Universal Grammar and second language phonology: Full Transfer / Prevalent Access in the L2 Acquisition of Turkish “Stress” by English and French Speakers

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis article explores the role of transfer and Universal Grammar (UG) in second language (L2) phonology by investigating the L2 acquisition of stress/prominence in footless languages, such as Turkish and French, which have fixed word- and phrase-final prominence respectively. It is proposed that once the prosodic constituent Foot is projected in a footed first language (L1), such as English, it is impossible to expunge it from the grammar in learning a footless L2. Learners in this condition will, instead, be restricted to resetting parameters that act on the Foot (e.g. trochaic/iambic, iterative/non-iterative, weight-sensitive/weight-insensitive). In order to investigate these predictions, a semi-controlled production experiment was conducted with English- and French-speaking learners of L2 Turkish, of various proficiency levels. The results largely confirm our predictions. None of the English-speaking subjects were able to rid their grammar of the Foot. They were, however, able to make various UG-constrained changes to their grammar, such as resetting Extrametricality from Yes to No, and later, Foot-Type from Trochaic to Iambic, thereby having increasingly more word types with word-final (but footed) stress. French-speaking learners, on the other hand, produced target-like footless outputs from the beginning, with word-final prominence. The findings provide strong evidence for UG-based theories of L2 acquisition: (i) interlanguage grammars, even when non-targetlike, are ‘possible’ grammars, paralleling other natural languages, (ii) options ruled out by UG, such as weight-insensitive iambs, are not employed, despite such a stage being cognitively most reasonable, and (iii) grammar change is brought along on a parameter-by-parameter basis, instead of being reflective of frequency.