Functional Categories in Learner Language

Published by De Gruyter Mouton 2009

Functional Categories in Learner Language

Edited by: Christine Dimroth and Peter Jordens

Volume 37 in the series Studies on Language Acquisition [SOLA]

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110216172

Overview
Contents

About this book

Language acquisition is a developmental process. Research on spontaneous processes of both children learning their mother tongue and adults learning a second language has shown that particular stages of acquisition can be discriminated. Initially, learner utterances can be accounted for in terms of a language system that is relatively simple. In studies on second language acquisition this learner system is called the Basic Variety (Klein and Perdue 1997). Utterance structure of the Basic Variety is determined by a grammar which consists of lexical structures that are constrained, for example, by semantic principles such as "The NP-referent with highest control comes first" and a pragmatic principle such as "Focus expression last". At some point in acquisition this lexical-semantic system is given up in favour of a target-like system with morpho-syntactic features to express the functional properties of finiteness, topicality, the determiner system, etc. Insights into how this process evolves may also provide an answer to the question of why it takes place. Within this functional perspective on language acquisition research focuses on questions such as the following.
1. What is the driving force behind the process that causes learners to give up a simple lexical-semantic system in favour of a morpho-syntactic functional category system?
2. What is the added value of morpho-syntactic properties of inflection, word-order variation, definiteness and agreement?
3. Why is it that in cases of specific language impairment it is mainly morpho-syntactic properties of the target language that are affected?

Author / Editor information

Christine Dimroth, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, The Netherlands; Peter Jordens , Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Topics

Frontmatter Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	i
Contents Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xi
Convergence on finite V2 clauses in L1, bilingual L1 and early L2 acquisition Rosemarie Tracy and Dieter Thoma Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
The acquisition of functional categories in child L1 and adult L2 Dutch Peter Jordens Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	45
The acquisition of syntactic finiteness in L1 German. A structure-building approach. Steffi Winkler Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	97
Stepping stones and stumbling blocks. Why negation accelerates and additive particles delay the acquisition of finiteness in German Christine Dimroth Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	135
Does finiteness mark assertion? A picture selection study with native speakers and adult learners of German Sarah Schimke Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	169
Light verbs and the acquisition of finiteness and negation in Dutch as a second language Josje Verhagen Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	203
Finiteness in children with SLI – a functional approach Anke Jolink Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	235
Functional and modal elements in child and adult Russian Natalia Gagarina Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	261
How much (morpho-)syntax is needed to express finiteness? Karen Ferret and Clive Perdue Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	283
Relating Italian articles and clitic object pronouns in bilingual children acquiring Italian and German Tanja Kupisch and Natascha Müller Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	307
Backmatter Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	343

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: De Gruyter Mouton
Audience: Libraries, Researchers and Advanced Students of Linguistics, especially Psycholinguistics and Typology
Pages
- Front matter: 12
- Main content: 347
Illustrations
- Other: Num. figs. and tabs.
Keywords: Grammaticalization; Language Acquisition; Second Language Acquisition

eBook

Published: December 15, 2009
ISBN: 9783110216172

Hardcover

Published: October 16, 2009
ISBN: 9783110216165