Language acquisition studies in generative grammar
Subtitle: papers in honor of Kenneth Wexler from the 1991 GLOW workshops
By: edited by Teun Hoekstra, Bonnie D. Schwartz.
Contributors: Wexler, Kenneth.; Hoekstra, Teun.; Schwartz, Bonnie D.; GLOW Conference (14th : 1991 : Leiden University)
Series: Language acquisition & language disorders,; v. 8
Publisher: J. Benjamins; Benjamins Publishing Company, John
Published: 1994
Place of publication: Amsterdam; Philadelphia
Language: eng
Number of pages: 401
Subjects: Language acquisition.; Generative grammar.; Grammar, Comparative and general -- Syntax.
Description: This is a collection of essays on the native and non-native acquisition of syntax within the Principles and Parameters framework. In line with current methodology in the study of adult grammars, language. acquisition is studied here from a comparative perspective. The unifying theme is the issue of the 'initial state' of grammatical knowledge: For native language, the important controversy is that between the Continuity approach, which holds that Universal Grammar is essentially constant throughout development, and the Maturation approach, which maintains that portions of UG are subject to maturation. For non-native language, the theme of initial states concerns the extent of native-grammar influence. Different views regarding the continuity question are defended in the papers on first language acquisition. Evidence from the acquisition of, inter alia, Bernese, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Icelandic, Italian and Japanese, is brought to bear on issues pertaining to clause structure, null subject, verb position, negation, Case marking, modality, non-finite sentences, root questions, Jong-distance questions and scrambling. The views defended on the initial state of (adult) second language acquisition also differ: From complete L1 influence to different versions of partial L1 influence. While the target language is German in these studies, the native language varies: Korean, Spanish and Turkish. Analyses invoke UG principles to account for verb placement, null subjects, verbal morphology and Case marking.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
Based on papers presented at workshops on syntactic acquisition organized as part of the 14th GLOW Conference which was held Mar. 1991, Leiden University.
Table of contents: title: Introduction : on the initial stages of language acquisition / Teun Hoekstra & Bonnie Schwartz; title: VP, null arguments, and COMP projections / Nina Hyams; title: Crosslinguistic evidence for functional projections in early child grammar / Vivian Deprez & Amy Pierce; title: The seeds of structure : a syntactic analysis of the acquisition of case marking / Harald Clahsen, Sonja Eisenbeiss & Anne Vainikka; title: From adjunct to head / Teun Hoekstra & Peter Jordens; title: Early null subjects and root null subjects / Luigi Rizzi; title: Asking questions without CPs? : on the acquisition of root wh-questions in Bernese Swiss German and Standard German / Zvi Penner; title: Successful cyclic movement / Rosalind Thornton & Stephen Crain; title: Early acquisition of scrambling in Japanese / Yukio Otsu; title: Direct access to X'-theory : evidence from Korean and Turkish adults learning German / Anne Vainikka & Martha Young-Scholten; title: Word order and nominative case in non-native language acquisition : a longitudinal study of (L1 Turkish) German interlanguage / Bonnie D. Schwartz & Rex A. Sprouse; title: Optionality and the initial state in L2 development / Lynn Eubank.