Cover not available
Part of
The Acquisition of the Present
Edited by Dalila Ayoun
[Not in series 196] 2015
► pp. 57–86

Chapter 3. The L2 acquisition of the English present simple – present progressive distinction

Verb-raising revisited

| University of Greenwich
This study replicates Liszka’s (2009) study of L1 French advanced L2 English speakers who show difficulties in matching meaning-to-form consistently for the present progressive in appropriate contexts, fluctuating between present progressive (‘she is dancing’) and present simple forms (‘she dances’). From these results, Liszka suggests that French L2 learners maintain a strong v[uInfl:], thus allowing English thematic verbs to raise, yielding an event-in-progress interpretation to be associated with the simple form. This study tests this claim, but this time with participants living in the target community. Similar to 2009, results show persistent form-meaning mismatches in progressive contexts in an on-line production task. These results are used to discuss a (permanent) syntactic deficit as the possible source of difficulty. However, the results diverge in an off-line task where performance is markedly better in this study, raising issues on the nature of L2 implicit and explicit knowledge (e.g. Ellis 2005). Furthermore, the line of enquiry is extended to the consideration of potential implications of a syntactic deficit for pragmatic processes from a Relevance Theory perspective (Sperber & Wilson 1986/1995).
Published online: 9 October 2015
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/z.196.03lis
References
Adger, D.
2003 Core Syntax: A Minimalist approach. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
Andersen, R. & Shirai, Y.
1996 The primacy of aspect in first and second language acquisition: the pidgin-Creole connection. In Handbook of Second Language Acquisition, W. Ritchie & T. Bhatia (eds), 527–570. San Diego CA: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Ayoun, D.
2005 Verb movement in the L2 acquisition of English by adult native speakers of French. In EUROSLA Yearbook 5, S. H. Foster-Cohen, M. del Pilar Garcia-Mayo & J. Cenoz (eds), 35–76. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2013 The Second Language Acquisition of French Tense, Aspect, Mood and Modality [AILA Applied Linguistics Series 10]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ayoun, D. & Salaberry, R.
2008 Acquisition of English tense-aspect morphology by advanced instructed learners. Language Learning 58(3): 555–595. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bardovi-Harlig, K.
1998 Narrative structure and lexical aspect: conspiring factors in second language acquisition of tense-aspect morphology. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 20: 471–508. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Carston, R.
2000 The relationship between generative grammar and (relevance-theoretic) pragmatics. Language and Communication 20: 87–103. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Comrie, B.
1976 Aspect. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar
Dahl, Ö.
1984 Temporal distance: remoteness distinctions in tense-aspect systems. In Explanations for Language Universals, B. Butterworth, B. Comrie & Ö. Dahl (eds), 105–122. The Hague: Mouton. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dry, H.
1981 Sentence aspect and the movement of narrative time. Text 1: 233–40.Google Scholar
1983 The movement of narrative time. Journal of Literary Semantics 12: 19–53. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ellis, R.
2005 Measuring implicit and explicit knowledge of a second language. A psychometric study. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 27: 141–172. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ellis, R. Loewen, S. & Erlam, R.
2006 Implicit and explicit corrective feedback and the acquisition of L2 grammar. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 28: 339–368. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Franceschina, F.
2005 Fossilized Second Language Grammars: The Acquisition of Grammatical Gender [Language Acquisition and Language Disorders 38]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Giorgi, A. & Pianesi, F.
1997: Tense and Aspect: From Semantics to Morphosyntax. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
Goad, H. & White, L.
2009 Prosodic transfer and the representation of determiners in Turkish-English interlanguage. In Snape, Leung & Sharwood Smith (eds), 229–246. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Goad, H., White, L. & Steele, G.
2003 Missing inflection in L2 acquisition: Defective syntax or L1-constrained prosodic representations? Canadian Journal of Linguistics/ Revue Canadienne de Linguistique 48(3-4): 243–263. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hawkins, R.
2000 Persistent selective fossilization in second language acquisition and the optimal design of the language faculty. Essex Research Reports in Linguistics 34: 75- 90.Google Scholar
2001 The theoretical significance of Universal Grammar in second language acquisition. Second Language Research 17: 345–367. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2005 Revisiting wh-movement: the availability of an uninterpretable [wh] feature in interlanguage grammars. In Proceedings of the 7th Generative Approaches to Second Language Acquisition Conference (GASLA 2004), L. Dekdyspotter, R. Sprouse & A. Liljestrand (eds), 124–137. Somerville MA: Cascadilla Press.Google 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(3) : 187–226. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hawkins, R. & Franceschina, F.
2004 Explaining the acquisition and non-acquisition of determiner-noun gender concord in French and Spanish. In The Acquisition of French in Different Contexts [Language Acquisition and Language Disorders 32], J. Paradis & P. Prévost (eds), 175–206. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hawkins, R. & Hattori, H.
2006 Interpretation of English multiple wh-questions by Japanese speakers: A missing uninterpretable feature account. Second Language Research 22(3): 269–301. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hawkins, R. & Liszka, S.A.
2003 Locating the source of defective past tense marking in advanced L2 English speakers. In The Lexicon-Syntax Interface in Second Language Acquisition [Language Acquisition and Language Disorders 30], R. van Hout, A. Hulk, F. Kuiken & R. Towell (eds), 21–44. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hawkins, R., Casillas, G., Hattori, H., Hawthorne, J., Husted, R., Lozano, C., Okamoto, A., Thomas, E. & Yamada, K.
2008 The semantic effects of verb raising and its consequences in second language grammars. In The Role of Features in Second Language Acquisition, J. Liceras, H. Zobl & H. Goodluck (eds), 328–351. New York NY: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Hopper, P.
1979 Aspect and foregrounding in discourse. In Syntax and Semantics: Discourse and Syntax, T. Givón (ed.), 213–241. New York NY: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Hornstein, N.
1990 As Time Goes By. Cambridge MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
Hulstijn, J.H.
2005 Theoretical and empirical issues in the study of implicit and explicit second language learning. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 27: 129–140. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Labov, W.
1972 Language in the Inner City: Studies in the Black English Vernacular. Philadelphia PA: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Lardiere, D.
1998a Case and tense in the ‘fossilized’ steady state. Second Language Research 14(1): 1–26. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1998b Dissociating syntax from morphology in a divergent L2 end-state grammar. Second Language Research 14(4): 359–375. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2000 Mapping features to forms in SLA. In Second Language Acquisition and Linguistic Theory, J. Archibald (ed.), 102–129. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Liszka, S.A.
2004 Exploring the effects of first language influence on second language pragmatic processes from a syntactic deficit perspective. Second Language Research 20(3): 212–231. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2006 Advanced grammars and pragmatic processes: exploring the interface. In EUROSLA Yearbook 6, S. H. Foster-Cohen, M. M. Krajnovic & J. Mihaljevic Djigunovic (eds), 79–99. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Prévost, P. & White, L.
2000a Missing surface inflection or impairment in second language acquisition? Evidence from tense and agreement. Second Language Research 16:103–133. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2000b Finiteness and variability in SLA: more evidence for missing surface inflection. In Proceedings of the 23rdh Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development, A. Greenhill, H. Littlefield & C. Tano (eds), 439–450. Somerville MA: Cascadilla Press.Google Scholar
Rebuschat, P.
(ed.) 2015 Implicit and Explicit Learning of Languages [Studies in Bilingualism 48]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Reichenbach, H.
1947 Elements of Symbolic Logic. London: Collier-Macmillan.Google Scholar
Roberts, L. & Liszka, S.A.
2013 Processing tense/aspect-agreement violations on-line in the second language: A self-paced reading study with French and German L2 learners of English. Second Language Research 29(4): 413–439. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Robison, R.
1990 The primacy of aspect: aspectual marking in English interlanguage. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 12: 315–330. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1995 The Aspect Hypothesis revisited: A cross-sectional study of tense and aspect marking in interlanguage. Applied Linguistics 16: 344–370. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Schwartz, B.
1999 The second language instinct. In Language Acquisition: Knowledge, Representation and Processing, A. Sorace, C. Heycock & R. Shillcock (eds), 133- 160. Dordrecht: Elsevier.Google Scholar
Schwartz, B. & Sprouse, R.
1996 L2 cognitive states and the ‘full transfer/full access’ model. Second Language Research 8: 1–38. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Slabakova, R.
2003 Semantic evidence for functional categories in interlanguage grammars. Second Language Research 19(1): 42–75. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Smith, C.S.
2000 The domain of tense. Colloquium on Tense and Aspect. Paris.
Smith, N.V.
1990 Observation on the pragmatics of tense. University College London Working Papers in Linguistics 2: 82–94.Google Scholar
Smith, N.V. & Tsimpli, I.-M.
1995 The Mind of a Savant: Language Learning and Modularity. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Snape, N., García Mayo, M.P. & Gürel, A.
2013 L1 transfer in article selection for generic reference by Spanish, Turkish and Japanese L2 learners. International Journal of English Studies 13(1): 1–28.Google Scholar
Snape, N. Leung, Y-K. I. & Sharwood Smith, M.
(eds) 2009 Representational Deficits in SLA: Studies in Honor of Roger Hawkins [Language Acquisition and Language Disorders 47]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sorace, A.
2000 Syntactic optionality in non-native grammars. Second Language Research 16: 93–102 DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sperber, D. & Wilson, D.
1986/1995 Relevance: Communication and Cognition, 2nd edn. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
2005 Pragmatics. In Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Philosophy, F. Jackson & M. Smith (eds), 468–501. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
Tokowicz, N. & MacWhinney, B.
2005 Implicit and explicit measures of sensitivity to violations in second language grammar: An event-related potential investigation. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 28: 173–204.Google Scholar
Trenkic, D.
2000 The representation of English articles in second language grammars: Determiners or adjectives? Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 11(1): 1–18.Google Scholar
Tsimpli, I.-M.
2003 Features in language development. Paper presented at the Eurosla conference, University of Edinburgh.
Tsimpli, I.-M. & Dimitrakopoulou, M.
2007 The interpretability hypothesis: Evidence from wh-interrogatives in L2 acquisition. Second Language Research 23(2): 215–242. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Vainikka, A. & Young-Scholten, M.
2009 Successful features: Verb raising and adverbs in L2 acquisition under an Organic Grammar approach. In Snape, Leung & Sharwood Smith (eds), 229–246. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Vendler, Z.
1967 Verbs and Times. In Linguistics in Philosophy, Z.Vendler (ed.), 97–121. Ithaca NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
White, L.
1991 Adverb placement in second language acquisition: Some effects of positive and negative evidence in the classroom. Second Language Research 7: 133–60. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
White, L., Valenzuela, E., Kozlowska-MacGregor, M. & Leung, Y.-K. I.
2004 Gender and number agreement in nonnative Spanish. Applied Psycholinguistics 25: 105–133. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wilson, D.
1994 Relevance and understanding. In Language and Understanding, G. Brown, K. Malmkjaer, A. Pollitt & J. Williams (eds), 35–58. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
Wilson, D. & Sperber, D.
1993 Linguistic form and relevance. Lingua 90: 1–25. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2004 Relevance Theory. In The Handbook of Pragmatics, L. Horn & G. Ward (eds), 607–632. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 11 other publications

Ayoun, Dalila & Charlene Gilbert
2017. The acquisition of modal auxiliaries in English by advanced Francophone learners. In Tense-Aspect-Modality in a Second Language [Studies in Bilingualism, 50], ► pp. 183 ff. DOI logo
Chekili, Ferid
2016. Variability in L2 Acquisition: Investigating the Role of Formal Features. SSRN Electronic Journal DOI logo
Chekili, Ferid
2023. Teaching English to Arab learners. Pedagogical Linguistics 4:1 ► pp. 98 ff. DOI logo
Dudley, Amber & Roumyana Slabakova
2020. The Present Tense in English, Again. In Formal Linguistics and Language Education [Educational Linguistics, 43], ► pp. 133 ff. DOI logo
Dudley, Amber & Roumyana Slabakova
2020. Aspectual contrasts in the Englishpresent tense revisited. Pedagogical Linguistics 1:1 ► pp. 66 ff. DOI logo
Fuchs, Robert & Valentin Werner
2018. Tense and aspect in Second Language Acquisition and learner corpus research. International Journal of Learner Corpus Research 4:2 ► pp. 143 ff. DOI logo
Fuchs, Robert & Valentin Werner
2018. The use of stative progressives by school-age learners of English and the importance of the variable context. International Journal of Learner Corpus Research 4:2 ► pp. 195 ff. DOI logo
Fuchs, Robert & Valentin Werner
2020. Tense and aspect in Second Language Acquisition and learner corpus research. In Tense and Aspect in Second Language Acquisition and Learner Corpus Research [Benjamins Current Topics, 108], ► pp. 2 ff. DOI logo
Fuchs, Robert & Valentin Werner
2020. The use of stative progressives by school-age learners of English and the importance of the variable context. In Tense and Aspect in Second Language Acquisition and Learner Corpus Research [Benjamins Current Topics, 108], ► pp. 54 ff. DOI logo
Kong, Stano
2019. Accounting for the asymmetrical interpretation of thematic and non-thematic verbs in L2 English. International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching 57:3 ► pp. 327 ff. DOI logo
SHKURENKO, Anastasiia & Filiz CELE
2022. L2 acquisition of Russian aspect by L1 Turkish speakers. RumeliDE Dil ve Edebiyat Araştırmaları Dergisi :31 ► pp. 1561 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 16 november 2023. 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.