Telicity in the Second Language
The author combines a syntax-theoretical treatment of telicity marking and an empirical study of the second language acquisition of English telicity marking by native speakers of Bulgarian, a Slavic language. It is argued that Vendlers lexical classes of verbs (states, activities, accomplishments and achievements) can be represented in four phrase structure templates, where lexical properties of the verb and of the object compositionally determine telicity. A parameterized distinction between English and Slavic aspect is proposed. The book addresses two major acquisition issues: (1) what is the nature of the initial hypothesis Bulgarian learners of English entertain regarding telicity marking (i.e., is there native language transfer)? (2) are adult learners capable of resetting the telicity marking parameter? Both L1 transfer and parameter resetting are experimentally supported. In addition, the study investigates the L2 acquisition of a cluster of complex predicate constructions, purportedly related to the telicity parameter in the grammatical competence and in child language acquisition of English.
[Language Acquisition and Language Disorders, 26] 2001. xii, 235 pp.
Publishing status: Available
Published online on 21 October 2008
Published online on 21 October 2008
© John Benjamins Publishing Company
Table of Contents
-
Acknowledgements | p. xiii
-
1. Aspect and theories of second language acquisition | p. 1
-
2. Semantic and syntactic treatments of telicity | p. 21
-
3. English and Slavic telicity: A syntactic account | p. 63
-
4. First and second language acquisition of aspect | p. 103
-
5. An experimental study of the L2 acquisition of telicity | p. 143
-
6. Discussion, implications, and conclusion | p. 173
-
Appendix | p. 199
-
-
Index | p. 231
“This study is impressive in its scope and thoroughness. The author clearly presents the issues in acquisition as well as in syntax. Accordingly, this study not only contributes original work to the field of L2 acquisition, but also attempts to use L2 data to support the claim that there is an aspect parameter that implicates telicity with resultatives, verb particles and double objects.”
Melinda Whong-Barr, University of Durham, UK in Linguist List Vol-12-2795. Thu Nov 8 2001
“The main contribution of this volume is that it opens a new venue for the investigation of UG phenomena from the perspective of the L2 acquisition of telicity. Another strength of the volume is that the author acknowledges some of the faults of the study and methodology and provides alternative interpretations as well as suggestions for further research...the volume will be of great interest to researchers in syntax, semantics, and morphology in both L1 and L2 acquisition.”
Llorenç Comajoan, Middlebury College in Studies in Second Language Acquisition 25(1), 2003
Cited by (52)
Cited by 52 other publications
Oliveira, Duarte
2024. The aspectual entailments of telicity markers in German: evidence from non-native and native speakers. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition ► pp. 1 ff. 
Judy, Tiffany, Eloi Puig-Mayenco, Adel Chaouch-Orozco, Fernando Martín-Villena & David Miller
2023. Testing the Competing Systems Hypothesis: Further evidence from aspect in tutored L1-English–L2-Spanish. Second Language Research 39:4 ► pp. 1165 ff.
Kasher, Natasha & Aviya Hacohen
2023. A star is drawn: Testing the culmination inferences of Russian perfective accomplishments. Glossa: a journal of general linguistics 8:1
Nehls, Paul N., Kodai Aramaki & Tomohiro Fujii
2023. Is a quantifier mismatch a problem for L1 Japanese learners of English?. Linguistics Beyond and Within (LingBaW) 9 ► pp. 133 ff.
Chen, Yunchuan
2022. Acquisition of Japanese relative clauses by L1 Chinese learners: Evidence from reflexive pronoun resolution. Second Language Research 38:3 ► pp. 499 ff.
Guo, Yanyu
2022. From a simple to a complex aspectual system: Feature reassembly in L2 acquisition of Chinese imperfective markers by English speakers. Second Language Research 38:1 ► pp. 89 ff.
SHKURENKO, Anastasiia & Filiz CELE
2022. L2 acquisition of Russian aspect by L1 Turkish speakers. RumeliDE Dil ve Edebiyat Araştırmaları Dergisi :31 ► pp. 1561 ff.
González, Paz & Carmen Kleinherenbrink
2021. Target Variation as a Contributing Factor in TAML2 Production. Círculo de Lingüística Aplicada a la Comunicación 87 ► pp. 39 ff.
Gulgowski, Piotr, Joanna Błaszczak & Veranika Puhacheuskaya
2021. The influence of aspect on the countability of Polish deverbal nominalizations: Evidence from an acceptability rating study. Zeitschrift für Sprachwissenschaft 40:1 ► pp. 1 ff.
Roberts, Leah & Sarah Ann Liszka
2021. Grammatical aspect and L2 learners’ online processing of temporarily ambiguous sentences in English: A self-paced reading study with German, Dutch and French L2 learners. Second Language Research 37:4 ► pp. 619 ff.
Schwartz, Bonnie D. & Rex A. Sprouse
2021. The Full Transfer/Full Access model and L3 cognitive states. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism 11:1 ► pp. 1 ff.
Woo, I-hao
2021. On the syntax ofwan‘finish/complete’ in Mandarin Chinese. Australian Journal of Linguistics 41:4 ► pp. 408 ff.
Woo, I‐hao
2024. On the aspectual values of gradable predicates in Mandarin Chinese†. Studia Linguistica 78:3 ► pp. 483 ff.
Bulatovic, Vesna
2020. Thinking for speaking in the right aspect. Revista Española de Lingüística Aplicada/Spanish Journal of Applied Linguistics 33:2 ► pp. 384 ff.
Bulatovic, Vesna
2022. Aspect semantics and ESL article use. International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching 60:2 ► pp. 491 ff.
Kaku-MacDonald, Keiko, Juana M. Liceras & Nina Kazanina
2020. Acquisition of aspect in L2: The computation of event completion by Japanese learners of English. Applied Psycholinguistics 41:1 ► pp. 185 ff.
Kim, Sujeong, Heejeong Ko & Hyun-Kwon Yang
2020. Telicity and mode of merge in L2 acquisition of resultatives. Language Acquisition 27:2 ► pp. 117 ff.
Rastelli, Stefano
2020. The acquisition of aspect in a second language,
Rastelli, Stefano
2023. Telic for whom? The Lexical Underspecification Hypothesis. Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique 68:2 ► pp. 191 ff.
Romagno, Domenica
2020. An “epoch in Historical Linguistics and Indo-European scholarship”: in memoriam Romano Lazzeroni (1930–2020). Journal of South Asian Languages and Linguistics 7:2 ► pp. 373 ff.
Domínguez, Laura
2019. A ‘mixed methods’ approach for investigating aspect in a second language. Dutch Journal of Applied Linguistics 8:1 ► pp. 41 ff.
González, Paz & Tim Diaubalick
Quintana Hernández, Lucía
2019. The effects of telicity, dynamicity and punctuality in L2 acquisition of Spanish Preterit and Imperfect. Dutch Journal of Applied Linguistics 8:1 ► pp. 100 ff.
Rothman, Jason, Jorge González Alonso & Eloi Puig-Mayenco
2019. Third Language Acquisition and Linguistic Transfer,
Yin, Bin & Beth Ann O’Brien
2019. Aspectual interpretation and mass/count knowledge in Chinese-English bilinguals. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism 9:3 ► pp. 468 ff.
GONZÁLEZ, PAZ & LUCÍA QUINTANA HERNÁNDEZ
2018. Inherent Aspect and L1 Transfer in the L2 Acquisition of Spanish Grammatical Aspect. The Modern Language Journal 102:3 ► pp. 611 ff.
Rastelli, Stefano & Kook-Hee Gil
2018. No fear of George Kingsley Zipf. Instructed Second Language Acquisition 2:2 ► pp. 242 ff.
Dosi, Ifigeneia, Despina Papadopoulou & Ianthi Maria Tsimpli
2017. Issues in the acquisition of grammatical aspect in Greek-English bilingual children. In Tense-Aspect-Modality in a Second Language [Studies in Bilingualism, 50], ► pp. 75 ff.
Al-Thubaiti, Kholoud A.
2015. Chapter 7. L2 acquisition of English aspect by L1 Arabic speakers. In The Acquisition of the Present, ► pp. 185 ff.
Rappaport Hovav, Malka & Beth Levin
2015. The Syntax‐Semantics Interface. In The Handbook of Contemporary Semantic Theory, ► pp. 593 ff.
Montrul, Silvina
2014. Chapter 4. Interlanguage, transfer and fossilization. In Interlanguage [Language Learning & Language Teaching, 39], ► pp. 75 ff.
Snape, Neal, John Matthews, Makiko Hirakawa, Yahiro Hirakawa & Hironobu Hosoi
Arsenijević, Boban, Berit Gehrke & Rafael Marín
2013. The (De)composition of Event Predicates. In Studies in the Composition and Decomposition of Event Predicates [Studies in Linguistics and Philosophy, 93], ► pp. 1 ff.
DOMÍNGUEZ, LAURA, NICOLE TRACY-VENTURA, MARÍA J. ARCHE, ROSAMOND MITCHELL & FLORENCE MYLES
2013. The role of dynamic contrasts in the L2 acquisition of Spanish past tense morphology. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 16:3 ► pp. 558 ff.
Hirakawa, Makiko
2013. Alternations and Argument Structure in Second Language English: Knowledge of Two Types of Intransitive Verbs. In Universal Grammar and the Second Language Classroom [Educational Linguistics, 16], ► pp. 117 ff.
Ivanov, Ivan P.
2012. L2 acquisition of Bulgarian clitic doubling: A test case for the Interface Hypothesis. Second Language Research 28:3 ► pp. 345 ff.
Karpava, Sviatlana, Kleanthes K. Grohmann & Konstantinos Fokianos
2012. Aspect in the L2 and L3 Acquisition of Greek. In Cross-linguistic Influences in Multilingual Language Acquisition [Second Language Learning and Teaching, ], ► pp. 41 ff.
BARTOLOTTA, ANNAMARIA
2009. Root lexical features and inflectional marking of tense in Proto-Indo-European. Journal of Linguistics 45:3 ► pp. 505 ff.
Gabriele, Alison
2009. TRANSFER AND TRANSITION IN THE SLA OF ASPECT. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 31:3 ► pp. 371 ff.
Gabriele, Alison
2010. Deriving meaning through context: Interpreting bare nominals in second language Japanese. Second Language Research 26:3 ► pp. 379 ff.
Song, Hyang Suk & Bonnie D. Schwartz
2009. TESTING THE FUNDAMENTAL DIFFERENCE HYPOTHESIS. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 31:2 ► pp. 323 ff.
Rothman, Jason & Michael Iverson
2008. Poverty-of-the-Stimulus and SLA Epistemology: Considering L2 Knowledge of Aspectual Phrasal Semantics. Language Acquisition 15:4 ► pp. 270 ff.
Kallestinova, Elena
2007. Three stages of root infinitive production in early child Russian. First Language 27:2 ► pp. 099 ff.
Di Sciullo, Anne Marie & Roumyana Slabakova
2005. Quantification and Aspect. In Perspectives on Aspect [Studies in Theoretical Psycholinguistics, 32], ► pp. 61 ff.
van Hout, Angeliek, Henriëtte de Swart & Henk J. Verkuyl
2005. Introducing Perspectives on Aspect. In Perspectives on Aspect [Studies in Theoretical Psycholinguistics, 32], ► pp. 1 ff.
Lardiere, Donna
2003. Revisiting the comparative fallacy: a reply to Lakshmanan and Selinker, 2001. Second Language Research 19:2 ► pp. 129 ff.
White, Lydia
2003. Second Language Acquisition and Universal Grammar,
Lopes, Ruth E. Vasconcellos
2002. Book Review: Telicity in the Second Language. Language Acquisition 10:2 ► pp. 177 ff.
Slabakova, Roumyana
2002. Recent research on the acquisition of aspect: an embarrassment of riches?. Second Language Research 18:2 ► pp. 172 ff.
Slabakova, Roumyana
2003. Semantic evidence for functional categories in interlanguage grammars. Second Language Research 19:1 ► pp. 42 ff.
Slabakova, Roumyana
2006. Learnability in the second language acquisition of semantics: a bidirectional study of a semantic parameter. Second Language Research 22:4 ► pp. 498 ff.
Slabakova, Roumyana
2006. Is there a critical period for semantics?. Second Language Research 22:3 ► pp. 302 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 19 december 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.
Subjects
Main BIC Subject
CF: Linguistics
Main BISAC Subject
LAN009000: LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Linguistics / General