Cover not available
Part of
Interlanguage: Forty years later
Edited by ZhaoHong Han and Elaine Tarone
[Language Learning & Language Teaching 39] 2014
► pp. 75–104

Chapter 4. Interlanguage, transfer and fossilization

Beyond second language acquisition

ORCID logo | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Selinker’s (1972) Interlanguage proposal lies at the heart of linguistic approaches to adult second language acquisition, especially subsumed under the theory of Universal Grammar. Much research in recent years has directly addressed the what, how, and why of transfer and fossilization, yet these are not unique to adult L2 learners, but can also be found in other bilingual situations. This chapter discusses first how the generative linguistics perspective has contributed to refining and clarifying Selinker’s idea, while the second part takes issue with Selinker’s characterization of bilingual varieties and illustrates transfer and fossilization in individual bilingualism more broadly defined. The chapter concludes with questions for future directions to pursue a deeper understanding of the interlanguage phenomenon beyond second language acquisition.
Published online: 30 April 2014
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/lllt.39.06ch4
References (92)
References
Abrahamsson, N. & Hyltenstam, K. (2009). Age of onset and nativelikeness in a second language: Listener perception versus linguistic scrutiny. Language Learning , 59(2), 249–306. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Benmamoun, E., Montrul, S., & Polinsky, M. (2013a). Keynote article. Heritage languages and their speakers: Opportunities and challenges for linguistics. Theoretical Linguistics , 39, 129–181. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2013b). Defining the “ideal” heritage speaker: Theoretical and methodological challenges. Rely to peer commentaries. Theoretical Linguistics , 39, 259–294. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bhatt, R. (2002). Experts, dialects, and discourse. International Journal of Applied Linguistics , 12, 74–109. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bley-Vroman, R. (1989). The logical problem of second language learning. In S. Gass & J. Schachter (Eds.) Linguistic Perspectives on Second Language Acquisition (pp. 41–68). Cambridge: CUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(1990). The logical problem of foreign language learning. Linguistic Analysis , 20, 3–49.Google Scholar
Bley-Vroman, R. Felix, S., & Ioup, G. (1988). The accessibility of Universal Grammar in adult second language learning. Second Language Research , 4, 1–32. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Chomsky, N. (1981). Lectures on Government and Binding . Dordrecht: Foris.Google Scholar
Clahsen, H. & Muysken, P. (1986). The availability of Universal Grammar to adult and child learners: A study of the acquisition of German word order. Second Language Research , 2, 93–109. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(1989). The UG paradox in L2 acquisition. Second Language Research , 5, 1–29. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Coulter, K. (1968). Linguistic Error-Analysis of the Spoken English of Two Native Russians . Unpublished M.A. thesis, University of Washington.Google Scholar
Corder, S. P. (1967). The significance of learners' errors. International Review of Applied Linguistics , 5, 160–170. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Corder, S.P. (1973). Introducing Applied Linguistics . Harmondsworth: Penguin.Google Scholar
(1983). A role for the mother tongue. In S. Gass & L. Selinker (Eds.), Language Transfer in Language Learning (pp. 18–31). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
DeKeyser, R. (2000). The robustness of critical period effects in second language acquisition. Studies in Second Language Acquisition , 22, 499–534.Google Scholar
(2003). Implicit and explicit learning. In C. Doughty & M. Long (Eds.), The Handbook of Second Language Acquisition (pp. 313–348). Malden, MA: Blackwell. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dulay, H., Burt, M. & Krashen, S. (1982). Language Two . Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
Ellis, N.C. (2007). SLA: The Associative Cognitive CREED. In B. VanPatten & J. Williams (Eds.), Theories in Second Language Acquisition: An Introduction . Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar
Epstein, S., Flynn, S., & Martohardjono, G. (1996). Second language acquisition: Theoretical and experimental issues in contemporary research. Brain and Behavioral Sciences , 19, 677–758. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Eubank, L. (1996). Negation in early German-English interlanguage: More valueless features in the L2 initial state. Second Language Research , 12, 73–106. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Firth, A. & Wagner, J. (1997). On discourse, communication, and (some) fundamental concepts in SLA research. The Modern Language Journal , 81(3), 285–300. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Flynn, S. (1987). A Parameter-setting Model of L2 Acquisition . Dordrecht: Reidel. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Granena, G. & Long, M. (2013). Sensitive Periods, Language Aptitude and L2 Ultimate Attainment . Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Grosjean, F. & Py, B. (1991). La restructuration d’une première langue: L’intégration de variantes de contact dans la compétence de migrants bilingues. La Linguistique , 27, 35–60.Google Scholar
Gürel, A. & Gılmaz, G. (2013). Restructuring in the L1 Turkish grammar: Effects of L2 English and L2 Dutch. In M. Schmid & B. Köpke, B. (Eds.), First Language Attrition (pp. 37–66). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Han, Z-H. (2012). Second language acquisition. In J. Banks (Ed.), The Encyclopedia of Diversity in Education (pp. 1910–1915). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. (2013). State-of-the-art article: Forty years later - Updating the Fossilization Hypothesis. Language Teaching , 46(2), 133–171. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hawkins, R. & Chan, C. (1997). The partial availability of Universal Grammar in second language acquisition. The ‘failed functional features hypothesis’. Second Language Research , 13, 187–226. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Herschensohn, J. (2007). Language Development and Age . Cambridge: CUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ionin, T. (2003). Article Semantics in Second Language Acquisition . Unpublished PhD dissertation, MIT.Google Scholar
Ionin, T., Ko, H., & Wexler, K. (2004). Article semantics in L2-acquisition: The role of specificity. Language Acquisition , 12, 3–69. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ionin, T., & Montrul, S. (2010). The role of L1-transfer in the interpretation of articles with definite plurals in L2-English. Language Learning , 60(4), 877–925. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Johnson, J., & Newport, E. (1989). Critical period effects in second language learning. The influence of maturational state on the acquisition of English as a second language. Cognitive Psychology , 21, 60–99. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kanno, K. (1997). The acquisition of null and overt pronouns in Japanese by English speakers. Second Language Research , 13, 265–87. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Keijzer, M. (2007). Last in First out? An Investigation of the Regression Hypothesis in Dutch Emigrants in Anglophone Canada . Amsterdam: LOT, Netherlands Graduate School of Linguistics.Google Scholar
Kim, J.-H., Montrul, S., & Yoon, J. (2009). Binding interpretation of anaphors in Korean heritage speakers. Language Acquisition , 16(1), 3–35. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Klein, E. (1993). Toward Second Language Acquisition: A Study of Null Prep . Dordrecht: Kluwer. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kohnert, K. & Bates, E. (2002). Balancing bilinguals II. Lexical comprehension and cognitive processing in children learning Spanish and English. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research , 45, 347–359. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kohnert, K., Bates, E., & Hernández, A. (1999). Balancing bilinguals, Lexical-semantic production and cognitive processing in children learning Spanish and English. Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research , 42, 1400–1413. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Köpke, B. (2007). Language attrition at the crossroads of brain, mind, and society. In B. Köpke, M. Schmid, M. Keijzer, & S. Dosterst (Eds.), Language Attrition. Theoretical Perspectives (pp. 9–37). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lado, R. (1957). Linguistics across Cultures . Ann Arbor MI: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Lardiere, D. (1998a). Case and tense in the fossilized steady state. Second Language Research , 14, 1–26. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(1998b). Dissociating syntax from morphology in a divergent end-state grammar. Second Language Research , 14, 359–375. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2007). Ultimate Attainment in Second Language Acquisition. A Case Study . Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Lenneberg, E. (1967). Biological Foundations of Language . New York, NY: Wiley.Google Scholar
Li, M.-C. (2012). The Acquisition of Tense and Agreement by Early Child Second Language Learners . Unpublished PhD dissertation, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.Google Scholar
Liceras, J. (1986). Linguistic Theory and Second Language Acquisition . Tübigen: Gunter Narr.Google Scholar
Long, M. (2007). Problems in SLA . Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Lozano, C. (2002). The interpretation of overt and null pronouns in non-native Spanish. Durham Working Papers in Linguistics, 8, 53–66.Google Scholar
McWhorter, J. (2007). Language Interrupted. Signs of Non-native Acquisition in Standard Language Grammars . Oxford: OUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Meisel, J. (1997). The acquisition of the syntax of negation in French and German: Contrasting first and second language development. Second Language Research , 13, 227–263. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2011). First and Second Language Acquisition . Cambridge: CUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Montalbetti, M. (1984). After Binding: On the Interpretation of Pronouns . Unpublished PhD dissertation, MIT.Google Scholar
Montrul, S. (2008). Incomplete Acquisition in Bilingualism. Re-examining the Age Factor . Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2012). Is the heritage language like a second language? EUROSLA Yearbook , 12, 1–29. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Montrul, S., & Ionin, T. (2010). Transfer effects in the interpretation of definite articles by Spanish heritage speakers. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition , 13(4), 449–473. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2012). Dominant language transfer in Spanish heritage speakers and L2 learners in the interpretation of definite articles. The Modern Language Journal , 96(1), 70–94. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Montrul, S., & Sánchez-Walker, N. (2013). Differential object marking in child and adult Spanish heritage speakers. Language Acquisition , 20, 1–24. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Montrul, S., Bhatt, R., & Bhatia, A. (2012). Erosion of case and agreement in Hindi heritage Speakers. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism , 2, 141–176. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
O’Grady, W., Kwak, H-K, Lee, M., & Lee, O-S. (2011). An emergentist perspective on partial language acquisition. Studies in Second Language Acquisition , 33, 223–246. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Paradis, M. (2004). A Neurolinguistic Theory of Bilingualism . Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pérez-Leroux, A.T., & Glass, W. (1999). Null anaphora in Spanish second language acquisition: Probabilistic versus generative approaches. Second Language Research , 15, 220–249. DOI logo
Perpiñán, S. (2010). On L2 Grammar and Processing: The Case of Oblique Relative Clauses and the Null-prep Phenomenon . Unpublished PhD dissertation, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.Google Scholar
(2013). Optionality in bilingual native grammars. In M. Schmid & B. Köpke (Eds.) First Language Attrition (pp. 127–156). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Polinsky, M. (2006). Incomplete acquisition: American Russian. Journal of Slavic Linguistics , 14, 191–262.Google Scholar
(2008). Russian gender under incomplete acquisition. Heritage Language Journal , 6(1). <[URL]>
Rothman, J. (2007). Heritage speaker competence differences, language change, and input type: Inflected infinitives in heritage Brazilian Portuguese. International Journal of Bilingualism , 11, 359–389. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Schachter, J. (1990). On the issue of completeness in second language acquisition. Second Language Research , 6, 93–124. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Schmid., M. (2011). First Language Attrition . Cambridge: CUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Schmid, M. & Köpke, B. (2013). First Language Attrition . Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sharma, D. (2005a). Dialect stabilization and speaker awareness in non-native varieties of English. Journal of Sociolinguistics , 9(2), 194–224. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2005b). Language transfer and discourse universals in Indian English article use. Studies in Second Language Acquisition , 27(5), 535–566.Google Scholar
Schwartz, B., & Sprouse, R. (1996). L2 cognitive states and the full transfer/full access hypothesis. Second Language Research , 12, 40–72. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Selinker, L. (1972). Interlanguage. International Review of Applied Linguistics and Language Teaching (IRAL) , 10(3), 209–231. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Selinker, L., Dumas, & Swain, M. (1975). The Interlanguage Hypothesis extended to children. Language Learning , 25(1), 139–152. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Silva-Corvalán, C. (1994). Language Contact and Change. Spanish in Los Angeles . Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
Sorace, A. (2000). Differential effects of attrition in the L1 syntax of near-native L2 speakers. Proceedings of the 24th Boston University Conference on Language Development (pp.719–725). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Slabakova, R. (2001). Telicity in the Second Language . Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sorace, A. (1993). Incomplete vs. divergent representations of unaccusativity in native and non-native Italian grammars of Italian. Second Language Research , 9, 22–47. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Thomas, M. (2013). History of the study of second language acquisition. In J. Herschensohn & M. Young-Scholten (Eds.), The Cambridge Handbook of Second Language Acquisition (pp. 26–45). Cambridge: CUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Thomason, S. (2001). Language Contact . Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Thomason, S. & Kaufman, T. (1988). Language Contact, Creolization, and Genetic Linguistics . Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Trudgill, P. (2001). Contact and simplification. Historical baggage and directionality in linguistic change. Linguistic Typology , 5, 371–74.Google Scholar
Tsimpli, I., & Roussou, A. (1991). Parameter resetting in L2? University College London Working Papers in Linguistics , 3, 149–69.Google Scholar
Tsimpli, I., & Dimitrakopoulou, M. (2007). The interpretability hypothesis: Evidence from wh-interrogatives in second language acquisition. Second Language Research , 23, 215–242. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ullman, M. (2001). The neural basis of lexicon and grammar in first and second language, the declarative/procedural model. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition , 4, 105–122. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Vainnika, A. & Young-Scholten, M. (1996). Gradual development of L2 phrase structure. Second Language Research , 12, 7–39. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Weinreich, U. (1953). Languages in Contact . The Hague: Mouton.Google Scholar
White, L. (1989). Universal Grammar and Second Language Acquisition . Amsterdam, John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2003a). Second Language Acquisition and Universal Grammar . Cambridge: CUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2003b). Fossilization in steady state L2 grammars, persistent problems with inflectional morphology. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition , 6, 129–141. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by (4)

Cited by four other publications

Wu, Ching-Hsuan
2024. Workplace intelligibility: form-focused pronunciation instruction on ESL spontaneous speech. English Teaching & Learning 48:3 ► pp. 387 ff. DOI logo
Nielsen, Jacob Kurt
2020. “Yup, So-Jeer”: Interlanguage and Ruptured Translation in Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins'sThe Perils of Certain English Prisoners. Dickens Studies Annual 51:2 ► pp. 339 ff. DOI logo
Slabakova, Roumyana
2018. Inflectional Morphology. In The Handbook of Advanced Proficiency in Second Language Acquisition, ► pp. 381 ff. DOI logo
Han, ZhaoHong, Gang Bao & Paul Wiita
2017. Chapter 10. Energy conservation in SLA. In Complexity Theory and Language Development [Language Learning & Language Teaching, 48], ► pp. 209 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 24 october 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.