L1 transfer revisited: the L2 acquisition of telicity marking in English by Spanish and Bulgarian native speakers

This paper investigates the claim that the native grammar of the learners is the initial state of second-language acquisition, as far as the acquisition of universal grammar parameters is concerned. Two opposing views on L1 transfer are discussed: the first hypothesis maintains that learners start out with the L1 parameter value (Schwartz and Sprouse's 1994, 1996 full-transfer/full-access hypothesis), while the second hypothesis argues that L1 transfer plays a minimal role in the acquisition process (Epstein et al. 1996's no-transfer/full-access hypothesis). The parameter under investigation is the aspect parameter, postulating two different ways in which languages mark telicity in the verbal phrase. In order to distinguish between the two views of transfer with experimental means, the study examines the competence of two groups of low-intermediate learners of English, native speakers of Spanish, a language sharing the same parameter value with English, and of Bulgarian, a language exhibiting the opposite parametric value. Results indicate that the differences in the performance of learners from the two language groups are directly traceable to their native language. Thus the full-transfer/full-access hypothesis receives experimental support.

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