TOWARD SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION STUDIES IN THEORETICAL PSYCHOLINGUISTICS VOLUME 17 Managing Editors Thomas Roeper, Dept. of Linguistics, University of Massachusetts at Amherst Kenneth Wexler, Dept. ofB rain and Cognitive Science, MIT, Cambridge, Mass. Editorial Board Robert Berwick, Artifical Intelligence Laboratory, MIT, Cambridge, Mass. Manfred Bierwisch, Zentralinstitutfiir Sprachwissenschaft, Akademie der Wissenschaften, Berlin Merrill Garrett, University ofA rizona, Tucson Lila Gleitman, School of Education, University of Pennsylvania Mary-Louise Kean, University of California at Irvine Howard Lasnik, University of Connecticut at Storrs John Marshall, Neuropsychology Unit, Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford Daniel Osherson, MI. T., Cambridge, Mass. Yukio Otsu, Keio University, Tokyo Edwin Williams, Princeton University The titles published in this series are listed at the end of this volume. TOWARD SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION A Study of Null-Prep by ELAINE C. KLEIN Queens College and The Graduate School and University Center, City University of New York SPRINGER-SCIENCE+BUSINESS MEDIA, B.V. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Klein, Elaine C. Toward second language acquisition a study of nul I-prep / by Elaine C. Klein. p. cm. -- (Studies in theoretical psycholinquistics ; v. 17) Inc I udes index. ISBN 978-94-010-4902-3 ISBN 978-94-011-2038-8 (eBook) DOl 10.1007/978-94-011-2038-8 1. Second language acquisition. 2. Grammar, Comparative and general--Prepositions. 3. Grammar, ComparativS and general--Syntax. 4. Markedness (LinguistiCs) 1. Title. II. Series. P118.2.K56 1993 401' .93--dc20 93-28052 ISBN 978-94-010-4902-3 Printed on acid-free paper Typesetting by Richard E.C. White, Queens College, CUNY All Rights Reserved © 1993 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht Originally published by Kluwer Academic Publishersi in 1993 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1993 No part of the material protected by this copyright notice may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the copyright owner. To Janet, for putting up with me, and To Bob, for putting up without me LANGUAGE ACQUISITION AND SYNTACTIC THEORY TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS xi CHAPTER 1. MARKEDNESS THEORY AND SECOND :r,.ANGUAGE ACQUISITION 1 1. Introduction 1 1.1 Overview 7 1.2 Markedness Theory 8 1.2.1 Background 8 1.2.2 Typological Markedness 11 1.2.3 Syntactic Markedness 12 1.2.4 The Subset Principle 15 1.3 Markedness Theory in L2 Acquisition 15 Notes 21 CHAPTER 2. PIED-PIPING AND PREPOSITION STRANDING 23 2. Introduction 23 2.1 Establishing Markedness Values for Pied-Piping and Preposition Stranding 23 2.1.1 Typological Criteria 23 2.1.2 Syntactic Criteria 24 2.1.3 The Subset Principle 28 2.2 Pied-Piping and Preposition Stranding in L2 Acquisition 34 2.2.1 L2 Studies of Languages Other than English 35 2.2.2 L2 Studies of English 41 Notes 48 CHAPTER 3. THE NULL-PREP PHENOMENON 51 3. Introduction 51 3.1 Null-Prep in L 1 Acquisition: preliminary findings 52 3.2 Null-Prep in L2 Acquisition: preliminary findings 63 Notes 66 CHAPTER 4. NULL-PREP: L2 EXPERIMENTAL DATA 70 4. Introduction 70 4.1 Research Questions 71 4.2 Methods 72 viii TABLE OF CONTENTS 4.2.1 Subjects 72 4.2.2 Materials 75 4.2.3 Procedures 85 4.3 Results 87 4.3.1 Scoring of the data 87 4.3.2 Analyses 90 4.3.3 Summary 118 Notes 120 CHAPTER 5. NULL-PREP: CROSS-LINGUISTIC DATA 124 5. Introduction 124 5.1 Cross-Linguistic Distribution of Null-Prep 126 5.1.1 Types of Languages Exhibiting Null-Prep 126 5. 1.2 Identity Conditions on Null-Prep 131 5.1.3 Constructions in Which Null-Prep Appears 141 5. 1.4 Null-Prep in Local Contexts 143 Notes 145 CHAPTER 6. THE SYNTAX OF NULL-PREP 148 6. Introduction 148 6.1 Null-Prep in Greek 150 6.1.1 The Status of pu as a Complementizer 151 6. 1.2 Greek Prepositions 152 6.1.3 The Rule of Object Pronoun Drop 155 6.1.4 The Rule of Preposition Deletion 157 6.2 Null-Prep in Brazilian Portuguese 160 6.2.1 The Status of que as a Complementizer 162 6.2.2 The Rule of Object Drop 165 6.2.3The PP-Chopping Variant 166 6.3 Linguistic Analysis of Null-Prep 168 6.3.1 Some Generalizations about Null-Prep 169 6.3.2 The Syntactic Reality of Null-Prep 174 6.3.3 The Internal Structure of Null-Prep 176 6.3.4 The Object ofP as pro: Licensing and Identification Considerations 178 6.3.5 The Object of P as trace: Licensing and Identification Considerations 182 6.3.6 The Cliticization of the Licensing P 183 6.3.7The Null-Prep Parameters 184 Notes 187 TABLE OF CONTENTS ix CHAPTER 7. ENGLISH PREPOSmONS AND THE RELATIVE CLAUSE PARAMETERS 194 7. Introduction 194 7.1 Evidence of Preposition Omission in English 194 7.2 Analysis of Preposition Omission in English 198 7.2.1 Bare NPs in Questions 200 7.2.2Bare NPs in Headed Relatives 203 7.2.3 Preposition Omission in Free Relatives 209 7.3 Concluding Discussion 217 7.3.1 Setting the Relative Clause Parameters 218 7.3.2Learnability Considerations 226 7.3.3 Bare NPs and Markedness 229 Notes 230 CHAPTER 8. EXPLAINING NULL-PREP IN THE L2 GRAMMAR 236 8. Introduction 236 8.1 Revising the UG Questions 237 8.2 UG Explanations for the Null-Prep phenomenon in L2 Acquisition 240 8.2.1 The non-movement hypothesis for null-prep 241 8.2.2The movement hypothesis: null-prep in core grammar 247 8.2.3 The movement hypothesis: overgeneralization from the periphery 251 8.2.4 Conclusion 252 8.3 Directions for future research 253 8.3.1 Linguistic research 253 8.3.2Acquisition research 254 Notes 257 APPENDIX 1: Target and Filler Sentences 259 APPENDIX 2: Types of Errors and Corrections Coded 262 REFERENCES 265 INDEX OF NAMES 277 INDEX OF SUBJECTS 279 LANGUAGE ACQUISITION AND SYNTACTIC THEORY