Spell-Out Conditions for Interpretable Features in L1 and L2/Bilingual Spanish

Abstract

In the last decade, UG-oriented L2 acquisition theory has focused its attention on the acquisition and development of functional categories in the L2 grammar. The debate has centered on the issue of whether functional categories are present or not at the initial stages of L2 acquisition. Vainnika and Young-Scholten (1996) have proposed that functional projections are not present at the earlier stages of L2 acquisition. Eubank (1993/4) has proposed that they are present at early stages but are underspecified in features. On the other hand, Schwartz and Sprouse (1996) have proposed that functional features are fully specified as in the L1 in the earlier stages of L2 acquisition, and are reset at later stages of acquisition through access to UG. More recently, the “failed features hypothesis” (Hawkins and Yuet-hun Chan 1997) proposes that functional features are not accessible in L2 acquisition, although there are alternative mechanisms that allow L2 grammars to conform to UG principles.KeywordsDirect ObjectTopic StructureRomance LanguageContact SituationLanguage ShiftThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.