Functional Categories in the L2 Acquisition of English Morpho-Syntax: A Longitudinal Study of Ten Farsi-Speaking Children

Functional Categories in the L2 Acquisition of English Morpho-Syntax: A Longitudinal Study of Ten Farsi-Speaking Children

Mobaraki, Mohsen
Mohammadpour, Elaheh

There has been considerable debate during the last several decades regarding child and adult second language acquisition of morpho-syntax. This is a longitudinal case study of ten Farsi-speaking children learning English. The research deals with the initial state and further development in the child second language (L2) acquisition of syntax regarding the presence or absence of functional categories, as well as the role and degree of L1 influence in this regard. Some studies in the field of child L1 acquisition are discussed to determine similarities or differences between child L1 and child L2 acquisition. Examining data collected from the children‘s speech over a period of 9 months, the competing claims of the two most prominent hypotheses about early L2 grammars are tested: Vainikka & Young-Scholten‘s (1996) Minimal Trees/Structure Building hypothesis and Schwartz & Sprouse‘s (1996) Full Transfer/Full Access hypothesis. Word order, suppliance of copula be are investigated and the conclusion is reached that functional categories are absent at thei nitial state and that they emerge without the learners‘ reliance on their L1, consistent with Minimal Trees/Structure Building.

Conference or Workshop Item
PeerReviewed

2011-05

562