<OT> New Posting: ROA-621

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ROA 621-1003

Emergence of Universal Grammar in foreign word adaptations

Shigeko Shinohara <shinohara at psycho.univ-paris5.fr>

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/view.php3?roa=621


Abstract:
This paper examines the emergence of UG patterns appearing
in the phonological analysis of Japanese adaptations of
French words. The results provide us with evidence for adulthood
access to UG. The issue of the emergence of UG outside of
first language acquisition has arisen in several other areas
of linguistic study: Acquisition of second language (Flynn
and O'Neil eds. 1988, Epstein, Flynn and Martohardjono 1996),
Interlanguage phenomena (Browslow and Park 1995), Creolization
(De Graff 1999). Our study contributes to 1) the linguistic
theory of acquisition and 2) the relevance of the Optimality
model (Prince and Smolensky 1993) to the study of acquisition.
In the linguistic theory of acquisition, one of the controversial
issues is whether the ON/OFF parameters are fixed in the
early stage of language acquisition; or on the contrary
whether UG latent in L1 is accessible in a later stage of
life. Phonological analysis of adapted forms of foreign
input shows that structures (and the grammatical principles
that underlie them) that are not overt in the L1 lexicon
may emerge in the adaptation process and these structures
seem to be the unmarked ones cross-linguistically, indicating
that they belong to UG. We conclude that UG can play a role
in adulthood acquisition and hence that it is accessible
later stages in life.

Comments: to appear in Kager et al (eds.) Constraints in Phonological Acquisition
Keywords: loanword, acquisition, phonology
Areas: Phonology, Learnability
Type: Book Chapter

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/view.php3?roa=621