Title: Week 14. Issues relating to bilingualism and general wrap-up
1GRS LX 700Language Acquisition andLinguistic
Theory
- Week 14.Issues relating to bilingualism and
general wrap-up
2Code-switching
- Code-switching often occurs in conversations
between fluent bilinguals mixing up the two
languages. - Sometimes people distinguish between code-mixing
(intra) and code-switching (inter). - We wont distinguish here, but were mainly
talking about intrasentential mixing.
3Spanish-English
- No, yo sí brincaba en el trampoline when I was a
senior.No, I did jump on the trampoline when I
was a senior. - La consulta era eight dollars.The office visit
was eight dollars. - Well, I keep starting some. Como por un mes todos
los días escribo y ya dejo.Well, I keep
starting some. For about a month I write
everything and then I stop.
4But it isnt random
- El viejo man The old man
- The old hombre El hombre viejo
- The viejo hombre
- Certain mixes are not considered to be possible
by fluent bilinguals.
5But it isnt random
- The old man Vo buuRaa aadmii
- The buuRaa man Vo old aadmii
- The buuRaa aadmii Vo old man
- She sees lo.
- How can we characterize what mixes are possible
vs. impossible?
6Prior efforts
- Several proposals have been offered to account
for what are good mixes and what arent, but it
appears to be a hard problem. Very famous attempt
by Poplack (1980, 1981) - The equivalence constraint. Codes will tend to be
switched at points where the surface structure of
the languages map onto each other. - The free morpheme constraint. A switch may occur
at any point in the discourse at which it is
possible to make a surface constituent cut and
still retain a free morpheme.
7Poplack
- Looking at the constraints on code-switching of
this sorts can help us understand the nature of
(at least fluent) bilingual language
representation. - One odd thing about Poplacks constraints is that
it implies that part of UG is dedicated to
mixing. The Free Morpheme Constraint and
Equivalence Constraint are only constraints on
mixing two grammars. Is UG built specifically for
bilinguals?
8Problems for Poplack
- Equivalence and Free Morpheme Constraints
Accounts for estoy eatiendo, but leaves
unexplained - The students habian visto la pelicula italien.
- The student had visto la pelicua italien.
- Los estudiantes habian seen the Italian movie.
- Motrataroa de nin kirescataroa n
PocajontasRef-treat-vsf about this
3s-3os-rescue-vsf in P.It deals with the one
who rescues P.
9Problems for Poplack?
- El no wants to go
- He doesnt quiere ir.
- No nitekititoc not 1s-work-dur (Im not
working) - Amo estoy trabajandonot be.3s work-dur Im not
working
10Problems for Poplack
- Tú tikoas tlakemetl 2sg
2s-3Os-buy-fut garment-pl-nsf(You will buy
clothes) - El kikoas tlakmetlhe
3S-3Os-buy-fut garment-pl-nsfHe will buy
clothes
11MacSwan 1999
- Perhaps the most currently comprehensive and
promising account, building on recent
developments in syntactic theory. - One of the basic premises is that language
parameters are properties of lexical items (not
of a language-wide grammar). E.g., verb-movement
is due to a property of the tense morpheme in
French, not shared by the tense morpheme in
English.
12MacSwan 1999
- The broad (minimalist) approach to grammar
takes language to consist of two primary
components. - Computational system (builds trees), language
invariant. - Lexicon, language particular. Functional elements
of the lexicon encode the parameters of variation.
13MacSwan 1999
- MacSwans proposal is that there are no
constraints on code mixing over and above
constraints found on monolingual sentences. - (His only constraint which obliquely refers to
code mixing is the one we turn to next, roughly
that within a word, the language must be
coherent.) - We can determine what are possible mixes by
looking at the properties of the (functional
elements) of the lexicons of the two mixed
languages.
14MacSwan 1999
- The model of code mixing is then just like
monolingual speechthe only difference being that
the words and functional elements are not always
drawn from the lexicon belonging to a single
language. - Where requirements conflict between languages is
where mixing will be prohibited.
15Clitics, bound morphemes
- Some lexical items in some languages are clitics,
they depend (usually phonologically) on
neighboring words. Similar to the concept of
bound morpheme. - Johns book.
- I shouldnt go.
- Clitics essentially fuse with their host.
16Clitics, bound morphemes
- Clitics generally cannot be stressed.
- JohnS book
- I couldNT go.
- Clitics generally form an inseparable unit with
their host. - Shouldnt I go?
- Should I not go?
- Should I nt go?
17Spanish no
- It turns out that Spanish no appears to be a
clitic (despite spelling conventions). - Qué no dijo Juan? What didnt J say?
- Qué sólo leyó Juan? (What did J only read?)
- Qué meramente leyó Juan?(What did J merely
read?) - Juan no ha no hecho la tarea.(J hasnt not
done the task.)
18Nahuatl amo
- In Nahuatl, amo not does not appear to be a
clitic. - Amo nio amo niktati nowelti.Not 1s-go not
1s-3Os-see my-sisterIm not going to not see my
sister.
19Spanish-Nahuatl mixing
- No nitekititoc not 1s-work-dur (Im not
working) - Amo estoy trabajandonot be.3s work-dur Im not
working - Now, we can begin to make sense of the difference
in possible mixes at the point of negation
between Spanish and Nahuatl.
20MacSwan 1999
- MacSwan proposes essentially that it is not
possible to code-mix within a (word-like)
phonological unit. Essentially a restriction on
what are pronouncable trees. - Idea phonology operates as a set of ordered
rules which are ordered differently in different
languagesyou cant run both sets of rules at
once, hence the result if you tried would be
unpronounceable. - Since Spanish no fuses with the following verb,
it cant be followed by a Nahuatl verb. - Since Nahuatl amo does not fuse with the
following verb, it is free to be followed by a
Spanish verb.
21English-Spanish
- This also explains Spanish-English (well,
Spanish-anything) - El no wants to go
- What about English-Spanish?
- He doesnt quiere ir.
- He doesnt wants to go.
22Agreement
- In languages that code agreement between subject
and verb, it also appears that mixing is only
possible where the agreement relationship is not
disrupted. - He doesnt quiere ir.
- English negation agreement appears on do.
- Spanish negation agreement appears on the verb.
- You cant have extra agreement one subject, one
agreement. They need to match.
23Agreement
- Yo nikoas tlakemetl I 1s-3Os-buy-fut
garment-pl-nsf(I will buy clothes) - Tú tikoas tlakemetl you 2s-3Os-buy-fut
garment-pl-nsf(You will buy clothes) - Él/Ella kikoas tlakemetlHe/She
3s-3Os-buy-fut garment-pl-nsfHe/She will buy
clothes
24Agreement
- Ni-k-koa-s I will buy
- Ti-k-koa-s You will buy
- Ø-k(i)-koa-s He/she wlll buy
- Also relevant Spanish marks and agrees with
gender but Nahuatl does not distinguish masculine
from feminine. - Spanish pronouns have gender specification. The
Nahuatl verb does not. They can only be
compatible (match) if there is no Nahuatl
agreement morpheme.
25Spanish-Catalan-Greek
- Spanish and Catalan both have two genders,
masculine and feminine. - Greek has three genders, masculine, feminine,
neuter. - Predicts Mixing subjects and verbs between the
three languages is only possible between the
gender-compatible languages.
26Spanish-Catalan-Greek
- Yo vull mengar el dinar (S-C)
- Jo queiro comer la cena (C-S)
- Ego vull mengar el dinar (G-C)
- Ego queiro comer la cena (G-S)
27Mixing and L2A?
- Code mixing as discussed so far is generally a
property of the speech of fluent bilinguals
(often native bilinguals) and reflects properties
of universal language knowledge. - We can now return to our old question and ask
Does the knowledge of second language learners
also have the restrictions on code mixing? To the
extent that this is part of UG, is this aspect
of UG active for L2ers?
28Toribio Rubin
- Beginning, intermediate, and advanced learners of
Spanish (English L1), asked to imitate code-mixed
utterances. - Beginning Processing errors everywhere.
- Intermediate Repeated everything equally
fluently. - Advanced Repeated good mixes fluently, tripped
up or unknowingly corrected improper mixes. - Looks like the constraints emerge, but
intermediates are probably translating to L1 and
doing any judgments there.
29Bhatia Ritchie (1996)
- Us ne kahaa that he will go there.
- Us ne kahaa ki he will go there.
- Us ne kahaa that vo vahãã jaay-egaa.
- He said ki vo vahãã jaay-egaa.
- He said that vo vahãã jaay-egaa.
- He said ki he will go there.
- Conclusion was that intermediate and advanced
learners do have (access to) the constraints.
Beginning learners showed very little sensitivity
to contrasts.
30So
- Code switching/mixing is quite systematic, and
moreover quite normal behavior for fluent
bilinguals. - It also gives us hints about how languages are
represented, to what degrees theyre kept
separate.
31Anomic aphasia
- Loss of ability to retrieve words from memory,
happens with almost any kind of aphasia (often
with other more severe consequences), early
dementia, healthy tired individuals - Words are not equally susceptible theres a
systematicity to the errors.
32Anomic aphasia
- Content words (boat) are more susceptible than
function words (the). - Infrequent words are more susceptible than
frequent words. - Proper nouns are more susceptible than common
nouns. - Sometime semantic classes go as a block (color
words, letters, numbers).
33Regression
- Theres an old idea sometimes referred to as the
rule of Ribot (dating back to the 1880s) that
the newest things learned are the most vulnerable
to attrition (Freud adopted this view, calling it
regression, a return to earlier stages,
Jakobsen claimed the same thing). - But an aphasic who says Baby cry is not as happy
with it as an infant.
34Aphasias
Brocasnonfluent cmpr okrep poor Wernickesfluentcmpr poorrep poor conductionfluent cmpr okrep poor
anomicfluentcmpr okrep ok transcortical sensorynonfluentcmpr poorrep poor transcortical motornonfluent cmpr okrep ok
35How about multiple languages?
- What about a second language?
- Are the same brain areas used for both L1 and L2?
Or are they different? Or do they overlap?
36Recovery from aphasia
- When a bilingual suffers from an aphasia, several
things can happen during recovery (assuming
recovery) - Parallel recovery
- Differential recovery
- L1 recovers faster (Ribots lawold before new)
- L2 recovers faster (Pitres lawfrequent first)
- Recovery generally implies that the actual
language centers havent been destroyed, only
either cut off or inhibited.
37Recovery from aphasia
- The fact that L1 and L2 can recover independently
implies that they are at least in part
differentially represented in the brain. - Case Dimitrijevic (1940) Woman grew up in
Bulgaria, Yiddish home language, moved to
Belgrade at 34 and spoke Serbian (and Yiddish)
from then on, forgetting Bulgarian. A brain
injury at 60, after two months for recovery,
resulted in her only being able to speak
Bulgarian and Yiddish she could no longer speak
Serbian (though she could understand it), despite
it having been her dominant language for 25 years.
38Second language recovery
- Almost 1/3 of reported multilingual aphasics do
not recover their L1, but their L2 (L3, ). - Case Minkowski (1928). Patients L1 was Swiss
German, learned standard German in school, moved
to France for 6 years, became fluent in French,
then moved back to Switzerland (using SG, though
still reading French). 19 years later, had a
stroke. After 3 days for 3 weeks spoke only
(increasingly fluent) French, then started
recovering German, but for 6 months was incapable
of using SG. Around Christmas, suddenly SG
returned (to the detriment of French).
39Factors involved in L2 recovery?
- Minkowskis idea is that the languages are not
really spatially separated, but that they exert
mutual inhibition in a fairly delicate balance. A
lesion will disrupt that balance and can suppress
a language (including L1). - In support, often lost languages can be
recovered faster than usually required to learn
from scratch. - Also, autopsy studies dont seem to reveal a
larger extent to Brocas area in polyglots
(Sauerwin, spoke 54 languages both at poetry and
prose level normal extent and development in
Brocas area)
40Factors involved in L2 recovery?
- Familiarity often is the determining factor.
- Conscious vs. unconscious knowledge.
- Psychological, emotional factors.
- Language spoken to patient in hospital.
- Domain-specific (rote) language
- Higher inhibition levels between closely-related
languages.
41Recovery of non-communicationlanguages
- Case Grasset (1884). Patient knew only French
(never studied other languages), but then had a
stroke and after a few days, began speaking only
Latin (single words only, primarily
prayer-related). - Case Pötzl (1925). Professor who knew several
modern languages as well as classical Greek and
Latin. After a stroke, he was only able to
express himself in the dead languages, which he
only knew through reading.
42Paradoxical recovery
- Case Paradis Goldblum (1989). L1 Gujarati,
from Madagascar (spoke Malagasy), learned French
in school. After brain surgery, tested fine in
French but was having trouble with Gujarati at
homefairly classic Brocas aphasia symptoms.
Malagasy was fine. Over following months,
Gujarati was recovered, but at the expense of
Malagasy. 2 years later, Gujarati was fine,
Malagasy was impaired. 4 years later, both were
fine. - Suggests differential inhibition (rather than
localization).
43Switching and mixing
- Healthy bilinguals speaking to other bilinguals
will often code-mix or code-switch. - Aphasic bilinguals sometimes mix unconsciously
without regard to the normal conversational
triggers of code-mixing (often using multiple
languages in conversation with monolingual
speakers). - Or, they will show fixation on one language,
responding only in one language regardless of the
language in which they are addressed.
44Alternating antagonism
- More dramatic cases reported where patients
switch week by week or day by day between
near-total control and near-absent control of one
language, in complementary distribution to
another. - Case Bruce (1895) Welsh/English (Welsh, left
handed, demented, docile English, right handed,
restless and destructive). Alternated sometimes
several times per day. - Bruce proposed this was due to differential
hemispheric dominance later supported by studies
of subjects with severed corpus callosum.
Suggested left hemisphere was home of abstract
(instructable) capacities.
45Translation
- Aphasic deficits in translation capabilities
suggest translation might be a separate system. - Reported cases of loss of ability to translate
(but retaining some abilities in each language). - Other reported cases of loss of ability not to
translate Case Perecman (1984) patient would
always spontaneously translate German (L1)
sentences uttered into English (L2) immediate
afterward, yet could not perform translation task
on request.
46Translation
- Sometimes this can happen even without
comprehension Case Veyrac (1931) patient
(English L1, French dominant L2), could not
understand simple instructions in French, but
when instructed in English would spontaneously
translate them to French and then fail to carry
them out.
47Paradoxical translation
- Case Paradis et al. (1982). Patient switched (by
day) between producing Arabic and producing
French. When producing only Arabic, she could
only translate from Arabic into French when
producing only French, she could only translate
from French into Arabic.
48Bilingual representation
- A number of dissociated phenomena in bilingual
aphasia studies. - Sometimes only one language returns, not always
L1 - production and comprehension and translation seem
to be separable, and even by language. - Monolingual aphasia studies seem to correlate
lesion localization with function. - Not much evidence for localization differences
between multiple languages per se. - Some evidence for localization differences
between types of learning? (written, conscious
vs. unconscious, implicit vs. explicit memory?)
49Bilingual representation
- Given the postmortem studies showing no real
morphological differences between monolinguals
and polyglots, the most consistent picture seems
to be one of shared neural architecture with
inhibition between languages. - Choice of language A inhibits access to grammar,
vocabulary of language B during production. - Comprehension is often spared even in the face of
production inability, suggesting that the same
kind of inhibition does not hold of comprehension.
50Bilingual representation
- Many of the aphasic symptoms in production can be
described in terms of changing inhibitions the
lesion disrupts the balance of inhibition and
excitation between neural structures, leading to - loss of inhibition (pathological mixing)
- heightened invariant inhibition (fixation)
- shifting inhibition (alternating antagonism)
- psychological inhibition (repression)
51Subsystems
- There also seem to be several subsystems which
can be individually impaired. - Naming, concepts
- Fluency of production
- Ability to retain and repeat
- Translation from L1 to L2
- Translation from L2 to L1
- Some of these seem to correlate with localization
differences.
52More modern methods and results
- Recording electrical activity in the brain can
also help us see which parts are used in language
tasks - Electroencephalogram (EEG)
- Event-related potentials (ERP).
- Magnetoencephalogram (MEG)
- Functional brain imaging
- Computer axial tomography (CT) (X-rays)
- Positron emission tomography (PET)
- Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)
53MEG
54ex. Pylkkänen, Stringfellow, Kelepir, Marantz
(2000)
M350 The first MEG component sensitive to
manipulations of stimulus properties affecting
lexical activation. Working hypothesis this
component reflects automatic spreading activation
of the lexicon at signal maximum all the
competitors are activated.
stimulus
RT
BELL
M250 A component between the M180 and M350. Also
insensitive to variations in stimulus properties
that affect lexical access. Clearly distinct from
the M350 as these two responses have opposite
polarities. Processing of orthographic forms?
Postlexical processes including the word/nonword
decision of the lexical decision task.
M180 A visual response unaffected by stimulus
properties such as frequency (Hackl et al, 2000),
repetition (Sekiguchi et al, 2000, Pylkkänen et
al 2000) and phonotactic probability/density.
Clearly posterior dipolar pattern.
55More modern methods and results
- Wada test. Sodium amytal causing temporary neural
paralysis can simulate a possible aphasia (in
order to avoid it during neurosurgery). - Electrical stimulation. Similar but shorter term,
more localized. - Results are mainly in line with other knowledge,
but the problem with these tests is that a)
electrical stimulation is hard to repeat
(imprecise), b) both methods can only be used on
people waiting for neurosurgery who may have
abnormal brains.
56Ojemann Whitaker 1978
- Dutch inhibited
- English inhibited
- Both inhibited
- Neither inhibited
57Differences bilingual and monolingual
representations
- Best guess at this point is that there is
overlapthe several languages make partial use of
physiologically distinct areas of the brain, but
also share a lot in common. - Some evidence that second language has a
right-hemisphere component, more diffuse than
first language, although directly contradictory
findings have also been reported. - The state of things is actually a little bit
disappointingbut it turns out to be hard work..!
58End of the semesterWrap upTake-Home Points
59Some major views on L1A/syntax
- Radford/Guilfoyle/Noonan kids lack functional
elements initially, have only lexical elements. - Wexler kids have access to all the same
grammatical elements that adults do. - Rizzi kids have truncated trees
- Vainikka kids grow trees
60L1A Case errors
- Kids will sometimes make case errors with the
subject (until around 2). - Me got bean.
- In English, accusative (me) is the default.
- Very often taken to indicate a subject not in
SpecIP (a.k.a. SpecAgrSP). No IP? (Radford)
Sometimes IP and above (Rizzi, Vainikka)? No
AgrSP? (Wexler)
61L1A Null subjects
- Kids will also often drop out subjects, even in
languages where null subjects are not allowed. - Hyams (1986) Mis-set parameter theyre speaking
Italian initially. - Kids who are learning null subject languages drop
more subjects than kids who are learning non-null
subject languages. - Bloom Long sentences are harder, drop what you
can. The beginning of a sentence is more
susceptible. - Wexler/Hyams Kids drop more subjects with
nonfinite verbs. PRO. Sometimes topic drop with
finite verbs, where topic isnt yet grasped.
62L1A Optional Infinitives
- In many languages, kids will allow nonfinite
verbs in root clauses sometimes, early on (up to
a little after 2). - NS/OI? Wexler (1998) suggests that theres a
strong correlation between lack of OIs in
2-year-old speech and being a null subject
language. - True? Or are OIs just extra-rare in null subject
languages (correlation with more elaborate
inflection?).
63L1A Finite vs. nonfinite
- During Optional Infinitive stage, kids with OIs
treat finite verbs like finite verbs and
nonfinite verbs like nonfinite verbs. - German (Poeppel Wexler) V2 for finite verbs,
final V for nonfinite verbs. - French (Pierce) Verb before pas for finite
verbs, verb after pas for nonfinite verbs.
64Some stories about OIs
- Rizzi until maturation of RootCP, trees
truncated sometimes below tense. - Wexler/Schütze Syntax intact, but something
prohibits the same (subject) DP from licensing
both TP (finite tense) and AgrP (Nom case). - Radford Kids dont use functional categories at
this point (yet, leaves the finite verbs act
finite data unexplained). - Legendre et al Kids minimize the number of
functional projections, basically same outcome as
Schütze Wexler.
65L1A Principles B and P
- Even older kids seem to allow co-reference in
apparent violation of Principle B Mary saw her. - Chien Wexler, then Thornton Wexler, show that
when quantifier binding is available (and thus
requires coindexation), Principle B is respected. - Principle P is slow in coming (matures?), which
says coreference --gt coindexation.
66L1A A-chains, passives
- Kids are also purportedly slow to master passives
and unaccusatives. - Borer Wexler (1987) This is maturation of the
ability to represent A-chainsmore
specifically, the ability to move an object-type
thing into a subject-type position (non-local
assignment of q-roles). - Babyonyshev et al. (1998) show kids have trouble
with the genitive of negation.
67L1A A-chains etc.
- Some possible reasons for skepticism on this
- Snyder, Hyams, Crisma (1994) French kids get
auxiliary selection right with reflexive clitics - Le chienj siest ti mordu tj .
- VP-internal subjects
- Korean negation misplacement seems to
differentiate unergative/transitive from
unaccusatives.
68L1A Negation outside of IP
- Kids for a while seem to have trouble with
negation outside the IP, and repair their
utterances so that it remains inside (usually in
an adult-ungrammatical way). - What kind of bread do you dont like?
- Where he couldnt eat the raisins?
69L1A Syntax
- In general, the errors kids are making seem to be
very systematic. - They seem to know many aspects of the grammatical
system, allowing us to pinpoint (if we look
closely enough and ask the right questions) what
parts dont seem to be working. - A-chains (or dethematization of an external
arg.). - Using a D feature twice to check functional
features. - Allowing negation in C.
- Requiring coreference to imply coindexation.
70L2A What can we say?
- Certain things are required to explain L1A.
- Kids dont get negative evidence
- or if they do, it is inconsistent, it is noisy,
and moreover sometimes when we try to give them
negative evidence, they ignore it. - The kids must be able to learn a system that
assign to some sentences, based only on
positive evidence. - Conclusion Universal Grammar constrains the
kinds of languages there can be, those languages
cannot generate certain kinds of sentences
(hence ).
71L2A What can we say?
- L1A Languages differ from one another.
- Something needs to be learned from the
environment. - Yet much of the grammatical system seems common
across languages. - Languages can be thought of as varying not in the
system (the principles) but in the parameters. - The kids, who learn their native language so
fast, must have some help setting the parameters.
A Language Acquisition Device (LAD) designed to
choose among the options made available by UG.
72L2A What can we say?
- L2A is generally much harder, more conscious,
slower, less successful. - Whats different about L2A? Did UG disappear? Did
the LAD disappear? - Question What is the state of the L2ers
knowledge about the L2? - Does this conform to what UG would allow?
73L2A UG-accessibility
- In general, it seems that the evidence points to
the interlanguages being allowable human
languages. This could either be influence from UG
(constraining possible languages) or because the
IL is a variation on L1. - Can we tell? Look at parameter settings Does IL
represent a different option from L1?
74L2A Transfer
- If the IL is UG-constrained, what is the initial
starting assumption? - Is it some kind of general default setting for
all the parameters (likely to be a subset
grammar from which all other grammars can be
learned via position evidence alone)? - Is it just carrying over the parameter settings
from L1? - Some combination of these?
75L2A Tricks
- In order to look properly at parameters, we need
to know what they are. And what a default
setting might be. This turns out to be hard. - Pro-drop parameter. Default Drop subjects?
Subset learnable? Correlated with anything else? - Binding Theory Governing Category? Default?
Language-wide? Strictly predictable from
morphology?
76L2A Interlanguage L1prescriptive rules?
- Is the IL just L1 plus some prescriptive rules
(LLK)? (Fundamental Difference) - Or does the IL actually show resetting of
parameters? - Resetting should entail cluster of properties
comes with new value (again requires that we know
what the parameters, values, clusters are) - If we can find a non-L1, non-L2, but UG-available
option in the IL, that also suggests parameter
setting.
77Pro-UG
- MacLaughlin (1998) and Japanese to English via
Russian anaphors. - Kanno (1996) and JSL learners seeming to know how
to drop case markers without instruction.
78UG?
- White (1991), ESL kids coming from French dont
seem to learn that the verb doesnt raise (at
least over adverbs). - Hawkins et al. (1993), FSL people seem to be
faking Frenchearly stage treating negation as
part of the verb, start to allow SVAO in addition
to SAVO (recruiting HNP shift).
79L2A Is there a difference between kids and
adults?
- L2A is harder as you get older.
- L1A is quite possibility bounded in time.
- Evidence for CPs seem to point to different CPs
for different subsystems - CPs exist in vision, maybe we can find a brain
correlate? - Yet some people may manage to overcome this and
become indistinguishable from a native speaker.
Some plasticity remains? - What disappears/deteriorates? UG? LAD?
80L2A Negative evidence useful?
- L1A doesnt use negative evidence.
- If there is parameter transfer into IL from L1,
logical subset relations might require negative
evidence to reach correct parameter setting. - Providing people with negative evidence seems to
helpbut only in the short term (without
prolonged practicing), it may not yield any
permanent parameter resetting.
81L2A Markedness?
- Are unmarked things easier/quicker to learn
than marked things? Does teaching the marked
things give you the unmarked things for free? - What are the marked and unmarked things?
- Why do we see generalization beyond the marked
(e.g., in Doughtys NPAH experiment)
82OIs in adults? No, L2A?L1A
- Almost no finite (inflected) verb forms in
non-finite contexts. - When verbs are marked with inflection, they
systematically (overwhelmingly) appear before
negation (i.e., they move). - Many of nonfinite forms used in finite contexts
(used finitely, moved). Prévost White
Oblig. Fin Oblig. Fin Oblig. Nonfin Oblig. Nonfin
Fin -Fin -Fin Fin
A(F) 767 243 278 17
Z(F) 755 224 156 2
A(G) 389 45 76 7
Z(G) 434 85 98 6
83Bottom line
- Especially with respect to L2A, there are a lot
of things left to discover because careful and
theoretically informed experiments still need to
be done. - Many of the experiments that are in the
literature rely on misleading simplistic notions
(a monolithic UG subsuming the LAD, a single
once-and-for-all CPH, a one-stage-at-a time view
of acquisition, a subset relation for adverb
placement or binding domain definitions)
84?
85?