Bibliographic Details
| Title: |
EVIDENCE FOR THE FUNDAMENTAL DIFFERENCE HYPOTHESIS OR NOT? |
| Authors: |
Belikova, Alyona1 alyona.belikova@mail.mcgill.ca, White, Lydia1 |
| Source: |
Studies in Second Language Acquisition. Jun2009, Vol. 31 Issue 2, p199-223. 25p. 1 Chart. |
| Subject Terms: |
*Comparative grammar, *Generative grammar, *Language & education, Linguistics, Language-action paradigm, Grammar, Extraction (Linguistics), Narrative inquiry (Research method), Structuralism |
| Abstract: |
This article examines how changes in linguistic theory affect the debate between the fundamental difference hypothesis and the access-to- Universal Grammar (UG) approach to SLA. With a focus on subjacency (Chomsky, 1973 ), a principle of UG that places constraints on wh -movement and that has frequently been taken as a test case for verifying second language (L2) access to UG, we reanalyze earlier L2 findings in terms of a revised constraint, which effectively prohibits extraction out of subjects and adjuncts. We show that L2 learners indeed observe such a constraint on wh -movement, and, at the same time, we suggest that recent claims for a universal computational system (e.g., Chomsky, 1995 ; Uriagereka, 1999 ) make the respective roles of the first language and UG difficult to tease apart. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
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| Database: |
Education Research Complete |
