The relationship between finiteness and verb placement has often been studied in both first language (L1) and second language (L2) acquisition and many studies claim that, while there is a correlation between finiteness and verb placement in L1 acquisition, these areas represent separate learning tasks in second language acquisition (SLA). The purpose of this article is to provide a new perspective on this elusive question, analysing data from speakers of Romance languages learning German as a second language (L2). Verbs are classified as thematic and nonthematic and analysed with respect to overt subject–verb agreement and verb placement as seen in negation patterns. A clear association between subject–verb agreement and verb placement is seen for nonthematic verbs: they are in most cases morphologically finite and show the syntactical distribution of finite verbs. These verbs are interpreted as a spell-out of agreement features, differing both from the speakers' L1 and from the L2, but conforming to a universal grammar (UG) option.

Our understanding of how adults acquire grammar has to date been mainly based on investigations of clause structure and the morphosyntax of verbs. The development of nominals, however, has so far not been investigated at the same level of detail. Against this background, the purpose of the present study is to provide an in-depth description of the L2 acquisition of nominals in German and to assess the results in regard to two general research issues: (i) di¤erences in the L1 and L2 development of inflectional morphology, and (ii) the role of transfer in L2 acquisition of grammar. We analyze data of untutored L2 German by speakers of Korean, Turkish, and Romance, concentrating on the realization vs. omission of D-elements, the marking of plurality, and the position of adjectives. While there are aspects of the data that evidence clear influence from the L1, we observe that, unlike in child L1 acquisition, nominal bound morphology poses a major acquisition problem for adult L2 acquirers independently of their L1. These results are reminiscent of what has been previously found for clause structure and the morphosyntax of verbs.

In this article, we study the representation of phrase structure in early child German through the investig,ation of extensive longitudinal data from 7 monolingual German-speaking children (ages 1;8 to 2;9) with respect to verb placement, verb inflection, negation, wh-pronouns, and complementizers. In our data, we find clear evidence that children's grammar at Stage I generates at least one functional projection-namely, IP, or rather F(inite)P. There is, however, no empirical support for a second functional projection (CP) in Stage I. We argue that children construct phrase-structure trees in a gradual fashion, on the basis of X-bar theory and the input they receive.

To cite this version:Teresa Parodi, Ianthi-Maria Tsimpli. 'Real' and apparent optionality in second language grammars: finiteness and pronouns in null operator structures.

No abstract