Subject expression in L2 Spanish: Convergence of generative and usage-based perspectives?

Abstract

The extensive literature on subject expression in Spanish makes for rich comparisons between generative (formal) and usage-based (functional) approaches to language acquisition. This article explores how the problem of subject expression has been conceptualized within each research tradition, as well as unanswered questions that both approaches must consider in order to strengthen and refine their positions. The discussion focuses on convergence between the approaches, which stems from the contemporary interest in the syntax–pragmatics interface and some methodological overlap that results from a joint focus on discourse data.

The Generative Approach to Sla and Its Place in Modern Second Language Studies

“…Moreover, generative approaches are better at connecting properties that are superficially unrelated but underlyingly linked to the same parameter, for example, properties that emerge at the same time in development (Snyder, 2001), precisely because the granularity of the formal theory employed can account for this and, in fact, even predicts this. There remain plenty of properties that allow a head-to-head framework comparison, see specifically Shantz (2017) and Zyzik (2017) for some good examples. Where we differ incommensurably is in delineating the parts of language that are claimed to be truly universal and otherwise unacquirable, that is, PoS properties illustrating the logical problem of acquisition.…”

Introduction: Convergence and divergence in functional and formal approaches to SLA

“…This special issue includes two articles taking a formal approach (Yang and Montrul, 2017, this issue; Bardovi-Harlig and Stringer, 2017, this issue), two articles taking a functional approach (Zyzik, 2017, this issue; Paquot, 2017, this issue), and one article testing both approaches (Shantz, 2017, this issue).…”