Subjacency Violations and Empty Categories in Second Language Acquisition

Abstract

Research on first language (L1) acquisition or on language processing that is conducted within the framework of Government Binding (GB) theory is able to presuppose the psychological reality of principles and parameters of Universal Grammar (UG), and to investigate their effects on the language acquirer or language user. The situation in second language (L2) acquisition is rather different: the availability of universal principles cannot be presupposed but instead becomes the focus of research. That is, a major research question is whether the L2 learner, particularly the adult learner, is guided by principles of UG. Influenced partly by the relative lack of success of L2 learners (their knowledge, fluency and ultimate attainment rarely approach that of native speakers), a number of researchers have recently proposed that UG is not actively available to the adult learner (Bley-Vroman, 1989; Clahsen and Muysken, 1986; Schachter, 1988). Proponents of this view argue that the learning mechanisms underlying adult L2 acquisition are radically different from those underlying L1 acquisition, and that they are not unique to language.