Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rdxmf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T19:58:19.490Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Missing Inflection in L2 Acquisition: Defective Syntax or LI-Constrained Prosodic Representations?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 June 2016

Heather Goad ,
Lydia White  and
Jeffrey Steele
Heather Goad
Affiliation:
McGill University
Lydia White
Affiliation:
McGill University
Jeffrey Steele
Affiliation:
University of Toronto
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

It is proposed that failure to consistently produce inflectional morphology by Mandarin-speaking learners of English is due to properties of the LI prosodic phonology which are transferred into the interlanguage grammar. While English requires inflection to be adjoined to the Prosodic Word, Mandarin does not permit this structure. Inflection in Mandarin is instead incorporated into the PWd of the stem to which it attaches. It is shown that Mandarin speakers fall into two groups in their treatment of English inflectional morphology. One group of learners is sensitive to the need for a unified analysis of inflection. They recognize that English does not permit a stem-internal analysis of this morphology, but as their grammars do not permit adjunction, inflection is deleted across-the-board. For the other group, inflection surfaces variably, for those stimuli where the shape of the stem enables it to be incorporated into the PWd, as in the L1.

Résumé

Résumé

Il est proposé que l’incapacité pour les locuteurs du mandarin de produire systématiquement la morphologie flexionnelle de l’anglais est due aux propriétés de la phonologie prosodique de la L1 qui sont transférées dans la grammaire interlangue. Alors que la flexion doit être adjointe au mot prosodique en anglais, le mandarin ne permet pas cette structure. La flexion du mandarin est plutôt incorporée dans le mot prosodique du radical auquel elle s’attache. Il est montré que les locuteurs du mandarin se divisent en deux groupes selon leur traitement de la morphologie flexionnelle de l’anglais. Un groupe d’apprenants est sensible à la nécessité d’une analyse unifiée de la flexion. Ils reconnaissent que l’anglais ne permet pas une analyse de la morphologie flexionnelle à l’intérieur du radical, mais comme leur grammaire ne permet pas l’adjonction, la flexion est simplement supprimée. Pour l’autre groupe, la flexion fait surface de façon variable; elle est réalisée lorsque la forme du radical lui permet d’être incorporée dans le mot prosodique comme dans la L1.

Type
Articles
Information
Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique , Volume 48 , Issue 3-4 , December 2003 , pp. 243 - 263
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Linguistic Association 2003

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bayley, Robert. 1994. Interlanguage variation and the quantitative paradigm: Past tense marking in Chinese-English. In Research methodology in second-language acquisition, ed. Tarone, Elaine E., Gass, Susan M., and Cohen, Andrew D., 157–181. Hillsdale: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Bayley, Robert. 1996. Competing constraints on variation in the speech of adult Chinese learners of English. In Second language acquisition and linguistic variation, ed. Bayley, Robert and Preston, Dennis R., 97–120. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Broselow, Ellen. 1983. Non-obvious transfer: On predicting epenthesis errors. In Language transfer in language learning, ed. Gass, Susan and Selinker, Larry, 269–280. Rowley: Newbury House.Google Scholar
Broselow, Ellen, Chen, Su-I, and Wang, Chilin. 1998. The emergence of the unmarked in second language phonology. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 20:261–280.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Charette, Monik. 1991. Conditions on phonological government. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Demuth, Katherine. 2001. Prosodic constraints on morphological development. In Approaches to bootstrapping: Phonological, lexical, syntactic and neuro-physiological aspects of early language acquisition, Vol. 2, ed. Weissenborn, Jurgen and Höhle, Barbara, 3–21. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Duanmu, San. 2000. The phonology of Standard Chinese. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Gavruseva, Lena, and Lardiere, Donna. 1996. The emergence of extended phrase structure in child LI acquisition. In Proceedings of the 20th Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development, ed. Stringfellow, Andrew, Cahana-Amitay, Dalia, Hughes, Elizabeth, and Zukowski, Andrea, 225–236. Somerville: Cascadilla Press.Google Scholar
Gerken, LouAnn, Landau, Barbara, and Remez, Robert. 1990. Function morphemes in young children’s speech perception and production. Developmental Psychology 26:204–216.Google Scholar
Goad, Heather, and Rose, Yvan. In press. Input elaboration, head faithfulness and evidence for representation in the acquisition of left-edge clusters in West Germanic. In Constraints in phonological acquisition, ed. Kager, René, Pater, Joseph, and Zonneveld, Wim. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Goad, Heather, and White, Lydia. 2003. Ultimate attainment of L2 inflection: Effects of LI prosodic structure. Paper read at the European Second Language Association Conference, Edinburgh.Google Scholar
Goldsmith, John. 1990. Autosegmental and metrical phonology. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Grimshaw, Jane. 1994. Minimal projection and clause structure. In Syntactic theory and first language acquisition: cross-linguistic perspectives, Vol. 1: Heads, projections and learnability, ed. Lust, Barbara, Suñer, Margarita, and Whitman, John, 75–83. Hillsdale: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Harris, John. 1994. English sound structure. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Hawkins, Roger. 2000. Persistent selective fossilisation in second language acquisition and the optimal design of the language faculty. Essex Research Reports in Linguistics 34:75–90.Google Scholar
Hawkins, Roger. 2001. Second language syntax: A generative introduction. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Hawkins, Roger, and Chan, Cecilia Y.-h.. 1997. The partial availability of Universal Grammar in second language acquisition: The ‘failed functional features hypothesis’. Second Language Research 13:187–226.Google Scholar
Hawkins, Roger, and Franceschina, Florencia. In press. Explaining the acquisition and non-acquisition of determiner-noun gender concord in French and Spanish. In The acquisition of French in different contexts, ed. Johanne Paradis and Philippe Prévost. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Hawkins, Roger, and Liszka, Sarah. 2003. Locating the source of defective past tense marking in advanced L2 English speakers. In The interface between syntax and lexicon in second language acquisition, ed. van Hout, Roeland, Hulk, Aafke, Kuiken, Folkert, and Towell, Richard 21–44. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Hayes, Bruce. 1981. A metrical theory of stress rules. Doctoral dissertation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.Google Scholar
Hayes, Bruce. 1989. The prosodic hierarchy in meter. In Phonetics and Phonology 1: Rhythm and meter, ed. Kiparsky, Paul and Youmans, Gilbert, 201–260. San Diego: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Hayes, Bruce. 1995. Metrical stress theory: Principles and case studies. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Haznedar, Belma, and Schwartz, Bonnie D.. 1997. Are there optional infinitives in child L2 acquisition? In Proceedings of the 21st Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development, ed. Hughes, Elizabeth, Hughes, Mary, and Greenhill, Annabel, 257–268. Somerville: Cascadilla Press.Google Scholar
Herschensohn, Julia. 2001. Missing inflection in L2 French: Accidental infinitives and other verbal deficits. Second Language Research 17:273–305.Google Scholar
Ionin, Tanya, and Wexler, Ken. 2002. Why is ‘is’ easier than ‘-s’?: Acquisition of tense/agreement morphology by child second language learners of English. Second Language Research 18:95–136.Google Scholar
Kaye, Jonathan, Lowenstamm, Jean, and Vergnaud, Jean-Roger. 1990. Constituent structure and government in phonology. Phonology 7:193–231.Google Scholar
Lardiere, Donna. 1998a. Case and tense in the ‘fossilized’ steady state. Second Language Research 14:1–26.Google Scholar
Lardiere, Donna. 1998b. Dissociating syntax from morphology in a divergent end-state grammar. Second Language Research 14:359–375.Google Scholar
Lardiere, Donna. 1999. Suppletive agreement in second language acquisition. In Proceedings of the 23rd Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development, ed. Greenhill, Annabel, Littlefield, Heather, and Tano, Cheryl, 386–396. Somerville: Cascadilla Press.Google Scholar
Lardiere, Donna. 2000. Mapping features to forms in second language acquisition. In Second language acquisition and linguistic theory, ed. Archibald, John, 102–129. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Lardiere, Donna. 2003. Second language knowledge of [±past] vs. [±finite]. In Proceedings of the 6th Generative Approaches to Second Language Acquisition Conference (GASLA 2002), ed. Liceras, Juana, Zobl, Helmut, and Goodluck, Helen, 176–189. Somerville: Cascadilla Press.Google Scholar
Lardiere, Donna, and Schwartz, Bonnie D.. 1997. Feature-marking in the L2 development of deverbal compounds. Journal of Linguistics 33:327–353.Google Scholar
Liszka, Sarah A. 2002. The development of tense and aspect in second language English. Doctoral dissertation, University of Essex.Google Scholar
Lleó, Conxita. 2001. The interface of phonology and syntax: The emergence of the article in the early acquisition of Spanish and German. In Approaches to bootstrapping: Phonological, lexical, syntactic and neuro-physiological aspects of early language acquisition, Vol. 2, ed. Weissenborn, Jurgen and Höhle, Barbara, 23–44. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCarthy, John, and Prince, Alan. 1994. Generalized alignment. In Yearbook of Morphology 1993, ed. Booij, Geert and van Marie, Jaap, 79–153. Dordrecht: Kluwer.Google Scholar
Mellander, Evan. 2002. A prosodic theory of rhythm and prominence. Doctoral dissertation, McGill University.Google Scholar
Nespor, Marina, and Vogel, Irene. 1986. Prosodic phonology. Dordrecht: Foris.Google Scholar
Piggott, Glyne L. 1998. Foot form and the parsing of weightless syllables. In Proceedings from the Main Session of the Chicago Linguistic Society’s 34th Meeting, ed. Gruber, M. Catherine, Higgins, Derrick, Olson, Kenneth S., and Wysocki, Tamra, 315–332. Chicago: Chicago Linguistic Society.Google Scholar
Prévost, Philippe, and White, Lydia. 2000. Missing surface inflection or impairment in second language acquisition? Evidence from tense and agreement. Second Language Research 16:103–133.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prince, Alan, and Smolensky, Paul. 1993. Optimality Theory: Constraint interaction in generative grammar. Ms., Rutgers University and University of Colorado, Boulder.Google Scholar
Selkirk, Elisabeth O. 1986. On derived domains in sentence phonology. Phonology 3:371–405.Google Scholar
Selkirk, Elisabeth O. 1997. The prosodic structure of function words. In Signal to syntax: Bootstrapping from speech to grammar in early acquisition, ed. Morgan, James and Demuth, Katherine, 187–213. Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Shih, Chilin. 1997. Mandarin third tone sandhi and prosodic structure. In Studies in Chinese phonology, ed. Jialing, Wang and Smith, Norval, 81–123. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Steele, Jeffrey. 2002. Representation and phonological licensing in the L2 acquisition of prosodic structure. Doctoral dissertation, McGill University.Google Scholar
Tsimpli, lanthi-Maria. 2003. Clitics and determiners in L2 Greek. In Proceedings of the 6th Generative Approaches to Second Language Acquisition Conference (GASLA 2002), ed. Liceras, Juana, Zobl, Helmut, and Goodluck, Helen, 331–339. Somerville: Cascadilla Press.Google Scholar
Tsimpli, lanthi-Maria, and Roussou, Anne. 1991. Parameter resetting in L2? UCL Working Papers in Linguistics 3, ed. van de Koot, Hans, 149–169. University College London.Google Scholar
White, Lydia. 2003. Fossilization in steady state L2 grammars: Implications of persistent problems with inflectional morphology. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 6:129–141.Google Scholar
White, Lydia, Valenzuela, Elena, Kozlowska-Macgregor, Martyna, and Leung, Yan-kit Ingrid. In press. Gender agreement in nonnative Spanish: Evidence against failed features. Applied Psycholinguistics.Google Scholar
Wolfram, Walt, and Hatfield, Deborah. 1986. Interlanguage fads and linguistic reality: The case of tense unmarking. In Languages and linguistics: The interdependence of theory, data and application, ed. Tannen, Deborah and Alatis, James E., 17–34. Washington: Georgetown University Press.Google Scholar
Wu, Ching-Huei Teresa. 2002. On delbu and the syntactic nature of resultative verbal compounding. Ms., McGill University.Google Scholar
Xu, De Bao. 2001. Lexical third tone sandhi and the lexical organization of Mandarin. In Chinese phonology in generative grammar, ed. Xu, De Bao, 45–94. San Diego: Academic Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yip, Moira. 1980. The tonal phonology of Chinese. Doctoral dissertation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.Google Scholar
Yip, Moira. 1994. Isolated uses of prosodic categories. In Perspectives in phonology, ed. Cole, Jennifer and Kisseberth, Charles, 293–311. Stanford: Center for the Study of Language and Information.Google Scholar
Yip, Moira. 1995. Tone in East Asian languages. In The handbook of phonological theory, ed. Goldsmith, John, 476–494. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Zobl, Helmut, and Liceras, Juana. 1994. Functional categories and acquisition orders. Language Learning 44:159–180.Google Scholar