Testing the null subject parameter in adult second language acquisition: A study of Vietnamese and Spanish speakers learning English

This study of adult second language acquisition (SLA) tests a hypothesis proposed for first language acquisition (FLA) within the Government and Binding framework of Chomsky's Extended Standard Theory (1981,1986). A grammatical judgment task was used to elicit data about late learners' mental representations of two aspects of English grammar. The two features of English are claimed to be related by means of a parameter, a dimension along which languages may vary, and which relates several covarying features. First, learners speaking languages (L1s) which allow referential and expletive subjects to be null in tensed clauses must learn that English requires an obligatory subject. Second, they must learn certain properties of the English auxiliary system, namely the environments in which they are required and their position with respect to other sentence elements. In this study these two features were operationalized by means of grammatical judgment task. Two groups were tested, speakers of Spanish for whom referential subjects may be null because agreement features on the verb identify them, and speakers of Vietnamese for whom subjects may be null because of discourse deletion.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Education

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2011

Author dc:creator

• Platt, Elizabeth Jane

Contributors dc:contributor

• McClure, Erica F.

• Education, Language and Literature
• Language, Linguistics
• Education, Educational Psychology

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 1989 Platt, Elizabeth Jane

Language dc:language

eng

Identifier

AAI9010988
(UMI)AAI9010988

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/21808