description
Telicity in the Second Language (Language Acquisition and Language Disorders)
By Roumyana Slabakova
(August 2001)
* Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Co
* Number Of Pages: 249
* ISBN-10 / ASIN: 1588110389
* ISBN-13 / EAN: 9781588110381
Product Description:
This text looks at the subject of telicity in the second language, and includes such topics as: aspectual distinctions; theories of access to UG; aspectual semantics; the aspect-related constructions; and first language acquisition research on aspect.
Chapter 1
Aspect and theories of
second language acquisition
1.1 Introduction
The goal of this book is to present a detailed study of the second language
acquisition (SLA) of English telicity marking by native speakers of Bulgarian, a
Slavic language. A parameterized distinction between English and Slavic
situation aspect is proposed, and the subtle differences between English and
Slavic telic and atelic sentences are examined. Thus the book opens a new area
of parameter research in SLA and studies in depth the mental representation of
telicity in interlanguage. In addition to the general theoretical interest that a
study of the acquisition of telicity marking evokes, the book highlights a
number of specific theoretical issues.
First of all, following Verkuyl (1972, 1993) the book advances a specific
view of English verb phrases (VP), according to which their aspectual meaning
is compositional: a property of the verb and a property of the noun phrase (NP)
object conspire to bring forward an aspectual interpretation. In Slavic VPs, on
the other hand, only a property of the verbal form signals the aspectual interpretation.
Thus, it is argued that a verb may contain two types of information:
its idiosyncratic meaning and information about its aspectual class. The latter
may be represented by a zero morpheme, licensed by the property of the object
(as in English) or by an affix on the verb (as in Slavic). It is proposed that the
above distinction between Slavic and English can be viewed in terms of a
parameter, with two values, or settings. These are only two of the telicity
parameter settings that human languages may exhibit. Other possible values are
tentatively discussed in Chapter 3.
Secondly, based on the above view of verb phrases and following Hale and
Keyser (1992, 1993), and Travis (1992, 1994, 1999a, b), it is proposed that the
four aspectual classes of verbs (Vendler 1967), viz. accomplishments, achievements,
activities, and states, can be represented in four different phrase structure
templates, where distinct subevents are mapped onto different VP shells
and make reference to the properties of the object. Thus, event-type distinctions
are captured at the interface of lexical semantics and syntax. It is argued that the
four templates are language universals, and the parameterized distinctions
between languages involve the syntactic positions of telicity markers. It is at this
level that the English-Slavic contrast receives an explanation.
Third, based on the syntax-theoretical treatment of Slavic and English
telicity marking, the book investigates the SLA of this parameter and focuses on
the mental representation of aspectual properties of English in the interlanguage
of Slavic speakers learning English. L2 learners are found to be capable
of resetting the telicity parameter value to the English setting, thus successfully
acquiring a property of language almost never taught in language classrooms.
The fourth issue that the book addresses is the nature of the initial hypothesis
that Slavic speakers entertain regarding telicity marking. Basically, two
logical possibilities offer themselves if access to UG is assumed: learners either
have direct access to UG, in which case they do not demonstrate the L1 value of
the parameter in their interlanguage competence (Epstein, Flynn and Martohardjono
1996; Flynn 1996) or they start out the process of acquisition by
hypothesizing that aspect in the L2 is encoded in the same way as in their
mother tongue (Schwartz and Sprouse 1994, 1996). The results of the experimental
studies described in the book bring new evidence to bear on the
theoretical choice above, supporting the latter view.
Fifth, the book studies the acquisition of a cluster of constructions, which
syntactic research relates to the English value of the telicity parameter, and
which have been found to co-occur in the speech of children learning English
as their first language (Snyder and Stromswold 1997). The proposed cluster
includes the double object construction, the verb–particle construction, and the
resultative secondary predicate construction. Results indicate that every one of
the above forms part of this aspect-related cluster and that, although double
objects appear somewhat earlier than the other two constructions, this difference
is statistically insignificant. Verb-particles, resultatives, and double objects
appear some time after telicity marking has been acquired. Chapter 6 of the
book discusses some possible reasons for this situation.
In the remainder of this chapter, the concept of aspect will be briefly
introduced, then the theoretical framework of the book—Universal Grammar
(UG) and Second Language Acquisition (SLA) — will be presented. Three
approaches to UG principles and parameters in SLA will be outlined: the No
Parameter Resetting approach, the Direct Access approach and the L1 Grammar
as the Initial Hypothesis approach. The predictions that each one of these
approaches makes with respect to parameter resetting will be examined. |
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