This thesis is placed in the context of the ongoing debate on the issue whether second language acquisition occurs on the basis of innate language-specific learning mechanisms or general learning mechanisms. The author shares the view of scholars who propose that an innate knowledge base underlying first language acquisition does not extend to second language acquisition due to the lack of uniform success in the acquisition of native speaker competence, the possibility of fossilisation and the facilitative potential of form-focused instruction. It is, thus, assumed that the sequential second language acquisition process can be accounted for by general learning mechanisms. The key to these learning mechanisms is, firstly, the investigation of the nature of the knowledge underlying the grammatical encoding procedures for speech production in the context of M. Pienemann’s (1998a) Processability Theory and, secondly, the investigation of the nature of its acquisition process. Pienemann’s Processability Theory explains and predicts the sequential acquisition process of a second language as the result of the hierarchically ordered development of the processing procedures of the grammatical processor to grammatically encode conceptual information. It shares with Levelt’s (1989) theory of speech production the assumptions concerning the nature of the knowledge underlying the grammatical encoding procedures, which require further investigations for verification. Since the Processability Theory does not specify how the assumed knowledge underlying grammatical encoding is acquired, an investigation of the nature of its acquisition process is necessary. This investigation highlights the interdependence between the nature of the knowledge to be acquired and the nature of its acquisition process by demonstrating that the knowledge underlying grammatical encoding is predominantly implicit and, consequently, determines the implicit nature of its acquisition process. Such implicit knowledge is dissociated from explicit knowledge, which determines the explicit nature of its acquisition process. This investigation also demonstrates that explicit grammar teaching and practice in the context of the manipulation of the learners’ attentional orientation mediated by alertness may contribute to the implicit learning process under certain conditions. In conjunction with the provision of guidance by the Processability Theory in regard to the achievement of instructional focus and the independent finding that comprehensible input is needed in order for second language acquisition to occur, these results constitute the basis for the formulation of detailed instructional measures for the effective organisation of the sequential second language acquisition process. These measures are exemplified by their implementation for the initial stages of the acquisition of German as a second language. / PhD Doctorate

Les travaux de cette thèse portent sur l'analyse syntaxique et sémantique de la phrase, en utilisant pour l'analyse syntaxique un formalisme grammatical lexicalisé polarisé et en prenant comme exemple les grammaires d'interaction. Dans les formalismes grammaticaux lexicalisés, les polarités permettent de contrôler explicitement la composition des structures syntaxiques. Nous exploitons d'abord le besoin de composition exprimé par certaines polarités pour définir une notion faible de réduction de grammaire applicable à toute grammaire lexicalisée polarisée. Nous étudions ensuite la première phase de l'analyse syntaxique des formalismes lexicalisés: l'étiquetage grammatical. Nous exploitons là encore le besoin de composition de certaines polarités pour concevoir trois méthodes symboliques de filtrage des étiquetages grammaticaux que nous implantons sur automate. Nous abordons enfin l'interface syntaxe-sémantique des formalismes lexicalisés. Nous montrons comment l'utilisation de la réécriture de graphes comme modèle de calcul permet concrètement d'utiliser des structures syntaxiques riches pour calculer des représentations sémantiques sous-spécifiées.

Motivé par la découverte automatique de la structure hiérarchique de séquences d'ADN, nous nous intéressons au probléme classique de la recherche de la plus petite grammaire algébrique générant exactement une séquence donnée. Ce probléme NP-dur a été largement étudié pour des applications comme la compression de données, la découverte de structure et la théorie algorithmique de l'information. Nous proposons de décomposer ce probléme en deux problémes d'optimisation complémentaires. Le premier consiste á choisir les chaînes de la séquence qui seront les constituants de la grammaire finale alors que le second, que nous appelons ''analyse grammaticale minimale'', consiste á trouver une grammaire de taille minimale permettant l'analyse syntaxique de ces constituants. Nous donnons une solution polynomiale au probléme d' ''analyse grammaticale minimale'' et montrons que cette décomposition permet de définir un espace de recherche complet pour le probléme de la plus petite grammaire algébrique. Nous nous intéressons aux algorithmes praticables permettant de retourner une approximation du probléme en un temps suffisamment raisonnable pour être appliqués á de grandes séquences telles que les séquences génomiques. Nous analysons l'impact de l'utilisation de classes différentes de maximalité de répétitions pour le choix des constituants et le compromis entre l'efficacité et la taille de la grammaire finale. Nous présentons des avancées algorithmiques pour une meilleure efficacité des algorithmes hors-ligne existants, dont notamment la mise á jour incrémentale de tableaux de suffixes en cours de recodage. Enfin, la nouvelle décomposition du probléme nous permet de proposer de nouveaux algorithmes génériques permettant de trouver des grammaires 10\% plus petites que l'état de l'art. Enfin, nous nous intéressons á l'impact de ces idées sur les applications. En ce qui concerne la découverte de structures, nous étudions le nombre de grammaires minimales et montrons que ce nombre peut être exponentiel dans le pire cas. Nos expérimentations sur des jeux de séquences permettent cependant de montrer une certaine stabilité de structure au sein des grammaires minimales obtenues á partir d'un ensemble de constituants. En ce qui concerne la compression des données, nous contribuons dans chacune des trois étapes de la compression á base de grammaires. Nous définissons alors un nouvel algorithme qui optimise la taille de la chaine de bits finale au lieu de la taille de la grammaire. En l'appliquant sur les séquences d'ADN, nos expérimentations montrent que cet algorithme surpasse tout autre compresseur spécifique d'ADN á base de grammaire. Nous améliorons ce résultat en utilisant des répétitions inexactes et arrivons á améliorer les taux de compression de 25\% par rapport aux meilleurs compresseurs d'ADN á base de grammaire. Outre l'obtention de taux de compression plus performants, cette approche permet également envisager des généralisations intéressantes de ces grammaires.

The preferential looking paradigm was used to investigate how toddlers integrate recently learned grammatical cues with well-established social cues in a novel word-learning scenario. To test this we examined children’s ability to decipher the referent of a novel noun using the grammatical information from a plural cue and social information from an eye-gaze cue. Experiment 1 is the first study showing that children as young as 24 months of age can rely on plural markings alone to infer the referent of a novel noun. Preliminary results of Experiment 2 suggest that when the plural cue is presented alongside contradicting information from a gaze direction cue, children still map the novel word to the grammatically cued object. Taken together, these results suggest that by the time children reach their second birthday, even newly learned grammatical information, such as plural markings, might already outweigh established social cues.

The preferential looking paradigm was used to investigate how toddlers integrate recently learned grammatical cues with well-established social cues in a novel word-learning scenario. To test this we examined children’s ability to decipher the referent of a novel noun using the grammatical information from a plural cue and social information from an eye-gaze cue. Experiment 1 is the first study showing that children as young as 24 months of age can rely on plural markings alone to infer the referent of a novel noun. Preliminary results of Experiment 2 suggest that when the plural cue is presented alongside contradicting information from a gaze direction cue, children still map the novel word to the grammatically cued object. Taken together, these results suggest that by the time children reach their second birthday, even newly learned grammatical information, such as plural markings, might already outweigh established social cues.

This thesis aims at investigating the grammatical relations in Turkish Sign Language (TiD). For this aim, word order, nominal morphology, and agreement morphology of verbs are examined. TiD lacks morphological case, but it has a very rich pronominal system like other sign languages. Verbs are classified according to their morphosyntactic features. With this classification, we can observe the effect of word order and agreement morphology on the grammatical relations. Combinatory Categorial Grammar as a lexicalized grammar encodes word order, morphological case, and agreement features in the lexicon. Hence, it has the tools for testing any lexicalized basic word order hypothesis for a language based on the gapping data. Gapping data based on grammatical judgments of native signers indicate that TiD is a verb final language. Syntactic ergativity seems to be prevailing in coordination of a transitive sentence and an intransitive sentence where the single argument of the intransitive clause or one of the arguments of the transitive clause is missing. TiD also shows a tendency for ergativity in lexical properties such as agreement and pro-drop.

Alors que les valeurs temporelles, aspectuelles et modales en français sont principalement exprimées par les déterminants grammaticaux du verbe, l'expression de la temporalité en vietnamien s'appuie sur des marqueurs d'ordre lexical. L'objectif de cette recherche a été de montrer la différence qui existe dans la manière d'exprimer la temporalité en français et en vietnamien et donc de concevoir l'expression des valeurs temporelles, aspectuelles et modales dans chacune de ces langues. Ces valeurs étant véhiculées par des déterminants grammaticaux du verbe en français et par des marqueurs lexicaux en vietnamien, l'analyse a consisté tout d'abord à préciser les valeurs de ces éléments dans chaque langue, après avoir rappelé les points de vue de certains prédécesseurs dans ces domaines. Ensuite, une étude contrastive d'un extrait du Petit Prince en français et de deux de ses traductions en vietnamien a permis de mettre en évidence non seulement les facteurs qui régissent la présence ou l'absence de marqueurs en vietnamien, mais aussi les changements de sens et d'effets stylistiques qu'induisent le passage d'une langue à l'autre et le choix singulier qu'est à même de faire le traducteur. Cette recherche peut donc avoir une incidence immédiate pour l'enseignement du français à des apprenants vietnamiens et plus largement à des étudiants de Français Langue Etrangère comme pour la traduction.

The comparative method of variationist sociolinguistics has demonstrated that frequency changes are not reliable determinants of whether grammatical change is taking place. Frequency changes can be the result of extra-linguistic register changes, changes within the underlying grammar, or a combination (Szmrecsanyi, 2011; Tagliamonte, 2002). This work examines two variables known to vary along the written-to-spoken continuum — relative clause pronouns, and the genitive construction — across three registers of English and 100 years, with the goal of furthering our understanding of the relationship between spoken and written language. The s-genitive (i.e. Canada's government vs. the government of Canada) is on the rise in the 20th century (Hinrichs and Szmrecsanyi, 2007; Rosenbach, 2007). Statistical modeling confirms the press register leads this increase — a register change. Examination of internal linguistic constraints over time indicates simultaneous grammatical change, with the s–genitive increasing with certain inanimate subtypes. The WH-forms (who, which) of the relative pronouns have become increasingly restricted to written registers (e.g. Romaine, 1982; Tottie, 1997), leaving that as the variant used most for subject function in vernacular speech (D'Arcy and Tagliamonte 2010). Although who continues to be used for animates, which is shown to have lost any grammatical conditioning that it once had and to be undergoing lexical replacement by that for non-human subject antecedents. Unlike the genitives, though, examination of internal linguistic factors reveals no evidence of grammatical change. The methodology employed here provides a way to tease apart grammatical change from register change, with register-internal change shown to be a motivating factor in change from above. While the vernacular is ''the most systematic data for our analysis of linguistic structure'' (Labov, 1972a:208), it is not necessarily the most innovative, nor is it always the locus of change. With that in mind, this work provides a model of language change that integrates change across speech and writing.

The comparative method of variationist sociolinguistics has demonstrated that frequency changes are not reliable determinants of whether grammatical change is taking place. Frequency changes can be the result of extra-linguistic register changes, changes within the underlying grammar, or a combination (Szmrecsanyi, 2011; Tagliamonte, 2002). This work examines two variables known to vary along the written-to-spoken continuum — relative clause pronouns, and the genitive construction — across three registers of English and 100 years, with the goal of furthering our understanding of the relationship between spoken and written language. The s-genitive (i.e. Canada's government vs. the government of Canada) is on the rise in the 20th century (Hinrichs and Szmrecsanyi, 2007; Rosenbach, 2007). Statistical modeling confirms the press register leads this increase — a register change. Examination of internal linguistic constraints over time indicates simultaneous grammatical change, with the s–genitive increasing with certain inanimate subtypes. The WH-forms (who, which) of the relative pronouns have become increasingly restricted to written registers (e.g. Romaine, 1982; Tottie, 1997), leaving that as the variant used most for subject function in vernacular speech (D'Arcy and Tagliamonte 2010). Although who continues to be used for animates, which is shown to have lost any grammatical conditioning that it once had and to be undergoing lexical replacement by that for non-human subject antecedents. Unlike the genitives, though, examination of internal linguistic factors reveals no evidence of grammatical change. The methodology employed here provides a way to tease apart grammatical change from register change, with register-internal change shown to be a motivating factor in change from above. While the vernacular is ''the most systematic data for our analysis of linguistic structure'' (Labov, 1972a:208), it is not necessarily the most innovative, nor is it always the locus of change. With that in mind, this work provides a model of language change that integrates change across speech and writing.

The nature of the mental representation and processing of morphologically complex words has constituted one of the major points of controversy in psycholinguistic research over the past two decades. The Dual-Mechanism Model defends the necessity of two separate mechanisms for linguistic processing, an associative memory and a rule-system, which account for the processing of irregular and regular word forms, respectively. The purpose of the present study was to analyse the validity of the claims of the Dual-Mechanism Model for second language (L2) processing in order to contribute to the accumulating but so far equivocal knowledge concerning L2 processing. A second purpose of the study was to find out whether L2 proficiency could be identified as a determining factor in the processing of L2 morphology. Two experiments (a lexical decision task on the English past tense and a elicited production task on English lexical compounds) were run with 22 low-proficiency and 24 high-proficiency first language (L1) Turkish users of L2 English and with 6 L1 speakers of English. The results showed that the regular-irregular dissociation predicted by the Dual-Mechanism Model was clearly evident in the production of English lexical compounds for all three subject groups. A comparatively weaker dissociation coupled with intricate response patterns was found in the processing of the English past tense, though possibly because of a number of confounding factors that were not sufficiently controlled. In addition, direct comparisons of the L2 groups displayed a remarkable effect of L2 proficiency on L2 morphological processing.