This thesis sets out to test the Full Transfer Full Access hypothesis (FTFA), which claims (i) that second language (L2) learners start out with the parameter settings instantiated in their first language (L1) grammars ('full transfer') and (ii) that they can subsequently reset parameters to the target L2 settings where these differ from the L1 settings, provided the required (triggering) positive evidence is available in the L2 input ('full access'). / Three studies on the L2 acquisition of two verb movement parameters, the V2 parameter and the Split-IP parameter (SIP), are reported. The first study investigates 'full access', testing whether English-speaking learners of Afrikaans, who started acquiring the L2 in early childhood and are thus child L2 learners, can reset the two parameters. The second study investigates 'full transfer' and 'full access' by testing whether English-speaking and German-speaking learners start out with different settings of the two parameters and whether the English-speaking learners can reset the parameters. All participants in this study are adult L2 learners, which facilitates a comparison of child L2 acquisition (first study) with adult L2 acquisition. The third study investigates whether Afrikaans-speaking learners of French can acquire knowledge of the ungrammaticality of certain construction types that are allowed in their L1 but not in the L2 (although the languages share the same parameter setting), despite the fact that there seems to be no positive evidence to this effect in the L2 input. It is argued that, taken together, the studies provide evidence in support of the FTFA. / The original contribution of this thesis lies in (i) investigating both verb movement parameters (instead of only one), (ii) providing a thorough discussion of the relevant syntactic properties of Afrikaans, (iii) investigating the L2 acquisition of Afrikaans, and (iv) addressing the question of how learners go about acquiring a parameter setting ([+SIP]) in cases where both the L1 and the L2 share the parameter setting but the L1 exhibits a superset of the properties exhibited by the L2.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.85899 |
| Date | January 2005 |
| Creators | Conradie, Simone |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Doctor of Philosophy (Department of Linguistics.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 002267657, proquestno: AAINR21636, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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