Dimroth / Jordens Functional Categories in Learner Language

1. Auflage 2009
ISBN: 978-3-11-021617-2
Verlag: De Gruyter
Format: PDF
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 359 Seiten, Format (B × H): 155 mm x 230 mm, Gewicht: 10 g

Reihe: ISSN

Language acquisition is a developmental process. Research on spontaneous processes of both children learning their mother tongue and adults learning a second language has shown that particular stages of acquisition can be discriminated. Initially, learner utterances can be accounted for in terms of a language system that is relatively simple. In studies on second language acquisition this learner system is called the Basic Variety (Klein and Perdue 1997). Utterance structure of the Basic Variety is determined by a grammar which consists of lexical structures that are constrained, for example, by semantic principles such as "The NP-referent with highest control comes first" and a pragmatic principle such as "Focus expression last". At some point in acquisition this lexical-semantic system is given up in favour of a target-like system with morpho-syntactic features to express the functional properties of finiteness, topicality, the determiner system, etc. Insights into how this process evolves may also provide an answer to the question of why it takes place. Within this functional perspective on language acquisition research focuses on questions such as the following.1. What is the driving force behind the process that causes learners to give up a simple lexical-semantic system in favour of a morpho-syntactic functional category system?2. What is the added value of morpho-syntactic properties of inflection, word-order variation, definiteness and agreement?3. Why is it that in cases of specific language impairment it is mainly morpho-syntactic properties of the target language that are affected?

Zielgruppe

Libraries, Researchers and Advanced Students of Linguistics, especially Psycholinguistics and Typology

Autoren/Hrsg.

Dimroth, Christine

Jordens, Peter

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Sprachwissenschaft Grammatik, Syntax, Morphologie
• Geisteswissenschaften Sprachwissenschaft Sprachwissenschaften
• Geisteswissenschaften Sprachwissenschaft Fremdsprachenerwerb und -didaktik

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1;Preface;6
2;Contents;12
3;Convergence on finite V2 clauses in L1, bilingual L1 and early L2 acquisition;14
4;The acquisition of functional categories in child L1 and adult L2 Dutch;58
5;The acquisition of syntactic finiteness in L1 German. A structure-building approach.;110
6;Stepping stones and stumbling blocks. Why negation accelerates and additive particles delay the acquisition of finiteness in German;148
7;Does finiteness mark assertion? A picture selection study with native speakers and adult learners of German;182
8;Light verbs and the acquisition of finiteness and negation in Dutch as a second language;216
9;Finiteness in children with SLI – a functional approach;248
10;Functional and modal elements in child and adult Russian;274
11;How much (morpho-)syntax is needed to express finiteness?;296
12;Relating Italian articles and clitic object pronouns in bilingual children acquiring Italian and German;320
13;Index;356

Über Autor(innen)

Christine Dimroth, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, The Netherlands; Peter Jordens, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands.