LINGUIST List 16.457

Tue Feb 15 2005

Diss: Lang Acquisition: LaFond: 'The Pro-drop ...'

Editor for this issue: Megan Zdrojkowski <meganlinguistlist.org>

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        1.    Larry LaFond, The Pro-drop Parameter in Second Language Acquisition Revisited: A Developmental Account

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Message 1: The Pro-drop Parameter in Second Language Acquisition Revisited: A Developmental Account

Date: 15-Feb-2005
From: Larry LaFond <llafondsiue.edu>
Subject: The Pro-drop Parameter in Second Language Acquisition Revisited: A Developmental Account


Institution: University of South Carolina
Program: Program in Linguistics
Dissertation Status: Completed
Degree Date: 2001

Author: Larry L. LaFond

Dissertation Title: The Pro-drop Parameter in Second Language Acquisition Revisited: A Developmental Account

Dissertation URL: http://roa.rutgers.edu/view.php3?id=602

Linguistic Field(s): Language Acquisition

Subject Language(s): English (ENG)
                            Spanish (SPN)

Dissertation Director:
Rakesh M. Bhatt
D. E. Holt

Dissertation Abstract:

This dissertation applies a particular theory of language acquisition and
representation, Optimality Theory (Prince and Smolensky 1993, Grimshaw
1997), and a particular learning algorithm within this theory, the
Constraint Demotion Algorithm (Tesar and Smolensky 2000), to the problem of
how second language acquisition of pro-drop takes place for learners whose
first language does not instantiate the grammatical properties
traditionally associated with pro-drop. The overarching goal of this study
is to provide an account of the developmental stages in the second language
learning of three grammatical properties: null subjects, inversion, and
that-trace. Although there is no lack of such accounts from earlier
generative perspectives, the need remains for a comprehensive developmental
account from an Optimality-theoretic perspective. This dissertation begins
to address that need. The study is based on several empirical tests (a
translation task, a pilot study, and a grammaticality judgment task) that
were administered to 370 adult native English speakers studying Spanish at
the University of South Carolina or the Pennsylvania State University. Each
task was designed to investigate learner competencies regarding null
subjects, inversion, and that-trace. A key conclusion from these studies is
that the acquisition of Spanish by native speakers of English involves a
reranking of universal syntactic and discoursal constraints in these
languages. Specifically, this dissertation argues that acquisition of
Spanish occurs through the demotion of certain syntactic constraints in the
English native grammar so that these constraints are dominated by
discoursal constraints in the Spanish second language grammar.



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