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On the basis of Hindi-English Interlanguage data, Bhatt and Hancin-Bhatt (2002) advance the Structural Minimality hypothesis in which C-domain categories are not licensed in early second language (L2) acquisition, and claim that this leads early L2 learners to misconstrue Prepositional Phrases in the immediate vicinity of the complementizer that introducing an embedded clause. We show, however, that the Structural Minimality thesis is conceptually weak and the argumentation seeking to establish it flawed in three areas: experimental design, reporting of results, and interpretation. Using data from Garcia (1998), we report asymmetries — in the construal of PPs immediately preceding the complementizer versus PPs immediately following the complementizer — that show that knowledge of the C-domain is necessarily implicated in L2 English. We argue that these asymmetries are rooted in the performance system, and we present additional supporting evidence from English-French Interlanguage that is, moreover, highly revealing of the precise, universal sentence processing mechanisms involved. Bhatt and Hancin-Bhatt’s (2002) proposal, in contrast, simply fails to explain any of these asymmetries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the nature of root infinitives (RIs) produced by adult L2 learners in a corpus of L2 French data from 21 English-speaking adults at the beginner and intermediate levels. Although the production of RIs varies across learners, the results show that infinitival verbs appear in contexts requiring the projection of functional categories (e.g. with clitic subjects and in CPs). Moreover, most RIs have a declarative reading, only a few have a modal interpretation. This suggests that adult learners have knowledge of finiteness features and that they may experience problems supplying the exact inflectional morphology (see Lardiere 2000), regardless of the clause-type in which the verb appears. This also corroborates findings from longitudinal studies (Prévost 2003a) and contrasts with L2 French data from anglophone children (Prévost & White 2000a). Finally, the beginners produce finite verbs in nonfinite positions, which is not reported in child L2 French. It is argued that this is due to the lack of overt infinitival morphology in the L1, rather than to impairment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many L2 speakers fail to supply functional morphology consistently in production. In this paper, the Prosodic Transfer Hypothesis (PTH) is proposed, where this is attributed to L1 constraints on prosodic structure. The PTH maintains that functional material which is appropriately represented in syntax may be deleted in production if prosodic structures necessary in the L2 cannot be built from L1 structures. When non-target-like L1 structures are used to accommodate L2 functional material, use is variable and there are asymmetries in the contexts where it appears. The present focus is on an end-state Turkish-speaking learner of English. It is shown that the prosodic structures available in Turkish can be minimally adapted to yield the structure required for English inflection, where the speaker is highly accurate. To represent English articles, the required structure cannot be built from L1 structures; hence, rate of suppliance is lower and is largely determined by phonological context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the ability of a group of adults with different L1s to utilize 'subject inversion' structures displaying the order VS, S = Focus of new information in L2 Italian. The structures were elicited through an experimental technique creating the relevant pragmatic conditions. The results indicate that VS has not been adequately acquired by the learners. The article also discusses the ability of learners to produce null-subjects in the presence of finite verbal morphology, in particular those L2 subjects whose L1 is a non-null-subject language. Comparison of the results in the elicitation of VS and in the production of null-subjects shows a dissociation, with null-subjects available to a larger extent than VS. The theoretical relevance of these results is discussed in light of the structural mapping of discourse related information, the notion of 'possible interlanguage', the dissociation of properties proposed under the null-subject parameter, and the conditions at the interface for second language learners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates constraints on word order optionality in advanced and near-native English-German and Japanese-German interlanguage. Word order optionality in German is mandated by syntactic as well as information-structural and semantic factors at the syntactic interfaces. Studies on the first language acquisition of word order optionality (e.g. Krämer 2000) report a developmental disjunction between syntactic and interface knowledge. In an acceptability judgement task, we find a similar disjunction in the second language acquisition of German word order. Advanced English and Japanese learners demonstrate knowledge of putatively universal syntactic constraints, irrespective of first language differences. Yet, L1-specific differences between English and Japanese learners of German arise in their knowledge of interpretive interface aspects on optional word orders. We argue that these findings point to protracted L1 transfer at the syntactic interfaces in advanced and near-native interlanguage grammars, but do not reflect critical period effects in adult second language acquisition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the results of a longitudinal study into the pragmatic development of German learners of English. The data were elicited with the newly developed "Multimedia Elicitation Task" (MET), which contains 16 request scenarios investigating different status and imposition conditions. The 27 participants included 12 German adults studying at a British university for one academic year and an English native speaker control group of 15 students. The data were collected at three distinct points of the Germans' stay in Great Britain: shortly after their arrival, in the middle of their stay and shortly before their return to Germany. The results provide evidence both for temporal patterning and for individual variation in the learner group. Generally, internal lexical downgraders seem to be acquired earlier than syntactic downgraders, and external modifiers can be assigned to four main groups: the first group contains supportive moves that had already been acquired by all the participants before the first data collection session and the remaining three groups comprise external modifiers whose first occurrence in the corpus displays a correlation with the length of stay in the target environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]