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This thesis investigates the formal and functional properties of the linguistic knowledge of a young bilingual child 'Katla' who successively acquires Icelandic (L1, from birth) and English (L2, from age 1:3). I present new longitudinal natural speech data which I collected in both Icelandic and English from Katla at regular intervals. Audio-recordings were made roughly three times per month at age 1 ;0-4;7 and transcribed in adapted CHILDES/CHAT format. Using a generative framework, I analyse Katla's data qualitatively and quantitatively, focusing on her morphology and syntax during the period 1;6-3;6: determiners and word order in nominals, copula constructions, progressive constructions, imperatives, negation, verb placement, verb inflections, auxiliaries, and periphrastic do. Katla's development is compared with monolingual English-speaking and Icelandic-speaking children, and, where applicable, with other bilinguals. Particular attention is paid to early grammar differentiation and cross- language influence, and to the relationship between child language and input (construction types and frequencies). The empirical results are evaluated in the light of current theories of language acquisition and generative approaches to syntax. Katla's first multi-word combinations (1;6) show productive use of functional morphology (determiners, copulas). Early on, there is evidence of movement into the DP, IP and CP domains, indicating continuity of these functional categories. Moreover, translational equivalents, language-specific functional morphemes and language-specific word orders in Katla's Icelandic and English bear evidence of early language differentiation in successive child bilingualism. The longitudinal development of morpho-syntax largely progresses along separate lines for Katla's two languages; there is no cross- language influence as regards head parameter and movement parameter settings. Some construction transfer occurs where L1 and L2 linear orders are similar. Ensuing implications for transfer and (de)learnability are addressed.

This thesis argues for a semi-lexical interpretation of Czech modal verbs. It demonstrates that Czech modals participate in syntactic structures that contain a finite verb followed by multiple infinitives (verb clusters), such as Jan musel chtít začít studovat lingvistiku ‘John had to want to begin studying linguistics.’ The term Complex Verbal Domain (CVD) is devised for the verbal part of these structures. The analysis seeks to offer a unified account of modal verbs in Czech in respect of their subcategorization frame in the Lexicon and semantic properties (‘modal meaning’). It also attempts to clarify the confusion regarding modal verbs and modality in traditional Czech grammars by shifting the attention from pragmatics to an approach based on recent development of generative syntax (Chomsky 1998, 2000, 2001). Following the examination of syntactic behaviour of Czech modals in the CVD structure, the thesis proceeds to modify Emonds’ (1985, 2000) theory of semilexicality. This approach assumes that Czech modals are neither fully functional (due to properties such as rich morphological paradigm, ability to undergo Negation, Reflexivization and PF movement), nor fully lexical (they are unable to take clausal complements and distinguish between aspectual pairs). The semi-lexical analysis also shows that there is evidence for the existence of two types of Czech modals, True modal verbs (TMVs) and Optional modal verbs (OMVs). Whilst the former cannot nominalize or denote events, but are able to convey epistemic meaning, the latter undergo nominalization and are capable of event denotation, but do not attain epistemic reading. The semi-lexical properties of both TMVs and OMVs are syntactically reflected in their specific subcategorization frame X, +MODAL, +mod, +__ [V, INF]. The cognitive syntactic feature +MODAL cospecifies the syntactic derivation of Czech modal verbs in the ‘light’ vº, which takes an infinitival VP as a complement. Therefore, I argue that the CVD is syntactically vP. If the original CVD structure involves multiple infinitives (Jan vPmusí VPchtít(INF) začít(INF) číst(INF) tu knihu ‘John has to want to begin reading that book’), the VP complement has characteristics of a flat structure, adapted from Emonds (1999a, 1999b, 2001). On the other hand, +mod is a semantic feature that specifies the lexical behaviour of Czech modals and conveys the ‘modal meaning’, which is formalized in terms of possible worlds semantics as quantification over the modal base. The semi-lexical analysis also investigates the root v. epistemic dichotomy. The thesis argues that this dichotomy does not affect the unified theory of modality in Czech in terms of its derivational and semantic status, but is a result of covert processes at the level of Logical Form (LF), which realize different levels of modal quantification.

This thesis tells the tales of auxiliation in Swedish. It describes how the auxiliary features of the aspectual auxiliaries bruka ‘use to’, tendera ‘tend to’, börja ‘begin, start’, fortsätta ‘continue’, sluta ‘stop, cease’ och hota ‘threaten’ evolve, as seen in a text corpora covering the 11th to the 21st century. A grammaticalization perspective is employed, which not unexpectedly has implications for the way data is interpreted and presented, but also less expectedly for how the method is understood and applied. The method consists of Swedish auxiliary tests, designed to reveal auxiliary features. The discussion of their validity involves auxiliation theory as well as a more general theoretical discussion of how the category and the function of auxiliaries have been conceived. The main point made is that a valid test should have an explicit link to auxiliary function. Establishing the nature of such a link, however, is no trivial matter and so the plausibility of the link turns out to be the main factor in judging the validity of auxiliary tests. In the early stages of the auxiliation processes, action nominals were often used as complements of the verbs under study. Later on these verbs started taking infinitive complements, lost their semantic restrictions on their subjects and started occurring in a type of passive construction where the nonfinite verb carries the semantic relationship to the arguments of the clause. The occurrence in this type of passive construction is perceived as the most plausible indication of auxiliary function available for subject raising auxiliaries, since the auxiliary and the nonfinite verb in these clauses do function together as one single predicate. The evolution of these aspectual auxiliaries essentially follows the predictions made by auxiliation theory. That said, they all show individual deviations from those predictions, depending on such factors as their semantics, their source construction and during which period in the history of Swedish their auxiliation took place.

Submitted by Aline Batista (alinehb.ufpel@gmail.com) on 2017-10-05T12:29:55Z No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) O_infinitivo_flexionado_em_português_brasileiro.pdf: 10141957 bytes, checksum: cb45b8ed410d6d3e477ae5651b7f5790 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Aline Batista (alinehb.ufpel@gmail.com) on 2017-10-05T13:16:20Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) O_infinitivo_flexionado_em_português_brasileiro.pdf: 10141957 bytes, checksum: cb45b8ed410d6d3e477ae5651b7f5790 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-10-05T13:16:37Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) O_infinitivo_flexionado_em_português_brasileiro.pdf: 10141957 bytes, checksum: cb45b8ed410d6d3e477ae5651b7f5790 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-06-07 / Sem bolsa / No Português Brasileiro, existem dois tipos de orações reduzidas de infinitivo: uma que comporta uma flexão número-pessoal e outra sem flexão alguma. O infinitivo com flexão, chamado de infinitivo pessoal ou flexionado, se constitui há tempos como um problema para os estudiosos da área da linguagem, permanecendo algumas questões em aberto. Nosso estudo tem o objetivo de revisitar o seu comportamento, apresentando alguns dos “problemas” remanescentes e inovadores do PB, seja pela tradição gramatical, que não encontra uma forma harmônica de descrever os contextos em que ele pode ocorrer, seja pela linguística, que não adota uma teoria unificada. Assim, apresentaremos a visão da tradição gramatical e a visão da linguística como forma de abordá-lo a partir de diferentes perspectivas. Nosso intuito é verificar se o trabalho de Eduardo Raposo, que atribui à Teoria do Caso a principal disposição para licenciamento do Infinitivo Flexionado, dá conta dos exemplos encontrados no Corpus LLIC-PósLetrasUsp e de que forma os resultados de um teste de julgamento realizado podem ser avaliados sob essa ótica. São levantados alguns questionamentos que permanecem sem resposta: a questão do alçamento do sujeito em sentenças com verbo auxiliar (aspectual ou modal); a natureza da preposição que acompanha os verbos auxiliares aspectuais; a dupla concordância verbal com um único sujeito nas perífrases; a concordância do verbo principal das locuções com o vestígio do alçamento do sujeito. / In Brazilian Portuguese, two types of reduced sentences of infinitive are existing: one that includes a personal number morphology and one without any inflection. The inflected infinitive, called personal infinitive or inflected infinitive has been for a long time a problem for researchers on language, fact that left some questions remaining. Our study aims to present some of these problems on the grammatical tradition, which did not find an harmonious way to describe the contexts of bending infinitives occurrence, either by linguistics, which does not adopt a unified theory, since many researches address the problem differently. For this reason, we will cover the traditional grammar and linguistics view in a way to present the problem as well as presenting problems that are displayed in each of these fields of study. Later, we will try to verify if Raposo's paper on the inflected infinitives supports the examples found in the Corpus LLIC-PostLetrasUsp and in what way the results of a trial test can be evaluated in this perspective. Some questions that remain unanswered are raised: the question of the subject's elevation in the structure in sentences with auxiliary verb (aspectual and modal); the nature of the preposition that accompanies the auxiliary aspectual verbs, the double verbal agreement (of the verbal locution) with one only subject; and the verbal agreement of the main verb of the verbal locution with the subjetc trace.

This study investigates how two non-finite forms, infinitives and conversion nouns, are represented in the mind of L1 and L2 speakers and what is their relationship to other members of the corresponding word family. German native speakers and proficient German learners with Czech as L1 participated in four overt priming experiments involving a grammatical judgement task. We investigated the relationship between infinitives (Experiment 1) and conversion nouns (Experiment 2) and formally identical verbal or noun forms. We further focussed on the relationship between conversion nouns and regular nominal derivation forms with two derivational suffixes: -er and -ung (Experiments 3 and 4). Our results show that the two non-finite forms differ in their relations to other members of a word family and do not constitute a special class of non-finites as suggested in previous literature. While German infinitives seem to be closer related to finite verbal forms, conversion nouns behave in the same way as other regular nominal derivatives within the same word family. As for the German L1 and L2 contrast, no significant difference in the mental representation of the examined forms was found. This finding suggests that with respect to the explored phenomena, proficient learners rely on the same linguistic organisation as L1 speakers.

No decorrer dos últimos anos, um dos questionamentos da pesquisa em aquisição de segunda língua (doravante L2) diz respeito ao papel das instruções explícita e implícita de formas gramaticais. A maneira através da qual os conhecimentos implícito e explícito são construídos de modo mais eficiente é, ainda, fonte de discordância na literatura. Alguns pesquisadores afirmam que o conhecimento implícito não deriva do aprendizado explícito e, tampouco, pode ser adquirido através da instrução explícita; outros, por sua vez, argumentam que o conhecimento implícito da L2 pode ser adquirido ou facilitado pelo conhecimento explícito. O presente trabalho teve sua origem no interesse pela investigação do efeito das instruções explícita e implícita na aquisição de uma L2, e na observação das diferenças entre os aprendizados implícito e explícito. Acima de tudo, este estudo deriva da percepção de que a maioria de gramáticas e livros didáticos normalmente introduz estruturas gramaticais - em particular, o uso de locuções verbais, que são aqui analisadas - de maneira isolada, sem recorrerem a uma descrição de seu uso por falantes proficientes da L2, e dando prioridade à memorização de listas de verbos. Assim, seis grupos de alunos (três de nível de proficiência básico e três de nível de proficiência intermediário-avançado) do curso de Letras de uma universidade pública foram avaliados em seu conhecimento e capacidade de uso de locuções verbais em inglês, por meio de pré- e pós-testes, compostos de questões de múltipla escolha (tarefas de compreensão) e de exercícios de produção (tarefa de produção). Entre a aplicação do pré- e do pós-teste, foi feita instrução explícita a dois grupos experimentais (um básico e um intermediário-avançado) e implícita a outros dois grupos experimentais (um básico e um intermediário-avançado). Os grupos de controle (um básico e um intermediário-avançado) não receberam instrução. Os resultados dos testes serviram como fonte de análise dos papéis dos dois tipos de instrução mencionados, e mostraram que tanto a instrução explícita quanto a instrução implícita influenciaram positivamente no desempenho dos participantes nos Pós-testes, principalmente quanto aos verbos que podem ser combinados tanto com gerúndios e com infinitivos. Tal resultado pode ser atribuído ao fato de tais verbos representarem uma dificuldade maior para os aprendizes. / During the last years, one of the questions in second language (for this study, L2) acquisition research concerns the role of explicit and implicit grammar instruction in L2 acquisition. However, the way in which implicit and explicit knowledge is most effectively built up is still a source of disagreement in the specialized literature. Some claim that implicit knowledge does not derive from explicit learning nor can it be acquired through explicit instruction; others, in turn, argue that implicit L2 knowledge can be acquired through or facilitated by explicit knowledge. The present work originated in these studies and discussions about the effect of explicit and implicit instruction in the acquisition of a second language, and in the observation of the differences between implicit and explicit learning. Most importantly, this study derives from the perception that the majority of text and grammar books normally introduce grammar structures - in particular, the use of infinitive and gerund complements, which is analyzed here - in an isolated form, without recurring to an explanation of its descriptive use by proficient speakers of the language, giving priority to the memorization of lists of verbs. Therefore, six groups of students from the Languages course (three of basic level, and three of advanced level of proficiency) of a Federal University were assessed in terms of knowledge and skills - concerning the use of infinitives and gerunds through pre- and post-tests, composed of multiple-choice questions (a comprehension task) and production exercises (a production task). Between the applications of the pre- and post-tests, two groups (one basic and one upper-intermediate) were provided with implicit instruction; another two (also of basic and upper-intermediate level) were given explicit instruction. The two remaining groups constituted control groups (also basic and upper-intermediate), and were not given any kind of instruction. The results of the tests provided sources for analysis of the roles of implicit and explicit instruction, and showed that both kinds of instruction resulted in an improvement of most of students' performances, mainly concerning the group of verbs followed by infinitives and gerunds. The greater difficulty faced by the subjects in dealing with these verbs could possibly explain this fact.

No decorrer dos últimos anos, um dos questionamentos da pesquisa em aquisição de segunda língua (doravante L2) diz respeito ao papel das instruções explícita e implícita de formas gramaticais. A maneira através da qual os conhecimentos implícito e explícito são construídos de modo mais eficiente é, ainda, fonte de discordância na literatura. Alguns pesquisadores afirmam que o conhecimento implícito não deriva do aprendizado explícito e, tampouco, pode ser adquirido através da instrução explícita; outros, por sua vez, argumentam que o conhecimento implícito da L2 pode ser adquirido ou facilitado pelo conhecimento explícito. O presente trabalho teve sua origem no interesse pela investigação do efeito das instruções explícita e implícita na aquisição de uma L2, e na observação das diferenças entre os aprendizados implícito e explícito. Acima de tudo, este estudo deriva da percepção de que a maioria de gramáticas e livros didáticos normalmente introduz estruturas gramaticais - em particular, o uso de locuções verbais, que são aqui analisadas - de maneira isolada, sem recorrerem a uma descrição de seu uso por falantes proficientes da L2, e dando prioridade à memorização de listas de verbos. Assim, seis grupos de alunos (três de nível de proficiência básico e três de nível de proficiência intermediário-avançado) do curso de Letras de uma universidade pública foram avaliados em seu conhecimento e capacidade de uso de locuções verbais em inglês, por meio de pré- e pós-testes, compostos de questões de múltipla escolha (tarefas de compreensão) e de exercícios de produção (tarefa de produção). Entre a aplicação do pré- e do pós-teste, foi feita instrução explícita a dois grupos experimentais (um básico e um intermediário-avançado) e implícita a outros dois grupos experimentais (um básico e um intermediário-avançado). Os grupos de controle (um básico e um intermediário-avançado) não receberam instrução. Os resultados dos testes serviram como fonte de análise dos papéis dos dois tipos de instrução mencionados, e mostraram que tanto a instrução explícita quanto a instrução implícita influenciaram positivamente no desempenho dos participantes nos Pós-testes, principalmente quanto aos verbos que podem ser combinados tanto com gerúndios e com infinitivos. Tal resultado pode ser atribuído ao fato de tais verbos representarem uma dificuldade maior para os aprendizes. / During the last years, one of the questions in second language (for this study, L2) acquisition research concerns the role of explicit and implicit grammar instruction in L2 acquisition. However, the way in which implicit and explicit knowledge is most effectively built up is still a source of disagreement in the specialized literature. Some claim that implicit knowledge does not derive from explicit learning nor can it be acquired through explicit instruction; others, in turn, argue that implicit L2 knowledge can be acquired through or facilitated by explicit knowledge. The present work originated in these studies and discussions about the effect of explicit and implicit instruction in the acquisition of a second language, and in the observation of the differences between implicit and explicit learning. Most importantly, this study derives from the perception that the majority of text and grammar books normally introduce grammar structures - in particular, the use of infinitive and gerund complements, which is analyzed here - in an isolated form, without recurring to an explanation of its descriptive use by proficient speakers of the language, giving priority to the memorization of lists of verbs. Therefore, six groups of students from the Languages course (three of basic level, and three of advanced level of proficiency) of a Federal University were assessed in terms of knowledge and skills - concerning the use of infinitives and gerunds through pre- and post-tests, composed of multiple-choice questions (a comprehension task) and production exercises (a production task). Between the applications of the pre- and post-tests, two groups (one basic and one upper-intermediate) were provided with implicit instruction; another two (also of basic and upper-intermediate level) were given explicit instruction. The two remaining groups constituted control groups (also basic and upper-intermediate), and were not given any kind of instruction. The results of the tests provided sources for analysis of the roles of implicit and explicit instruction, and showed that both kinds of instruction resulted in an improvement of most of students' performances, mainly concerning the group of verbs followed by infinitives and gerunds. The greater difficulty faced by the subjects in dealing with these verbs could possibly explain this fact.

No decorrer dos últimos anos, um dos questionamentos da pesquisa em aquisição de segunda língua (doravante L2) diz respeito ao papel das instruções explícita e implícita de formas gramaticais. A maneira através da qual os conhecimentos implícito e explícito são construídos de modo mais eficiente é, ainda, fonte de discordância na literatura. Alguns pesquisadores afirmam que o conhecimento implícito não deriva do aprendizado explícito e, tampouco, pode ser adquirido através da instrução explícita; outros, por sua vez, argumentam que o conhecimento implícito da L2 pode ser adquirido ou facilitado pelo conhecimento explícito. O presente trabalho teve sua origem no interesse pela investigação do efeito das instruções explícita e implícita na aquisição de uma L2, e na observação das diferenças entre os aprendizados implícito e explícito. Acima de tudo, este estudo deriva da percepção de que a maioria de gramáticas e livros didáticos normalmente introduz estruturas gramaticais - em particular, o uso de locuções verbais, que são aqui analisadas - de maneira isolada, sem recorrerem a uma descrição de seu uso por falantes proficientes da L2, e dando prioridade à memorização de listas de verbos. Assim, seis grupos de alunos (três de nível de proficiência básico e três de nível de proficiência intermediário-avançado) do curso de Letras de uma universidade pública foram avaliados em seu conhecimento e capacidade de uso de locuções verbais em inglês, por meio de pré- e pós-testes, compostos de questões de múltipla escolha (tarefas de compreensão) e de exercícios de produção (tarefa de produção). Entre a aplicação do pré- e do pós-teste, foi feita instrução explícita a dois grupos experimentais (um básico e um intermediário-avançado) e implícita a outros dois grupos experimentais (um básico e um intermediário-avançado). Os grupos de controle (um básico e um intermediário-avançado) não receberam instrução. Os resultados dos testes serviram como fonte de análise dos papéis dos dois tipos de instrução mencionados, e mostraram que tanto a instrução explícita quanto a instrução implícita influenciaram positivamente no desempenho dos participantes nos Pós-testes, principalmente quanto aos verbos que podem ser combinados tanto com gerúndios e com infinitivos. Tal resultado pode ser atribuído ao fato de tais verbos representarem uma dificuldade maior para os aprendizes. / During the last years, one of the questions in second language (for this study, L2) acquisition research concerns the role of explicit and implicit grammar instruction in L2 acquisition. However, the way in which implicit and explicit knowledge is most effectively built up is still a source of disagreement in the specialized literature. Some claim that implicit knowledge does not derive from explicit learning nor can it be acquired through explicit instruction; others, in turn, argue that implicit L2 knowledge can be acquired through or facilitated by explicit knowledge. The present work originated in these studies and discussions about the effect of explicit and implicit instruction in the acquisition of a second language, and in the observation of the differences between implicit and explicit learning. Most importantly, this study derives from the perception that the majority of text and grammar books normally introduce grammar structures - in particular, the use of infinitive and gerund complements, which is analyzed here - in an isolated form, without recurring to an explanation of its descriptive use by proficient speakers of the language, giving priority to the memorization of lists of verbs. Therefore, six groups of students from the Languages course (three of basic level, and three of advanced level of proficiency) of a Federal University were assessed in terms of knowledge and skills - concerning the use of infinitives and gerunds through pre- and post-tests, composed of multiple-choice questions (a comprehension task) and production exercises (a production task). Between the applications of the pre- and post-tests, two groups (one basic and one upper-intermediate) were provided with implicit instruction; another two (also of basic and upper-intermediate level) were given explicit instruction. The two remaining groups constituted control groups (also basic and upper-intermediate), and were not given any kind of instruction. The results of the tests provided sources for analysis of the roles of implicit and explicit instruction, and showed that both kinds of instruction resulted in an improvement of most of students' performances, mainly concerning the group of verbs followed by infinitives and gerunds. The greater difficulty faced by the subjects in dealing with these verbs could possibly explain this fact.

Cette thèse est une investigation de la structure syntaxique et de l'interprétation modale des phrases impliquant le modal dénominal de nécessité behar ‘devoir, falloir, avoir besoin’ et un complément infinitif. La thèse analyse le statut syntaxique des compléments non finis du verbe modal denominal behar en examinant leur interaction avec des phénomènes syntaxiques sensibles à des conditions structurelles et de localité diverses, et conclut que les compléments d’infinitif de behar peuvent correspondre à différentes structures sous-jacentes. Le type d'infinitif le plus complexe du point de vue structurel est un infinitif non-restructurant qui projette une architecture de phrase complète (c.-à-d. une CP), et le plus petit est un infinitif réduit de restructuration qui projette une structure de phrase de niveau vP. Il y a des preuves pour l'existence des types intermédiaires projetant jusqu'au domaine flexionnel (IP / TP). D'autre part, la thèse examine les propriétés thématiques et de portée des sujets dans chacun des différents types structurels et l'interprétation modale à laquelle elles donnent cours. Sur la base de cette analyse, la thèse soutient que l'interprétation modale n'est déterminée par aucun facteur en particulier (la présence de la restructuration, le statut référentiel du sujet et sa portée relative vis-à-vis du prédicat modal, parmi d'autres fréquemment mentionnés), mais dépend de l'effet cumulatif de plusieurs facteurs travaillant ensemble. La thèse montre également la nécessité d'adopter une vision plus fine de la modalité radicale (root modality), qui permet une association plus simple entre structures syntaxiques et significations modales. / This dissertation is an investigation of the syntactic structure and modal interpretation of clauses involving the denominal necessity predicate behar ‘need’ and an infinitival complement. On the one hand, it analyses the syntactic status of non-finite complements of denominal behar by examining their interaction with syntactic phenomena sensitive to different structural and locality conditions, and concludes that the infinitival complements of behar can correspond to different underlying structures. The largest type of infinitive is a non-restructuring infinitive that projects a full clausal architecture (i.e. a CP), and the smallest one is a reduced restructuring infinitive that projects up to vP. There is evidence for intermediate types projecting up to the inflectional domain (IP/TP). On the other hand, the dissertation examines the thematic and scope properties of the subjects in each of the different structural types and the modal interpretation that they can give rise to. On the basis of this analysis it is argued that modal interpretation is not constrained by any single factor (the presence of restructuring, the referential status of the subject and its relative scope vis-à-vis the modal predicate, among other frequently mentioned ones), but depends on the cumulative effect of several factors working together. The dissertation also shows the necessity of adopting a more fine-grained view of root modality, one that allows a simpler mapping of syntactic structures into modal meanings.