Continued accessibility to UG in non-native grammars : the acquisition of wh-movement by Malay learners of English
Within the generative framework, it is widely accepted that first language acquisition is constrained by Universal Grammar (UG). In non-native language acquisition, the continued accessibility of UG is a controversial issue. The main purpose of this study is to contribute evidence that UG continues to be accessible to Malay learners of English in the acquisition of wh-movement. Since wh-movement has been argued to be absent at S-structure in Indonesian (Martohardjono, 1993; Martohardjono and Gair, 1992), which is syntactically identical to Malay with respect to wh-movement, we can rule out the possibility of direct L1 transfer to L2 acquisition of wh-movement. Our main hypothesis is that learners progress from an early non-movement stage to the acquisition of wh-movement through the continued accessibility of movement-related principles, Subjacency and the ECP. We conducted a cross-sectional investigation of Malay learners from four levels of proficiency and a control group of native speakers. The elicitation instruments were an acceptability rating task, an acceptability ranking task and a production task. These tests were designed to test learners' ability (a) to reject UG violations; (b) to reject violations
Netto, Gina
Continued accessibility to UG in non-native grammars : the acquisition of wh-movement by Malay learners of English. Within the generative framework, it is widely accepted that first language acquisition is constrained by Universal Grammar (UG). In non-native language acquisition, the continued accessibility of UG is a controversial issue. The main purpose of this study is to contribute evidence that UG continues to be accessible to Malay learners of English in the acquisition of wh-movement. Since wh-movement has been argued to be absent at S-structure in Indonesian (Martohardjono, 1993; Martohardjono and Gair, 1992), which is syntactically identical to Malay with respect to wh-movement, we can rule out the possibility of direct L1 transfer to L2 acquisition of wh-movement. Our main hypothesis is that learners progress from an early non-movement stage to the acquisition of wh-movement through the continued accessibility of movement-related principles, Subjacency and the ECP. We conducted a cross-sectional investigation of Malay learners from four levels of proficiency and a control group of native speakers. The elicitation instruments were an acceptability rating task, an acceptability ranking task and a production task. These tests were designed to test learners' ability (a) to reject UG violations; (b) to reject violations
continued accessibility non_native grammar acquisition movement malay learner_english within generative_framework widely_accept first_language_acquisition constrain universal_grammar non_native language_acquisition continue accessibility controversial issue main_purpose study contribute evidence continue accessible malay learner_english acquisition movement since wh_movement argue absent structure indonesian syntactically identical malay respect wh_movement rule possibility direct transfer acquisition movement main_hypothesis learner progress early non movement stage acquisition movement continued accessibility movement related principle conduct cross_sectional investigation malay learners level_proficiency control_group native_speaker elicitation instrument acceptability rating task acceptability rank task production_task test_design test learner ability reject violation reject violation