Pragmatic solutions for syntactic problems: Understanding some L2 syntactic errors in terms of discourse-pragmatic deficits
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Jason Rothman
Abstract
Contemporary research in generative second language (L2) acquisition has attempted to address observable target-deviant aspects of L2 grammars within a UG-continuity framework (e.g. Lardiere 2000; Schwartz 2003; Sprouse 2004; Prévost & White 1999, 2000). With the aforementioned in mind, the independence of pragmatic and syntactic development, independently observed elsewhere (e.g. Grodzinsky & Reinhart 1993; Lust et al. 1986; Pacheco & Flynn 2005; Serratrice, Sorace & Paoli 2004), becomes particularly interesting. In what follows, I examine the resetting of the Null-Subject Parameter (NSP) for English learners of L2 Spanish. I argue that insensitivity to associated discoursepragmatic constraints on the discursive distribution of overt/null subjects accounts for what appear to be particular errors as a result of syntactic deficits. It is demonstrated that despite target-deviant performance, the majority must have native-like syntactic competence given their knowledge of the Overt Pronoun Constraint (Montalbetti 1984), a principle associated with the Spanish-type setting of the NSP.
Abstract
Contemporary research in generative second language (L2) acquisition has attempted to address observable target-deviant aspects of L2 grammars within a UG-continuity framework (e.g. Lardiere 2000; Schwartz 2003; Sprouse 2004; Prévost & White 1999, 2000). With the aforementioned in mind, the independence of pragmatic and syntactic development, independently observed elsewhere (e.g. Grodzinsky & Reinhart 1993; Lust et al. 1986; Pacheco & Flynn 2005; Serratrice, Sorace & Paoli 2004), becomes particularly interesting. In what follows, I examine the resetting of the Null-Subject Parameter (NSP) for English learners of L2 Spanish. I argue that insensitivity to associated discoursepragmatic constraints on the discursive distribution of overt/null subjects accounts for what appear to be particular errors as a result of syntactic deficits. It is demonstrated that despite target-deviant performance, the majority must have native-like syntactic competence given their knowledge of the Overt Pronoun Constraint (Montalbetti 1984), a principle associated with the Spanish-type setting of the NSP.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Foreword v
- Table of contents vii
- The quirky case of participial clauses 1
- Answering strategies: A view from acquisition 19
- Transfer in periphrastic causatives in L2 English and L2 Spanish 39
- Clitic omission, null objects or both in the acquisition of European Portuguese? 59
- Metrical structure, tonal association and focus in French 73
- On affixal scope and affix-root ordering in Italian 99
- Scope economy in positive polarity: Extreme degree quantification 115
- The acquisition of aspect in L2 Portuguese and Spanish. Exploring native / non-native performance differences 131
- Mechanisms of scope resolution in child Italian 149
- When scope meets modality: The scope of indefinites in subjunctive environments 165
- Listen to the sound of salience: Multichannel syntax of Q particles 185
- Instability and age effects at the lexicon-syntax interface 201
- On the ambiguity of N-words in French 213
- Cross-linguistic influence in bilingual children: The case of dislocation 229
- Cartography of postverbal subjects in Spanish and Catalan 259
- Mismatches between phonology and syntax in French DP acquisition 281
- Pragmatic solutions for syntactic problems: Understanding some L2 syntactic errors in terms of discourse-pragmatic deficits 299
- A poverty-of-the-stimulus argument for the innateness of the identification conditions on VP ellipsis 321
- Index 335
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Foreword v
- Table of contents vii
- The quirky case of participial clauses 1
- Answering strategies: A view from acquisition 19
- Transfer in periphrastic causatives in L2 English and L2 Spanish 39
- Clitic omission, null objects or both in the acquisition of European Portuguese? 59
- Metrical structure, tonal association and focus in French 73
- On affixal scope and affix-root ordering in Italian 99
- Scope economy in positive polarity: Extreme degree quantification 115
- The acquisition of aspect in L2 Portuguese and Spanish. Exploring native / non-native performance differences 131
- Mechanisms of scope resolution in child Italian 149
- When scope meets modality: The scope of indefinites in subjunctive environments 165
- Listen to the sound of salience: Multichannel syntax of Q particles 185
- Instability and age effects at the lexicon-syntax interface 201
- On the ambiguity of N-words in French 213
- Cross-linguistic influence in bilingual children: The case of dislocation 229
- Cartography of postverbal subjects in Spanish and Catalan 259
- Mismatches between phonology and syntax in French DP acquisition 281
- Pragmatic solutions for syntactic problems: Understanding some L2 syntactic errors in terms of discourse-pragmatic deficits 299
- A poverty-of-the-stimulus argument for the innateness of the identification conditions on VP ellipsis 321
- Index 335
