items in which a subordinate clause was either headed by an intransitive verb (unaccusative vs. unergative) or by a copular predicate. A linear mixed model revealed greater processing loads evidenced in longer reading times on V 2 after intransitive verbs than after copular predicates. This finding echoes post hoc observations in Juffs ( 2004 ). These asymmetries were driven by significantly greater loads after unaccusative verbs than after copular predicates and unergative verbs. These asymmetries, found in both L1 and L2, are unexpected on the basis of valence information only, as one-place predicates should rule out a second argument. However, we argue that they receive an explanation if parsing involves the interaction of lexically encoded intransitivity information with a transitivity prediction.