On subject use in English as a second language Cover Image

On subject use in English as a second language
On subject use in English as a second language

Author(s): Barbu Revencu
Subject(s): Morphology, Language acquisition, Comparative Linguistics, Eastern Slavic Languages, Preschool education
Published by: Editura Universităţii din Bucureşti
Keywords: null subject parameter; agreement; full access full transfer hypothesis; L2 English; L1/2L1 Romanian; 2L1 Hebrew;

Summary/Abstract: The present article addresses the issue of syntactic transfer in child L2 acquisition, by presenting a two-part study in which Romanian monolinguals are compared to Romanian-Hebrew balanced bilinguals in two spontaneous production tasks. The main research question concerns the influence of Hebrew as a second L1 on the (re)setting of the Null Subject Parameter in English-L2, as Hebrew exhibits the same subject and verb morphology pattern as English for certain persons and tenses. The collected data provide evidence in favour of both access to UG and syntactic transfer, supporting the Full Access Full Transfer Hypothesis.

  • Issue Year: 18/2016
  • Issue No: 1
  • Page Range: 103-121
  • Page Count: 19
  • Language: English