1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910818305403321

Autore

Slabakova Roumyana

Titolo

Telicity in the second language / / Roumyana Slabakova

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Amsterdam ; ; Philadelphia, PA, : John Benjamins Pub. Co., c2001

ISBN

1-282-16251-9

9786612162510

90-272-9820-3

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (248 p.)

Collana

Language acquisition & language disorders ; ; v. 26

Disciplina

401/.93

Soggetti

Second language acquisition

Grammar, Comparative and general - Aspect

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. [215]-229) and index.

Nota di contenuto

Telicity in the Second Language -- Editorial page -- Title page -- LCC data -- Dedication -- Table of contents -- Acknowledgements -- Aspect and theories of second language acquisition -- Semantic and syntactic treatments of telicity -- English and Slavic telicity: A syntactic account -- First and second language acquisition of aspect -- An experimental study of the L2 acquisition of telicity -- Discussion, implications, and conclusion -- Appendix -- References -- Index -- LANGUAGE ACQUISITION AND LANGUAGE DISORDERS (LALD).

Sommario/riassunto

The author combines a syntax-theoretical treatment of telicity marking and an empirical study of the second language acquisition of English telicity marking by native speakers of Bulgarian, a Slavic language. It is argued that Vendler's lexical classes of verbs (states, activities, accomplishments and achievements) can be represented in four phrase structure templates, where lexical properties of the verb and of the object compositionally determine telicity. A parameterized distinction between English and Slavic aspect is proposed. The book addresses two major acquisition issues: (1) what is the nature of the initial hypothesis Bulgarian learners of English entertain regarding telicity marking (i.e., is there native language transfer)? (2) are adult learners capable of resetting the telicity marking parameter? Both L1 transfer and parameter resetting are experimentally supported. In addition, the



study investigates the L2 acquisition of a cluster of complex predicate constructions, purportedly related to the telicity parameter in the grammatical competence and in child language acquisition of English.