Successful features: Verb raising and adverbs in L2 acquisition under an Organic Grammar approach

Anne Vainikka | Johns Hopkins University

Martha Young-Scholten | Newcastle University

Under Organic Grammar (Vainikka and Young-Scholten 2005; 2007), the building of L2 syntactic structure is constrained by UG in interaction with primary linguistic data. On the basis of verb raising, we argue against the partial UG availability pursued in Hawkins and Chan (1997) in their Failed Functional Features Hypothesis, whose refinement by Hawkins and Hattori (2006) states that only those uninterpretable syntactic features present in the learner’s L1 remain accessible for L2 acquisition. After summarizing UG-driven L2 German verb raising, we consider French/English adverb placement data pointing to L1-driven verb raising (White, 1991a, b; Schwartz, 1996). However, absence of Frenchlike raising in questions and negation (White 1992; Eubank 1994) requires an alternative account. Based on Vainikka’s (2007) framework which dispenses with Cinque’s (1999) prolific projections, we provide an alternative analysis.

Published online: 14 January 2009
https://doi.org/10.1075/lald.47.06vai

Cited by

Cited by 4 other publications

Liszka, Sarah Ann

2015. In The Acquisition of the Present, ► pp. 57 ff.

Papadopoulou, Despina, Spyridoula Varlokosta, Vassilios Spyropoulos, Hasan Kaili, Sophia Prokou & Anthi Revithiadou

2011. Case morphology and word order in second language Turkish: Evidence from Greek learners. Second Language Research 27:2 ► pp. 173 ff.

Rothman, Jason

2011. L3 syntactic transfer selectivity and typological determinacy: The typological primacy model. Second Language Research 27:1 ► pp. 107 ff.

SCHIMKE, SARAH

2011. Variable verb placement in second-language German and French: Evidence from production and elicited imitation of finite and nonfinite negated sentences. Applied Psycholinguistics 32:4 ► pp. 635 ff.

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 06 october 2021. 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.