LINGUIST List 13.252

Wed Jan 30 2002

Books: Second Language Acquisition

Editor for this issue: Richard John Harvey <richardlinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. Paul Peranteau, Second Language Acquisition: Telicity in the Second Language.

A new work from John Benjamins Publishing:

Telicity in the Second Language
Roumyana SLABAKOVA (University of Iowa)

Language Acquisition and Language Disorders 26
2001. xii, 236 pp. Hardcover
US & Canada: 1 58811 038 9 / USD 77.00
Rest of world: 90 272 2494 3 / EUR 85.00

The author combines a syntax-theoretical treatment of telicity marking
and an empirical study of the second language acquisition of English
telicity marking by native speakers of Bulgarian, a Slavic
language. It is argued that Vendler's lexical classes of verbs
(states, activities, accomplishments and achievements) can be
represented in four phrase structure templates, where lexical
properties of the verb and of the object compositionally determine
telicity. A parameterized distinction between English and Slavic
aspect is proposed. The book addresses two major acquisition issues:
(1) what is the nature of the initial hypothesis Bulgarian learners of
English entertain regarding telicity marking (i.e., is there native
language transfer)? (2) are adult learners capable of resetting the
telicity marking parameter? Both L1 transfer and parameter resetting
are experimentally supported. In addition, the study investigates the
L2 acquisition of a cluster of complex predicate constructions,
purportedly related to the telicity parameter in the grammatical
competence and in child language acquisition of English.


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