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Morales-Front, Alfonso; Sanz, Cristina – Second Language Research, 2021
Saussure proposed the division language/parole and argued that language can be studied as a formal system. Fifty years later Chomsky declared competence the core interest of linguistics. Although for years Generative second language acquisition (GenSLA) has adopted this view, a number of recent publications poke holes into the competence bubble.…
Descriptors: Multilingualism, Transfer of Training, Second Language Learning, Native Language
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Hicks, Glyn; Domínguez, Laura – Second Language Research, 2020
This article proposes a formal model of the human language faculty that accommodates the possibility of 'attrition' (modification or loss) of morphosyntactic properties in a first language. Modeling L1 grammatical attrition entails a quite fundamental paradox: if the structure of the language faculty in principle allows for attrition of…
Descriptors: Grammar, Native Language, Language Skill Attrition, Models
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Zyzik, Eve – Second Language Research, 2017
The extensive literature on subject expression in Spanish makes for rich comparisons between generative (formal) and usage-based (functional) approaches to language acquisition. This article explores how the problem of subject expression has been conceptualized within each research tradition, as well as unanswered questions that both approaches…
Descriptors: Spanish, Second Language Learning, Language Usage, Syntax
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Yang, Charles; Montrul, Silvina – Second Language Research, 2017
We study the learnability problem concerning the dative alternations in English (Baker, 1979; Pinker, 1989). We consider how first language learners productively apply the double-object and to-dative constructions ("give the book to library"/"give the library the book"), while excluding negative exceptions ("donate the…
Descriptors: Second Language Learning, Language Acquisition, Databases, Linguistic Input
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Thomas, Margaret – Second Language Research, 2009
Lardiere's keynote article adverts to a succession of "units of comparison" that have been employed in the study of cross-linguistic differences, including mid-twentieth-century structural patterns, generative grammar's parameters, and (within contemporary Minimalism) features. This commentary expands on the idea of units of cross-linguistic…
Descriptors: Generative Grammar, Contrastive Linguistics, Second Language Learning, Language Research