The Role of Formal Features in Second Language Acquisition

Description

Using Chomsky's minimalist program as a framework, this volume explores the role of formal (or functional) features in current descriptions and accounts of language acquistion. In engaging, up-to-date articles, distinguished experts examine the role of features in current versions of generative grammar and in learnibility theory as it relates to native, non-native, and impaired acquisition. Contents Preface Introduction • Juana M. Liceras, Helmut Zobl, and Helen Goodluck Part I. Linguistic theory and learnability 1.1. The role of features in syntactic theory and language variation • Lisa deMena Travis 1.2. Uninterpretable features and EPP: A minimalist account of language buildup and breakdown • Christer Platzack 1.3. Feature correlations in nominative case marking in L 1, L2, and native English • Andrew Radford 1.4. Feature assembly in second language acquisition • Donna Lardiere Part II. Determiner phrase-related features 2.1. Feature interpretability in L2 acquisition and SLI: Greek clitics and determiners • Ianthi Maria Tsimpli and Maria Mastropavlou 2.2. Narrow syntax or interface deficit? Gender agreement in French SLI • Celia Jakubowicz and Leslie Roulet 2.3. The role of semantic features in the acquisition of English articles by Russian and Korean speakers • Tania Ionin, Heejeong Ko, and Kenneth Wexler 2.4. Acquisition of the Spanish plural by French Ll speakers: The role of transfer • Joyce Bruhn de Garavito Part III. Inflection phrase and aspectphrase-related features Section 1. Finiteness, Agreement, and Tense 3.1. Some puzzling features of L2 features • Lydia White 3.2. The semantic effects of verb raising and its consequences in second language grammars • Roger Hawkins, Gabriela Casillas, Hajime Hattori, James Hawthorne, Ritta Husted, Cristobal Lozano, Aya Okamoto, Emma Thomas, and Kazumi Yamada 3.3. Knowledge of morphology and syntax in early adult L2 French: Evidence for the Missing Surface Inflection Hypothesis • Philippe Prevost 3.4. The verbal functional domain in L2A and L3A: Tense and agreement in Cantonese-English-French interlanguage • Yan-kit Ingrid Leung Section 2. Aspect 3.5. On the role of DP in the acquisition of finiteness in child L2 English • Elena Gavruseva 3.6. Non-native recognition of iterative and habitual meanings of Spanish preterite and imperfect tenses • Ana Teresa Perez-Leroux, Alejandro Cuza, Monika Majzlanova, and Jeannette Sanchez-Naranjo 3.7. Aspectual shifts: Grammatical and pragmatic knowledge in L2 acquisition • Roumyana Slabakova and Silvina Montrul 3.8. Interpretable and uninterpretable features in the acquisition of Spanish past tenses • Lourdes Diaz, Aurora Bel, and Konstantina Bekiou Part IV. Complementizer phrase-related features 4.1. Complementizer Phrase features in child Ll and adult L3 acquisition • Suzanne Flynn, Inna Vinnitskaya, and Claire Foley 4.2. On CP positions in L2 Spanish • Elena Valenzuela Author Index Subject Index