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Negation in L2 acquisition: implications for language genesis

Negation in L2 acquisition: implications for language genesis. Henri ëtte de Swart Utrecht/NIAS. The “windows” approach. Early second language acquisition is a restricted linguistic system that might provide a “window” on language genesis (Jackendoff 2002, Botha 2004).

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Negation in L2 acquisition: implications for language genesis

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  1. Negation in L2 acquisition: implications for language genesis Henriëtte de Swart Utrecht/NIAS

  2. The “windows” approach • Early second language acquisition is a restricted linguistic system that might provide a “window” on language genesis (Jackendoff 2002, Botha 2004). • Features of restricted systems permit inferences towards language genesis.

  3. Pre-logical and truth-functional negation • Negation: universal category of natural language (Dahl 1979). • No truth-functional negation in animal communication. (Horn 1989, Heine and Kuteva 2006). • Truth-functional negation: not-exist, deny, logical connective . • Pre-logical negation: refuse, resist, correct.

  4. Negation: recursion • Semantic recursion: from p to p. • Syntactic recursion: from S to not S. • Human language is a recursive system. • Do animal communication systems lack recursivity? (Chomsky, Hauser and Fitch 2002).

  5. Optimality Theory (OT) • Optimality Theory: theory of grammar inspired by connectionism (Prince and Smolensky 1997), Smolensky and Legendre (2006). • Grammar: harmonic system of interacting, soft constraints. • Constraints are universal, ranking is language specific (typology).

  6. OT constraints • Faithfulness constraints: input-output correspondence: FAITH • Markedness constraints: output oriented only: *STRUCTURE • Constraints may conflict: ranking determines optimal outcome.

  7. OT and language acquisition • Developmental approach: shifting rankings, towards target grammar. • Gradual: constraints shift one at a time. • Start: *STRUCTURE >> FAITH • (no production, no interpretation).

  8. L2 acquisition: corpus • ESF project: immigrants in Europe, untutored L2 acquisition (Perdue 1993). • Stages: pre-basic variety, basic variety, post-basic variety. • Observation: pre-basic and basic variety display features that are independent of source and target language. Window?

  9. L2 acquisition: stages • Pre-basic variety: nominal structure, topic-focus articulation. • Basic variety: predicate-argument structure, lexical categories, noun-verb distinction. • Post-basic variety: towards target language.

  10. Negation in pre-basic variety • Holophrastic negation: • IN: c’est un accident ‘It is an accident.’ • SF non + *un* manifestation. ‘No, a demonstration.’ • Function of refusal, rejection or correction (pre-logical negation).

  11. Topic-comment structure • X + NEG: • IN: So you are having an easy time yes? IE: For me yes + for my manager the restaurant no. • X functions as topic, NEG as what we say about the topic.

  12. Focus sensitive negation • NEG + X: • SF *ahi no* [nepa] la ‘there, not there/don’t look there’ • PE daughter’s dad + no job ‘The girl’s father doesn’t have a job.’ • X provides focus of negation.

  13. Negation in basic variety • (NP) + NEG + V (+ Y): • SF mais moi [nepadekriBir] ‘But me, I don’t write.’ • IE: I dont see very well • Mad: Ik niet *hapis* gaan. ‘I not prison go.’ • Negation: link between topic and focus.

  14. OT constraints negation • FNeg: Be faithful to negation, i.e. reflect the non-affirmative nature of the input in the output. • *Neg: Avoid negation in the output. • FNeg: faithfulness constraint. • *Neg: markedness constraint. • FNeg and *Neg are in conflict!

  15. Negative sentences (form)

  16. Negative sentences (meaning)

  17. Utterance structure in pre-basic variety • Utterance structure: topic-focus articulation. • OT constraint: FocusLast • FocusLast: new information comes last in the sentence.

  18. Negation in pre-basic variety • Negation of a topic: X + NEG

  19. Negation in pre-basic variety • Focus sensitive negation: NEG + X

  20. Negation in basic variety • (NP) + NEG + V (+ NP) • Negation: link between topic and focus. • Noun-verb distinction: predicate-argument structure, thematic roles. • Negation: operator status • Consequence: truth-conditional negation, semantic recursion.

  21. Negation as operator • Mirror principle (de Hoop & de Swart 2000):  < : operator < scope: topic < focus. The linear order of two constituents  and  corresponds to the order operator-scope, which corresponds to the order topic-focus.

  22. Utterance structure in basic variety • NegFirst (focus version): Negation precedes its focus. • NegFirst: special instance of mirror principle.

  23. Negation as operator

  24. Post-basic variety • Typological preference for preverbal position of negation (Horn 1989). • NegFirst (grammaticized version): Negation precedes the (finite) verb.

  25. Developmental path

  26. Language Genesis • Conceptual stage: no language (no production, no interpretation). • Mental structure of primates pre-dates the emergence of language. • Mental structure includes pre-logical negation, (possibly) no recursion. • *Structure >> Faith (proto-constraints).

  27. Motivation for language • Motivation for language: communication, negotiation of power, distribution of labor, resources in social setting, teaching of children. • Transition from conceptual stage to holophrastic stage.

  28. Holophrastic stage • Holophrastic negation: pre-logical negation (rejection, refusal, disagreement). • Negation useful in manipulation, gossip, negotiation, teaching of children: motivates emergence even in holophrastic stage. • FNeg >> *Structure • FNeg >> *Neg.

  29. Protolanguage • Transition from holophrastic stage to communication with concatenation of words. • Holistic view (Wray) versus synthetic view (Tallerman). • Results from L2 support synthetic view: concatenation of items already found in holophrastic stage.

  30. Utterance structure in Protolanguage • No lexical categories. • Utterances structured by topic-focus articulation. • FNeg >> *Neg, FocusLast.

  31. Semantic recursion • Noun-verb distinction: introduction of predicate-argument structure, thematic roles (agent, theme, goal, etc.). • Conventionalization of negation as focus sensitive operator: link between topic and focus. • Operator status: semantic recursion! • Syntax: mirror principle (NegFirstfoc).

  32. Towards syntactic negation • Emergence of syntactic principles: no direct connection between focus and word order. • NegFirstfocus NegFirstgram. • Preverbal position of negation: ‘natural’ syntax. • Syntactic recursion follows semantic recursion.

  33. Genesis of negation

  34. Conclusions • Early L2 as “window” on language genesis. • Modeling of developmental path in OT: sequence of grammars, gradual change, cross-modularity. • Semantic recursion precedes (and triggers?) syntactic recursion.

  35. Want to read more? • Negation in early L2: a “window” on language genesis. AI Preprint serie, Utrecht University. • http://www.phil.uu.nl/preprints/aips/

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