Learnability and the Acquistion of Extraction in Relative Clauses and Wh-Questions

Learnability theory is an investigation of the cognitive principles that determine developmental stages and eventual success in language acquistion. The focus of this study is on the learning principles within learnability theory that account for developmental stages in adult second language acquisition. Three learning principles, cumulative development, continuity, and conservatism, predict a complex sequence of development in the acquisition of relative clauses and wh -questions in English. They predict an early no-prep stage, gradual development through two additional stages of greater embeddedness of the extracted noun, stranded before nonstranded prepositional structures, and the likelihood of resumption at early stages. These predictions are confirmed by data from previous studies and are further investigated in this study by means of elicited production data collected from 35 Japanese learners of English and 17 native speakers of English. The data show the expected stages of development and confirm the relevance of learning principles to a comprehensive theory of learnability in second language acquisition (SLA).

[1]  J. Hayes.  Cognition and the development of language , 1970 .

[2]  B. MacWhinney.  The Acquisition Of Morphophonology , 1978 .

[3]  Henk C. van Riemsdijk,et al.  A case study in syntactic markedness: The binding nature of prepositional phrases , 1978 .

[4]  Susan Gas.  LANGUAGE TRANSFER AND UNIVERSAL GRAMMATICAL RELATIONS , 1979 .

[5]  S. Krashen.  Age, Rate and Eventual Attainment in Second Language Acquisition. , 1979 .

[6]  Ann L. Brown,et al.  Advances in developmental psychology , 1981 .

[7]  Noam Chomsky,et al.  Lectures on Government and Binding , 1981 .

[8]  Lila R. Glietman.  Maturational determinants of language growth , 1981, Cognition.

[9]  R. Stavy,et al.  U-shaped behavioral growth , 1982 .

[10]  Norbert Hornstein,et al.  Explanation in Linguistics: The Logical Problem of Language Acquisition , 1982 .

[11]  Ann M. Peters,et al.  The Units of Language Acquisition , 1983 .

[12]  John R. Anderson.  The Architecture of Cognition , 1983 .

[13]  Irene Mazurkewich,et al.  THE ACQUISITION OF THE DATIVE ALTERNATION BY SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNERS AND LINGUISTIC THEORY , 1984 .

[14]  Roger W. Andersen,et al.  THE ONE TO ONE PRINCIPLE OF INTERLANGUAGE CONSTRUCTION , 1984 .

[15]  Steven Pinker,et al.  Language learnability and language development , 1985 .

[16]  Susan M. Gass,et al.  Input in second language acquisition , 1985 .

[17]  M. Baltin,et al.  The Mental representation of grammatical relations , 1985 .

[18]  Geoffrey K. Pullum,et al.  Generalized Phrase Structure Grammar , 1985 .

[19]  Stephen Krashen,et al.  The Input Hypothesis: Issues and Implications , 1986 .

[20]  Harald Clahsen,et al.  The availability of universal grammar to adult and child learners - a study of the acquisition of German word order , 1986 .

[21]  Maria Pavesi,et al.  Markedness, Discoursal Modes, and Relative Clause Formation in a Formal and an Informal Context , 1986, Studies in Second Language Acquisition.

[22]  W. Rutherford,et al.  Second languages : a cross-linguistic perspective , 1986 .

[23]  James L. McClelland,et al.  Parallel distributed processing: explorations in the microstructure of cognition, vol. 1: foundations , 1986 .

[24]  Sascha W. Felix,et al.  Cognition and Language Growth , 1987 .

[25]  William O'Grady,et al.  Principles of Grammar and Learning , 1987 .

[26]  Joyce Hildebrand,et al.  The Acquisition of Preposition Stranding , 1987, Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique.

[27]  Lydia White.  Markedness and Second Language Acquisition , 1987, Studies in Second Language Acquisition.

[28]  Kathleen Bardovi-Harlig,et al.  Markedness and Salience in Second‐Language Acquisition , 1987 .

[29]  M. Rita Manzini,et al.  Parameters and Learnability in Binding Theory , 1987 .

[30]  Jacquelyn Schachter,et al.  Second Language Acquisition and Its Relationship to Universal Grammar , 1988 .

[31]  S. Pinker,et al.  Connections and symbols , 1988 .

[32]  Fred R. Eckman,et al.  On the Generalization of Relative Clause Instruction in the Acquisition of English as a Second Language1 , 1988 .

[33]  S. Pinker.  Learnability and Cognition: The Acquisition of Argument Structure , 1989 .

[34]  William E. Rutherford,et al.  Preemption and the Learning of L2 Grammars , 1989, Studies in Second Language Acquisition.

[35]  Pieter Muysken,et al.  The UG paradox in L2 acquisition , 1989 .

[36]  Lydia White.  Linguistic Perspectives on Second Language Acquisition: The adjacency condition on case assignment: do L2 learners observe the Subset Principle? , 1989 .

[37]  Susan M. Gass,et al.  Linguistic Perspectives on Second Language Acquisition: Frontmatter , 1989 .

[38]  Robert Bley-Vroman,et al.  The logical problem of foreign language learning , 1989 .

[39]  Edith A. Moravcsik,et al.  Implicational Universals and Interrogative Structures in the Interlanguage of ESL Learners , 1989 .

[40]  Lydia White,et al.  Universal Grammar and second language acquisition , 1989 .

[41]  David Birdsong.  Universal Grammar and Second Language Acquisition Theory , 1990, Studies in Second Language Acquisition.

[42]  Michael H. Long.  Maturational Constraints on Language Development , 1990, Studies in Second Language Acquisition.

[43]  James Pankhurst,et al.  Learnability and second languages : a book of readings , 1990 .