"Tom Eats Slowly Cooked Eggs": Thematic-Verb Raising in L2 Knowledge

Eubank, Lynn; Bischof, Janine; Huffstutler, April; Leek, Patricia; West, Clint

doi:10.1207/s15327817la0603_1

Cited by 83 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…First of all, under the view that morphological knowledge is dependent on the syntactic knowledge exhibited in the L1, the inconsistent use of morphological features is explained as an impairment of the functional categories with which they are associated (Beck, 1998;Vainikka and Young-Scholten, 2009;Eubank et al, 1997;Meisel, 1997). The second view holds, on the other hand, that Universal Grammar (UG) constrains grammar construction during acquisition of L1 and L2, but remains unchanged during this process (Full Access).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The gradual acquisition of clitic “se” in Spanish L2

Escobar

García

2016

Topics in Linguistics

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In this study, we analyse the nature of clitic "se" and low applicatives in Spanish L2 through the study of the non-native acquisition of this clitic by L1 English adult learners. In particular, we are going to discuss the question of how English adults acquire this clitic in the different syntactic configurations where it appears (anticausative inchoative verbs, inherent reflexive verbs, transitive verbs implying an inalienable possession relation, consumption verbs and non-anticausative inchoative verbs). Our main research hypothesis is that the acquisition of clitic "se" with some types of applicatives takes place in the later stages of the learning process, since it requires exposure to certain linguistic evidence to acquire a certain type of argument structure proper to applicatives. This study is going to be based on how our subjects perform using Grammaticality Judgment Tests (GJTs).

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The gradual acquisition of clitic “se” in Spanish L2

Escobar

García

2016

Topics in Linguistics

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“…In contrast, the Missing Surface Inflection Hypothesis (MSIH) holds that, whereas nonfinite main verbs may appear nonfinite on the surface, they are in fact finite and occupy finite positions (Haznedar, 1997;Haznedar & Schwartz, 1997;Prévost & White, 2000;Schwartz & Sprouse, 2000). 1 A third account holds that features underlying finiteness are impaired in interlanguage (IL) grammars (Beck, 1998;Eubank, Bischof, Huffstutler, Leek, & West, 1997). Meisel (1997) offered a strong version of this approach, claiming that there is no relationship between finiteness and verb placement in early IL grammars, which suggests that functional categories are altogether absent from IL grammars.…”

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confidence: 99%

TRUNCATION AND MISSING INFLECTION IN INITIAL CHILD L2 GERMAN

Pelletier

2003

Stud Second Lang Acquis

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This paper examines the nature of finite and nonfinite main declarative sentences produced by L2 child learners. It claims that two of the main proposals on the root infinitive (RI) phenomenon, the Truncation Hypothesis (TH) and the Missing Surface Inflection Hypothesis (MSIH), are not mutually exclusive in child SLA because they are hypotheses on completely different issues. According to the TH, different roots are involved: RIs are VPs underlyingly, whereas finite clauses are IPs or CPs. The MSIH claims that L2 learners have difficulties using the exact inflectional morphology, which leads them to produce verbs with an infinitival marker or no inflection at all. These so-called default forms are finite. In principle, then, an L2 learner could project truncated structure and produce default finite forms at the same time. This possibility is investigated in longitudinal data from an English-speaking child learning German. Two complementary sets of data can be accounted for by the hypotheses. Verbs bearing a nonfinite marker are restricted to nonfinite positions, which is consistent with the TH. Bare (uninflected) forms occur in the same (finite) positions as verbs inflected for person and number, which suggests that they are finite. This finding is consistent with the MSIH.

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“…That is to say, we expect to find a probable disassociation between the syntactic properties and verbal morphology, good knowledge of adverb placement and inverted questions, whereas we would expect to find that morphology might be very poor or limited at the surface. However, if problems with agreement morphology were an underlying deficit problem, as claimed by the Impairment Inflection hypothesis (Beck, 1998;Eubank et al, 1997;Meisel, 1997), we would expect L2 learners to perform equally badly in both syntax and morphology. Only those L2 learners of Spanish who are able to demonstrate sufficient knowledge of verbal agreement would exhibit knowledge of the syntactic properties of verb movement in Spanish.…”

Section: Our Own Studymentioning

confidence: 92%

“…In contrast, the Impairment Inflection Hypothesis (Beck, 1998;Eubank, Bischof, Huffstutler, Leek and West, 1997;Meisel, 1997) predicts that functional categories are either impaired or underspecified in L2 acquisition. In particular, Meisel (1997) claims that L2 learners of German use non-finite forms in finite positions and finite verb forms in non-finite positions.…”

Section: V-raising In L2 Spanishmentioning

confidence: 96%

Evidence of V to I raising in L2 Spanish

Guijarro–Fuentes

Larrañaga

2011

International Journal of Bilingualism

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This article focuses on the acquisition of verb placement (adverb placement, subject-verb inversion in yes/no questions, subject-verb inversion in direct, indirect and pseudo wh-questions) in L2 Spanish. Four different elicitation tasks (an identification task, a grammaticality judgment task, a preference grammaticality task and a production task) were used for data collection. The subjects were 41 English adult L2 learners of Spanish at different proficiency levels (beginners, low intermediate, intermediate and advanced) according to an independent placement test. In line with Lardiere's (1998aLardiere's ( , 1998bLardiere's ( , 2000 and Prévost and White's (2000) findings, evidence for developments in syntax which is independent of developments in morphology is found in support of the Missing Surface Inflection Hypothesis. Although L2 learners' verb-placement is target like at the surface level, their knowledge of verb agreement is poor and limited. That is, L2 learners appear to have reset the verb movement parameter in Spanish (i.e., [+movement]), even though they fail to morphologically mark the verb for person and number correctly, showing lack of knowledge that the inflections in Spanish I are strong. These findings suggest that there is a strong dissociation between syntax and morphology (Lardiere, 2000), but they will also be discussed in the light of some current theories on the acquisition of new values for uninterpretable syntactical features (Hawkins & Hattori, 2006;Tsimpli & Dimitrakopoulou, 2007).Keywords adverb placement, L2 English of Spanish, subject-verb inversion in direct and indirect and pseudo wh-questions, subject-verb inversion in yes/no questions, uninterpretable features, V-raising parameter, weak and strong morphology

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"Tom Eats Slowly Cooked Eggs": Thematic-Verb Raising in L2 Knowledge

Cited by 83 publications

References 15 publications

The gradual acquisition of clitic “se” in Spanish L2

The gradual acquisition of clitic “se” in Spanish L2

TRUNCATION AND MISSING INFLECTION IN INITIAL CHILD L2 GERMAN

Evidence of V to I raising in L2 Spanish

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