LINGUIST List 22.3597

Thu Sep 15 2011

Diss: Lang Acq/Syntax: Prentza: 'Feature Interpretability in ...'

Editor for this issue: Xiyan Wang <xiyanlinguistlist.org>


        1.     Alexandra Prentza , Feature Interpretability in Second Language Acqusition: Evidence from the Null Subject Parameter in the Greek/English interlanguage

Message 1: Feature Interpretability in Second Language Acqusition: Evidence from the Null Subject Parameter in the Greek/English interlanguage
Date: 10-Sep-2011
From: Alexandra Prentza <prentzalgmail.com>
Subject: Feature Interpretability in Second Language Acqusition: Evidence from the Null Subject Parameter in the Greek/English interlanguage
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Institution: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki Program: Department of Linguistics Dissertation Status: Completed Degree Date: 2010

Author: Alexandra Prentza

Dissertation Title: Feature Interpretability in Second Language Acqusition: Evidence from the Null Subject Parameter in the Greek/English interlanguage

Linguistic Field(s): Language Acquisition                             Syntax
Subject Language(s): English (eng)                             Greek, Modern (ell)
Dissertation Director:
Lanthi-Maria Tsimpli Angeliki Psaltou-Joycey Anna Roussou
Dissertation Abstract:

The aim of this dissertation is to evaluate the role of interpretable anduninterpretable features in Second Language Acquisition targeting the NullSubject Parameter in the Greek/English interlanguage. This study allowed usto explore whether the optionality characterising L2 acquisition is real orapparent. To this end, LF-uninterpretable features involved in null,postverbal and that-t structures were investigated and the compensatoryrole of features interpretable both at LF and PF was examined. Thesemantically interpretable features studied were Referentiality andDefiniteness on subjects, Predicate Type, as well as Animacy andDiscourse-linking on wh-pronouns. On the other hand, Clausal Length and thePF constraint for No-Verb-Initial English clauses comprised themorphophonologically interpretable feature set.

Results from one judgement and two production English tasks, as well asfrom a Greek anaphora resolution test, suggested that uninterpretableformal features cause learnability problems even at advanced stages ofproficiency, the result being that the abstract properties of subject-verbagreement in Greek seem to be transferred in the Greek/Englishinterlanguage. Crucially though, the effects of no-parameter resettingappear to be scattered in the sense that expletive null subject structuresand existential postverbal structures (i.e. 'There'-VS) are more permeablethan referential null subject and postverbal subject permutationsrespectively. With respect to interpretable features, although differentlearner groups were found to exhibit distinct sensitivity to them, it wasrevealed that they have an alleviating role improving learnertarget-deviant performance in a superficial, yet systematic way. However,no strong conclusions can be drawn about the (non)supportive role ofAnimacy and Discourse-linking, since the activation of these features seemsto require the presence of a (resumptive) pronoun in the subject extractionsite, which was not examined by the current thesis.

On the whole, this dissertation supports that the variability attested inL2 acquisition is constrained and stems from the vulnerability of formaluninterpretable features as opposed to the availability of theinterpretable ones, along the lines of the Interpretability Hypothesis(Tsimpli, 2003, Tsimpli and Dimitrakopoulou, 2007, Tsimpli andMastropavlou, 2007).



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