Dr M.YouhanaeeDr M.YouhanaeeSima Sadeghi, PhD candidate, University of Isfahan

Email: Sima_sadeghi23i@yahoo.comeEmail: Sima_sadeghi23i@yahoo.comeSLASLA

The initial state debate:

Minimal Trees (Vainikka and Young-Scholten, 1994, 1996, 1998)

VSFull Transfer/Full Access

(Schwartz and Sprouse, 1994, 1996)

Radford (1990)1- L1 acquisition begins with bare VP projection

2- functional projections develops later3- Acquisition goes in syntactically identifiable stages

VPVP IP (TP, AgrP) IP (TP, AgrP) CP CP

Clashen (1994):

Functional projections develop one-by-one, as a result of successive application of X-Theory

e.g. My make a house

e.g. I color me

e.g. Know what my making?

Entire syntactic representation of a sentence consists of a verb phrase. Nina (2)

my

Spec

V obj

V

VP

make

a house

I color meNina (2;1)

I

I

IP

V NP

V

VP

color

me

Spec

I

Nina (2;4)1-no CP

2-wh-word in Spec IP3-non-case marked subject

my

Spec

I

I

IP

V

V

VP

making

what

ti

C

C

CP

that

she

I

I

IP

V DP

V

VPwill

eat

lunch

VP & IP are head finale.g. Hans hat den kaffee getrunken

Hans has the coffee drunk

V2 languagee.g. Hans fragt ob er zu viel kaffee getrunken hat

Hans asks if he too much coffee drunk has

1 -VP stage

2- FP stage (TP or AspP)

3 -AgrP stage

Naturalistic L2A

Learner’s L1 L1 order V-final VPs

Korean/Turkish SOV 98%Italian/Spanish early SVO 19%Italian/Spanish later SVO 64%.

a. L2 learners build up phrase structure in the same way as the children do.

b. In both L1 & L2 , there is an early stage without functional projection

c. L2A takes place in stages d. Functional projection= X-Theory + Input

a.a. Oya Zigarette trinken (Turkish L1) Oya cigarette drink-inf

Oya raucht Zigaretten Oya smokes cigarettes’.

b.b. Ja alles hier kaufen (Turkish L1) Yes everything her buy-inf Ja ich kaufe alles hier

‘ Yes (I) buy everything here’.

c.c. Hier Jacke ausmachen. (Korean L1)

here jacket off.make Hier macht sie ihre Jacke ab)‘She (is taking (her) jacket off here’

d.d. Ich sprechen die meine Firma (Italian L1—early) I speak-inf the my firm Ich spreche mit meiner Firma

‘ I speak (to/at) my firm’.

e.e. Vielleicht Schule essen (Italian L1—later)

maybe school eat-inf Vielleicht isst sie/er in der Schule

1 -VP levela. Transfer of L1 headednessb. Bare VP projection

2 -Gradual development of Functional Phrasea. head-initial FP projectionb. head-initial AgrP projection

a. Transfer of L1 headednessL2 learners transfer theirL1 VP headednesse.g. Korean/ Turkish produce head-final-VP

Cross-sectional: 6 Korean, 6 Spanish, 11 Turkish. Longitudinal: 1 Spanish, 4 Italian.In at least the early part of the VP stage, speakers seem to produce sentences in which the headedness matches their L1 and not German.

L1L1 headhead-final VPs in L2

Korean/Turkishfinal98

Italian/Spanish (I)initial19

Italian/Spanish (II)initial64

lack of:

verb raising (INFL and/or CP)auxiliaries and modals (generated in INFL)an agreement paradigm (INFL)complementizers (CP)wh-movement (CP)

No embedded clausesNo wh-questionsNo yes-no questions

1 -Modals and auxiliaries

2 -Optional Verb raising Note: the TL TP is head-final, however.

3 -Lack of Agreement

4 -Lack of Complementizers (CP)

5 -Lack of wh-movement

1 -verb raising frequent

2 -auxiliaries and modals common

3 -agreement paradigm acquired

4 -some embedded clauses with complementizers

5-complex wh-questions attested.

1 -transfer: parameters are properties of the functional headsIf all you transfer from the L1 is the VP, you don’t expect that parameters pertaining to higher projections would transfer from the L1. For example, if having wh-movement is a property of C, we wouldn’t expect (if V&YS are right) that having wh-movement would transfer from L1 to the IL.

2-L2A is acquired by “building up” the syntactic tree3 -information about the VP is borrowed wholesale from the L1

1 -presence of FCs in the initial state (Haznedar, 1997; Vainikka and Young-Scholten, 1994, 1996; Grondin and White, 1996; Lakshmanan, 1993/94)

2 -Development doesn’t follow the predicted progression (Gavruseva and Lardiere, 1996)

3 -L1 transfer of FCs (Haznedar, 1997; Trahey and White, 1993)

a. Initial state:- lack of functional categories- transfer of L1 lexical categories

b. Development:- full UG-inventory available- gradual emergence of FCs:lexical stage > FP stage > IP stage > CP stage- no L1 transfer of FCs

c. End state:Convergence is possible given enough exposure to the L2

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