The Acquisition of German
-
About this book
The Acquisition of German: Introducing Organic Grammar brings together work on the acquisition of German from over four decades of child L1 and immigrant L2 learner studies. The book’s major feature is new longitudinal data from three secondary school students who began an exchange year in Germany with no German knowledge and attained fluency. Their naturalistic acquisition process — with a succession of stages described for the first time in L2 acquisition — is highly similar to that of younger learners. This has important implications for German teaching and for the theory of Universal Grammar and acquisition. Organic Grammar, a variant of generative syntax, is offered as a practical alternative to Chomsky’s Minimalism. The analysis focuses on extensive monthly samples of the three students’ German development in an input-rich environment. Similar to previous studies, the teenagers build syntactic structure from the bottom up. Two acquired correct word order by the end of the year, the third, who had greater conscious awareness of German grammar, had a divergent route of development, suggesting that language awareness can alter a natural developmental path. The results are addressed in light of recent debates in child-adult differences.
Author / Editor information
Anne Vainikka, Johns Hopkins University, USA; Martha Young-Scholten, University of Newcastle, UK
Topics
-
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
Frontmatter
I -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
Dedication. Acknowledgments
V -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
Contents
VII -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
Chapter 1. Introduction
1 -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
Chapter 2. Organic Syntax of Adult German
20 -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
Chapter 3. Organic Grammar and L1 acquisition
63 -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
Chapter 4. Second language acquisition at the VP level
108 -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
Chapter 5. Second language acquisition at the IP level
164 -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
Chapter 6. Differences in triggering between children and adults
231 -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
Chapter 7. The second language acquisition of the CP projection
264 -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
Chapter 8. Naturalistic learners and unsolved problems in SLA
312 -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
References
350 -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
Index
404
- Manufacturer information:
-
Walter de Gruyter GmbH
Genthiner Straße 13
10785 Berlin - productsafety@degruyterbrill.com
