This study builds on Chomsky’s principles and parameters framework (Chomsky, 1986) by applying it to the study of second language (L2) acquisition. In other words, it makes use of a parameter resetting model to explain aspects of the second language learning process. It aims to investigate whether classroom instruction which presents only positive evidence, that is to say grammatically correct samples of the L2, is sufficient to enable adult second language learners to acquire certain properties of L2 parameters which differ from their mother tongue (L1). The participants in the study have Arabic as their L1, and are learning English as an L2. The study hypothesizes that the participants, who are all adult students studying English language at an advanced level in Misurata University, Libya, will not be able to reset the pro-drop parameter and the verb raising parameter from their properties in Arabic to their different properties in English. The hypothesized reason is that they are taught using only positive evidence-based samples of English, and that is not sufficient to lead to parameter resetting. The results show that the students had great difficulty in resetting the pro-drop parameter and the verb raising parameter from Arabic to English.

This paper presents an analysis of the rise of do support and the gradual loss of verb movement during the period of Early Modern English. The analysis focuses on studying the structures in which do support was first used as an alternative to verb raising to I. It takes into consideration the analysis of the relationship between the position of the negation marker not in negative interrogative structures and the position of the subject and the object pronouns in these structures. The analysed structures are negative interrogatives taken from Shakespeare’s works in the period of Early Modern English. The results of the data analysis show that in most cases, there is do support when the subject pronouns are above negation, while there is no do support when object pronouns appear above negation. This suggests that do was first inserted here to avoid object raising with the verb to I or to C to avoid putting object and subject pronouns in subsequent positions.