Roger Hawkins

The Partial Availability of Universal Grammar in Second Language Acquisition: The "Failed Functional Features Hypothesis.".

A number of studies in the research literature have proposed that Universal Grammar (UG) is partially available to adult second language learners. Attempts to provide a syntactic characterization of that partial availability have only recently begun to appear, however. In this article we will argue that speakers of Chinese (a language without wh-operator movement in overt syntax) learning second language English (a language with wh-operator movement in overt syntax) establish mental representations for English which involve pronominal binding rather than operator movement. It will be suggested that this divergence from native-speaker representations is an effect of the inaccessibility of features of functional categories in second language acquisition, what we will refer to as the ‘failed functional features hypothesis’. Implications are drawn from the findings for the syntactic characterization of accessibility to UG more generally in second language acquisition.

Interpretation of English Multiple Wh-Questions by Japanese Speakers: A Missing Uninterpretable Feature Account.

In recent work by Tsimpli (2003) and Tsimpli and Dimitrakopoulou (to appear) an explicit claim is made about the nature of end-state grammars in older second language (L2) learners: uninterpretable syntactic features that have not been selected during first language (L1) acquisition will not be available for L2 grammar construction. Interpretable syntactic features, on the other hand, remain available (as well as the computational procedures and principles of the language faculty), even those not selected by the L1. The present study investigates this hypothesis in relation to the acquisition of the uninterpretable feature that forces wh-movement in interrogatives in English. Nineteen L1 speakers of Japanese (a wh-in-situ language that lacks the movement-forcing feature) who are highly proficient speakers of English were asked to interpret bi-clausal multiple wh-questions in English (like Where did the professor say the students studied when?). Their responses were compared with those of a native speaker control group. It is argued that the results are consistent with the unavailability of the uninterpretable feature. Two conclusions are drawn: first, that there is a critical period for the selection of uninterpretable syntactic features for the construction of mental grammars; second, that despite the observation of target-like performance by L1 Japanese speakers on English wh-interrogatives reported in a number of existing studies, caution is required in interpreting target-like performance as evidence that L2 speakers have the same underlying grammatical representations as native speakers.

The theoretical significance of Universal Grammar in second language acquisition

The evidence that native language acquisition is possible only because children are born with an innately-determined language faculty - Universal Grammar - is considerable. The evidence that the same innate ability is involved in second language acquisition (SLA) by older learners is superficially less clear. There are differences both in the context of acquisition and the nature of development. One recent approach suggests that only ‘poverty of the stimulus’ phenomena - where neither the first language (L1) nor the second language (L2) are possible sources for L2 representations - can provide incontrovertible evidence for Universal Grammar (UG) in SLA. I argue that while ‘poverty of the stimulus’ phenomena are important landmarks in theory development in SLA research, they are not the most compelling reason for assuming the involvement of UG. More compelling are attempts to explain L2-L1 differences. The latter are likely to lead to real progress, not only in understanding the nature of SLA but also the structure and organization of the language faculty itself.

Towards an account of the possessive constructions: NP's N and the N of NP 1

1. Efforts to limit the power of transformations, and thereby reduce the class of possible grammars, have been concentrated in two areas: the conditions which restrict the application of the transformational rules, and the examination of the consequences of placing the burden of description on the non-transformational components of the grammar. Recent work on the non-transformational components has led to some interesting conclusions about how this power can be reduced. An article by Bresnan (1978) is a good example of this line of research. She cites a number of cases where transferring the burden of description from the transformational component to the lexicon and semantic interpretive components not only leads to a simplification in the from of the transformational rules, but also captures generalizations not adequately explained by transformations.

Second language acquisition research and the second language acquisition of French

Prior to the late 1960s second language acquisition was thought to be a relatively uninteresting phenomenon; it involved transferring grammatical properties already activated in the first language (L 1) onto second language (L 2) vocabulary. Successful L 2 learners were those who could capitalise on the similarities between the L 1 and the L 2, and eradicate the differences; and successful language teaching involved training learners to overcome the L 1-L 2 differences. Today, perceptions of second language acquisition are more sophisticated and nuanced. Second language acquisition researchers are interested in questions bearing not only on the influence of the L 1, but also on the degree of systematicity in L 2 development, the role that L 1, but also on the degree of systematicity in L 2 development, the role that conscious knowledge plays, the sources of variability in second language speaker performance, the ultimate levels of success achieved by L 2 learners of different ages, and individual differences between learners. The purpose of this article is to present what the authors believe to be some of the key issues which characterise current second language acquisition research, and to consider those issues within the specific context of the acquisition of French as second language.

Second Language Acquisition of Phonology, Morphology, and Syntax

This article examines how developmental patterns found in second language (L2) acquisition result from a complex interaction of influence from the first language (L1) and input from the L2 under constraints imposed by an innate language faculty. Evidence comes from a large body of research on L2 phonology, morphology and syntax.

Eliminating grammatical function assignment from hierarchical models of speech production: evidence from the conceptual accessibility of referents

The assignment of grammatical functions has been a key feature of hierarchical (serial) models of speech production since their inception in the 1970s. This article argues that grammatical function assignment is neither sufficient nor necessary in such models. It reports a study of the effects of the conceptual accessibility of referents on the selection of English dative syntactic frames in production and shows that the effects relate to linear precedence rather than grammatical function assignment. A secondary topic addressed in the same study is whether second language speakers of English have difficulty integrating syntactic knowledge where it interfaces with conceptual accessibility in speech production. Findings suggest that advanced proficiency speakers do not and are qualitatively similar to native speakers. The implications of this for the interface hypothesis about second language acquisition are discussed.

Errors in the use of French past participles by foreign speakers and their implications for a model of morphology

Standard accounts of morphological classes like the ‘past participle’ need to determine the weight to be given to the rule-derivation of forms, as opposed to the direct lexical insertion of forms. However, on internal linguistic grounds alone there seems to be little evidence to decide this weighting. By translating such accounts into a psychological model — in this case a psychological model for error formation in the French past participle — it becomes clear that the standard analysis makes predictions that do not correspond to observed data. An attempt to account for these observed data by using the notion of phonological ‘prototypes’ for morphological classes suggests a possible way of resolving the problem of the relationship between rule-derivation and direct lexical insertion.