Universal design features of human language

All languages:

l     relate sounds (or gestures) and meaning in a largely arbitrary way.

l     use a finite set of sounds (or gestures) to form meaningful elements, which themselves form an infinite set of possible sentences.

l     are structured hierarchically.

l     have similar grammatical categories (verbs, nouns, etc)

l     can express past time reference, negation, commands, and other basic functions.

How do universals affect interlanguage development?

l     They determine what forms could possibly appear, i.e., there are no ‘wild grammars’.

l     They can affect acquisition orders.

l     They can interact with other factors to determine the shape of the interlanguage development.

 

“Functionalists maintain that the communicative situation motivates, constrains, or otherwise determines grammatical structure…..”Nichols, J. (1984, p 97). Functional theories of grammar. Annual Review of Anthropology, 13, 97-117.

Development of Past Tense

Seemed to spread from

l     Achievement (break) verbs to

l     Accomplishment (teach) verbs to

l     Activities (swim) and finally to

l     States (had)

Findings from research on tense-aspect:

1. Past/perfective morphology emerges from punctual verbs and verbs indicating achievements and accomplishments. The morphology then extends to verbs expressing activities and states.

         jumped, kicked, broke, built >> chase, teach, play, know, have.”

2. Imperfective morphology emerges with durative and/or stative verbs (i.e., activities and states), then gradually spreads to achievement/accomplishment and punctual verbs. (past continuous:feel,know,be)

         “It was dark. I was thinking about…”

3. Progressive morphology is strongly associated with durative and dynamic verbs (i.e., activities).

         singing, playing

Markedness

a distinction between pairs of linguistic features in which one value is seen as being neutral, default and the other being positive. Ex:

l     English plural is marked and singular unmarked.

l     In semantics tall is  unmarked and short is marked (or restricted)

l     Male terms are basic forms, female terms are marked forms (tiger-tigress, actor-actress) (Ali-Aliye)

l     Some sounds are common(unmarked) some are not (marked) (Greek bridge (“dj”,”dz”), lunch(“tch”, “ts”) )

Acquisition of Questions in English

l     intonation

l     That mine?- Where doggie?

l     See baby?- Where Daddy go?

l     Dolly go boom?- What dolly do?; Why?

l     Did you see him? – How she can do it?