Language Acquisition and the Functional Category System

✍ Scribed by Peter Jordens

• Publisher: De Gruyter Mouton
• Year: 2012
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 292
• Series: Studies on Language Acquisition [SOLA]; 39
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Research on spontaneous language acquisition both in children learning their mother tongue and in adults learning a second language has shown that language development proceeds in a stagewise manner. Learner utterances are accounted for in terms of so-called 'learner languages'. Learner languages of both children and adults are language systems that are initially rather simple. The present monograph shows how these learner languages develop both in child L1 and in adult L2 Dutch. At the initial stage of both L1 and L2 Dutch, learner systems are lexical systems. This means that utterance structure is determined by the lexical projection of a predicate-argument structure, while the functional properties of the target language are absent. At some point in acquisition, this lexical-semantic system develops into a target-like system. With this target-like system, learners have reached a stage at which their language system has the morpho-syntactic features to express the functional properties of finiteness and topicality. Evidence of this is word order variation and the use of linguistic elements such as auxiliaries, tense, and agreement markers and determiners. Looking at this process of language acquisition from a functional point of view, the author focuses on questions such as the following. What is the driving force behind the process that causes learners to give up a simple lexical-semantic system in favour of a functional-pragmatic one? What is the added value of linguistic features such as the morpho-syntactic properties of inflection, word order variation, and definiteness?  

✦ Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
1 Introduction
1.1 Language acquisition from a functional perspective
1.2 Overview of the book
2 Lexical vs. functional elements
2.1 Structure in language
2.2 Language structure in production
2.2.1 Phrase structure
2.2.1.1 Lexical selection
2.2.1.2 Phrasal coherence
2.2.2 Utterance structure
2.2.2.1 Perspective taking
2.2.2.2 Contextual embedding
2.2.2.3 Lexical categories
2.2.2.4 Functional categories
2.2.3 Word formation
2.2.3.1 Derivation, inherent and contextual inflection
2.2.3.2 Lexical and functional categories of word formation
2.3 Learner systems
2.3.1 Utterance structure at the initial stage
2.3.2 Word formation at the initial stage
2.4 First and second language acquisition
2.5 Research questions
2.6 Data sources
3 The Target System
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Utterance structure
3.2.1 Basic word order
3.2.2 Word order variation
3.2.3 Information structure and lexical meaning
3.2.3.1 VP structure
3.2.3.2 FP structure
3.2.3.3 The function of F
3.2.3.4 Movement
3.2.4 Summary
3.3 Utterance production
3.3.1 Conceptualization, lexicalization and predication
3.3.1.1 Conceptualization
3.3.1.2 Lexicalization
3.3.1.3 Predication
3.3.2 Expressing finiteness and contextual embedding
3.3.2.1 The semantic function of finiteness
3.3.2.1.1 Truth value
3.3.2.2 Anchoring
3.3.2.2.1 Temporal anchoring
3.3.2.2.2 Spatial anchoring
3.3.2.3 The function of SpecFP
3.3.3 Summary
3.4 Hypotheses on language development
4 The initial state
4.1 Finiteness at the initial state
4.2 Theoretical accounts
4.2.1 Morpho-syntactic systems
4.2.1.1 Poeppel and Wexler (1993), Wexler (1998)
4.2.1.2 Discussion
4.2.2 Semantic systems
4.2.2.1 Clahsen (1986)
4.2.2.2 Discussion
4.2.2.3 Ingram and Thompson (1996)
4.2.2.4 Discussion
4.2.3 Summary
4.3 The alternative
4.4 Summary
5 The lexical stage
5.1 Basic languages, research questions
5.2 The analysis of early learner data
5.3 Utterance structure at the lexical stage
5.3.1 Lexical projections
5.3.2 Testing the model: ergatives and particle verbs
5.3.2.1 Ergatives
5.3.2.2 Particle verbs
5.3.3 Word order
5.3.3.1 Subject first
5.3.3.2 Topic first
5.3.3.3 Head-initial
5.3.4 Summary
5.4 Conflicting constraints
5.5 Conclusion
5.6 From the lexical stage to the functional stage
6 The functional stage
6.1 The acquisition of the projection of F
6.1.1 Utterance structure at the lexical stage
6.1.2 Towards a functional topic position
6.1.3 Towards a grammatical subject position
6.2 Evidence of the projection of F
6.2.1 The functional topic position
6.2.2 The functional category F
6.2.2.1 Analysis of the modal expressions ‘ulle’, ‘mag-ikke’ and ‘nee’
6.2.2.2 Analysis of the unanalysed modal expressions
6.2.2.3 Epistemic modals
6.2.2.4 The auxiliary verbs ‘heb, heeft’ and ‘ben, is’
6.2.2.5 The auxiliary verbs ‘doe, doet’ and ‘ga, gaat’
6.2.3 Topicalization
6.3 The topic position
6.3.1 The affix in F as a topicalization device
6.3.2 Yes/no- and wh-questions
6.3.3 Verb-third in adult L2
6.4 Finiteness
6.4.1 Auxiliary verbs
6.4.1.1 Verb placement
6.4.1.2 ‘Light verbs’
6.4.1.3 Morphological properties of finiteness in L2 Dutch
6.4.2 Grammatical aspect
6.4.3 Tense
6.4.4 Agreement
6.5 Summary
7 Finiteness in language acquisition research
7.1 Finiteness in first language research
7.1.1 L1 Dutch: Gillis (2003)
7.1.2 L1 German: Bittner (2003)
7.1.3 Summary
7.2 Finiteness in second language research
7.2.1 Verb placement and inflectional morphology
7.2.1.1 The contingency between verb placement and morphology
7.2.1.2 Methodological questions
7.2.1.3 Verb placement and inflectional morphology in second language research
7.2.2 Restrictions on the contingency between verb placement and inflection
7.2.2.1 Parodi (1998, 2000)
7.2.3 The dissociation of verb placement and inflection: The Impaired Representation Hypothesis
7.2.3.1 Meisel (1997)
7.2.4 The separation of verb placement and inflection: The Missing Surface Inflection Hypothesis
7.2.4.1 Prévost and White (2000)
7.2.5 The acquisition of auxiliaries as a prerequisite for verb movement
7.2.6 The stagewise acquisition of the functional category system
7.2.6.1 Rule and Marsden (2006)
7.2.6.2 Vainikka and Young-Scholten (1996, 2011): The Organic Grammar approach
7.2.6.3 Becker (2005)
7.2.7 Summary
7.2.7.1 The contingency between verb placement and morphology
7.2.7.2 The acquisition of the auxiliary as a carrier of finiteness
8 Conclusion
8.1 Basic languages
8.2 The lexical stage
8.3 The functional stage
8.4 Driving forces
References
Index