Fossilized second language grammars : the acquisition of grammatical gender / Florencia Franceschina.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Franceschina, Florencia.

Series:

Language acquisition & language disorders ; v. 38.

Language acquisition & language disorders, 0925-0123 ; v. 38

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Second language acquisition.

Grammar, Comparative and general--Gender.

Grammar, Comparative and general.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (314 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Philadelphia : John Benjamins Pub., 2005.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This monograph is a theoretical and empirical investigation into the mechanisms and causes of successful and unsuccessful adult second language acquisition.Couched within a generative framework, the study explores how a learner's first language and the age at which they acquire their second language may contribute to the L2 knowledge that they can ultimately attain. The empirical study focuses on a group of very advanced L2 speakers, and through a series of tests aims to discover what underpins their near mastery of grammatical gender and other grammatical properties.The book explores an account of persistent selective divergence based on the idea that child and adult learners are fundamentally similar, except that in adults the L1 plays the role of a fairly rigid filter of the linguistic input. The impossibility of representing the new target language other than by using the building blocks of the previously established L1 is argued to be the main reason why near but not totally native like language representations are formed and become established in adult L2 learners.

Contents:

Fossilized Second Language Grammars

Editorial page

Title page

LCC data

Table of contents

Abstract

Acknowledgements

List of appendices

List of tables

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Appendix 9

List of figures

Abbreviations

Introduction

1.1. Theoretical background

1.2. Misfit between input and acquired knowledge

1.3. A failed features account of divergence in the L2 endstate

1.4. The empirical study

1.5. Broader significance of the study

How the book is organized

Definitions, assumptions and predictions

2.1. Definitions

2.1.1. Computational and representational resources

2.1.2. Attainment in SLA

2.2. Approach to SLA research

2.3. General view of the grammar

2.4. The syntax/PF interface

2.5. Specific assumptions about language acquisition

2.5.1. How Strong FFFH came about

2.5.2. How the L1 and the L2 may differ

2.6. The critical period

2.7. The role of the L1

Summary

Competing theories of NS/NNS ultimate attainment differences

3.1. Extra-linguistic approaches

3.1.1. Biological accounts

3.1.2. Cognitive accounts

3.1.3. Social and affective accounts

3.1.4. Accounts based on learner-external factors

3.2. Linguistic accounts

3.2.1. No access to UG

3.2.2. Problems in the periphery

3.2.3. Detrimental effects of a previously acquired language

3.2.4. Impossibility of resetting parameters

Gender

4.1. What is grammatical gender?

4.1.1. Defining grammatical gender

4.1.2. What is gender for?

4.1.3. The syntax of gender

4.1.4. The Spanish gender system

4.2. How gender is processed

4.2.1. Processing gender in L1

4.2.2. Processing of gender in L2

4.3. How is grammatical gender acquired?.

4.3.1. First language acquisition of gender

4.3.2. Bilingual L1A

4.3.3. Second language acquisition of gender

The empirical study

5.1. Design

5.1.1. Hypotheses

5.1.2. Population and sample

5.1.3. Proficiency measure: University of Wisconsin Spanish Placement Test

5.2. Naturalistic data

5.3. Experimental tasks

5.3.1. Test 1: Guessing game

5.3.2. Test 2: Missing word task

5.3.3. Test 3: Cloze/multiple choice task

5.3.4. Test 4: Grammaticality judgement task

5.3.5. Test 5: Novel word task

5.3.6. Test 6: Gender assignment check

5.4. Overall summary and interpretation of results

Discussion

6.1. Revisiting research questions and hypotheses

6.1.1. Second language acquisition of other PFFs

6.1.2. Could other theories account for the data at hand?

6.2. A representational account of divergence in the L2 endstate

6.2.1. Compensatory strategies

6.2.2. Why a critical period for the acquisition of parameters?

6.3. Concluding remarks - A case for focusing on Orwell's problem

Notes

Chapter 1

References

Appendices

Appendix 1: Greenberg's (1963, 1966) typological universals involving gender

Appendix 2: Number of subjects that participated in each task

Appendix 3: Case and number mistakes made during spontaneous speech production

Appendix 4: Mistakes made by the Italian subjects in spontaneous production

Appendix 5: Test 1 - Guessing game

Appendix 6: Test 1 - Design features of test sentences

Appendix 7: Test 1 - Design of distractor sentences

Appendix 8: Test 2 - Provide the missing word

Appendix 9: Test 2 detailed results

Appendix 10: Test 3 - Cloze/Multiple choice task, with key to answers

Appendix 11: Gender clues in Test 3 items, sorted by FF's code.

Appendix 12: Gender clues in Test 3 items, sorted by PP's presentation order

Appendix 13: Gender clues in Test 3 items, sorted by PP's code

Appendix 14: Test 4 - GJT with correction

Appendix 15: Test 4 sentences arranged according to variables

Appendix 16: Lexical items used in Test 4

Appendix 17: Sample of pictures used in Test 5

Appendix 18: Test 5 - Novel words task - Test items and colours

Appendix 19: Test 5 - Novel words task - Script as recorded on tape

Appendix 20: Test 6 - Gender assignment check

Appendix 21: Test 6 items in alphabetical order and with information about where in the other experimental tasks they were used

Appendix 22: Nouns used in Tests 1 and 6

Appendix 23: Nouns used in Tests 2 and 6

Appendix 24: Nouns used in Tests 3 and 6

Appendix 25: Nouns used in Tests 4 and 6

Name index

Subject index

The series Language Acquisition and Language Disorders.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9786612156274

9781282156272

1282156276

9789027293985

9027293988

OCLC:

84691723