On the contrastive analysis of features in second language acquisition: uninterpretable gender on past participles in English—French processing

Lardiere's discussion raises important questions about the use of features in second language (L2) acquisition. This response examines predictions for processing of a feature-valuing model vs. a frequency-sensitive, associative model in explaining the acquisition of French past participle agreement. Results from a reading-time experiment support the feature-valuing model.

[1]  R. Hawkins,et al.  Explaining frequency of verb morphology in early L2 speech , 2008 .

[2]  Ianthi Maria Tsimpli,et al.  The Interpretability Hypothesis: evidence from wh-interrogatives in second language acquisition , 2007 .

[3]  Roger Hawkins,et al.  Interpretation of English multiple wh-questions by Japanese speakers: a missing uninterpretable feature account , 2006 .

[4]  Noam Chomsky Three Factors in Language Design , 2005, Linguistic Inquiry.

[5]  Marc Brysbaert,et al.  Lexique 2 : A new French lexical database , 2004, Behavior research methods, instruments, & computers : a journal of the Psychonomic Society, Inc.

[6]  R. Hawkins,et al.  2. Locating the source of defective past tense marking in advanced L2 English speakers , 2003 .

[7]  H. Harley,et al.  Person and Number in Pronouns: A Feature-Geometric Analysis , 2002 .

[8]  K. Hale,et al.  Ken Hale: A Life in Language , 2001 .

[9]  Janet Dean Fodor,et al.  Parsing to Learn , 1998 .

[10]  Noam Chomsky The Minimalist Program , 1998, Journal of Linguistics.

[11]  Cecilia Yuet Hung Chan,et al.  The partial availability of Universal Grammar in second language acquisition: the ‘failed functional features hypothesis’ , 1997 .

[12]  Rex A. Sprouse,et al.  L2 cognitive states and the Full Transfer/Full Access model , 1996 .

[13]  Matthew Flatt,et al.  PsyScope: An interactive graphic system for designing and controlling experiments in the psychology laboratory using Macintosh computers , 1993 .

[14]  C. Clifton,et al.  The independence of syntactic processing , 1986 .

[15]  Donna Lardiere,et al.  On Morphological Competence , 2005 .

[16]  I. Tsimpli Clitics and Determiners in L2 Greek , 2003 .

[17]  R. Hawkins,et al.  Explaining the acquisition and non-acquisition of determiner-noun gender concord in French and Spanish. , 2003 .

[18]  Boris New,et al.  Une base de données lexicales du français contemporain sur internet: LEXIQUE , 2001 .

[19]  Cynthia Brown The Interrelation between Speech Perception and Phonological Acquisition from Infant to Adult* , 1999 .

[20]  Noam Chomsky Derivation by phase , 1999 .

[21]  V. Déprez Semantic effects of agreement: The case of French past participle agreement , 1998 .

[22]  Rex A. Sprouse,et al.  Word Order and Nominative Case in Non-Native Language Acquisition: A longitudinal study of (L1 Turkish) German Interlanguage , 1994 .

[23]  Morris Halle,et al.  Distributed morphology and the pieces of inflection , 1993 .