Tpological Universals & SLA (Linguistic Typology)

Hazırlayan
TYPOLOGICAL UNIVERSALS
(LINGUISTIC TYPOLOGY)
typological universals: Universals derived from an investigation of the commonalities of the
world’s languages. The goal is to determine similarities in types of languages, including
implicational universals (Gass & Selinker, 2008: 522)
implicational universals: Common hierarchies across the world’s languages in which particular
language elements are predicted by the existence of other language elements (Gass & Selinker,
2008: 518)

Typological Universals & Second Language
Acquisition
(Eckman, 2012: 485-494)
• The goal of SLA theory: to explain the development of linguistic
competence in L2 learner
• Linguistic approaches to SLA tries to explain the growth of L2 competence
by showing…
• The mental grammars (interlanguage grammars) of second language
learners are exposed to constraints on learnability.
• One of the domains as a possible source of such constraints is linguistic
typology
• The central thesis of linguistic typology
– the unidirectional, implicational generalizations formulated by typologists
reflect constraints on human languages,
– these same generalizations may constrain the kinds of interlanguage
grammars that L2 learners can acquire.
Typological Universals/Linguistic Typology

Typological Universals & SLA
(Gass & Selinker, 2008: 191-218)
• Why is an understanding of language
universals important to study of SLA?
• One of the early questions regarding
the nature of second language systems:
the extent to which interlanguage could
be considered a “natural language”.
• “… ILs are linguistic systems in the same
way that Natural Languages are. By
“natural language” I mean any human
language shared by a community of
speakers and developed over time by a
general process of evolution.” (Adjemian,
1976: 298)
• What does it mean to say that ILs, or
learner languages, are natural
systems?
• It does not mean that all ILs are as
complex as all natural languages.
• The majority of complex syntax does
not develop until late in the process
of learning.
• If a given linguistic phenomenon
appears to be impossible in any of
the world’s languages, then it will
also be an impossible form in a
second language system.

(Gass & Selinker, 2008: 191-218)
• To what extent do the constraints that
govern natural languages also govern
learner language systems?
All universals that are true for
primary languages are also true
for
interlanguages.
(Eckman, Moravcsik, and Wirth,
1989: 195)
• To what extent is the variability of
learner languages limited?
• Would we be likely to find evidence of
interlanguages that violate the
generalizations?
One answer to these questions
has been formulated as the
Interlanguage Structural
Conformity Hypothesis

(Gass & Selinker, 2008: 191-218)
• Ways in which universals can be expected to affect the
development of second language grammars:
• Affecting the shape of a learner’s grammar (If this is
correct: no violation of a given universal evident in second
language grammars).
• Affecting acquisition order (more marked forms would be
the last to be acquired, or, in the case of implicational
universals, one could expect fewer errors in the less marked
forms).
• Being one of many interacting forces in determining the
shape of learners’ grammars.

Studies Focusing on Markedness
(Eckman, 2012: 485-494; Gass & Selinker, 2008: 191-218)
• Markedness: concept related to how common or typical a feature is
• Earliest work using typological universals as explanatory principles: explain
various aspects of learning difficulty and transfer in SLA.
• Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis (CAH): explain L2 learning difficulty on the
basis of differences between the native and target languages (Lado, 1957;
Stockwell and Bowen, 1965)
• The claim: L2 learners transfer much of the structure of NL to the learning of TL
• Difficulty resulted when NL and TL structures were different
• The major problems of CAH were empirical: NL/TL differences were both
necessary and sufficient to explain L2 difficulty
• The prediction: L2 learners should experience problems only in areas where the
NL and TL differ
BUT, studies showed…
- learners often produced errors in structures where NL and TL did not differ
- learners had no difficulty with areas of contrast between NL and TL
(Dušková 1969, Gradman 1971).

• Proposals addressing problems with CAH invoked typological markedness
• The Markedness Differential Hypothesis (Eckman 1977)
• Differences between NL and TL were necessary to explain errors of L2
learners, but not sufficient
• What was needed in addition: another way to calculate the difficult areas
between NL and TL
• The central claim of the Markedness Differential Hypothesis (MDH):
Typological markedness reflects difficulty in second language acquisition
(Eckman 1977)
• Marked structures are more difficult than unmarked structures

• Studies in support of claims of Markedness Differential Hypothesis
• All of them on L2 phonology (see Eckman 2004 for a review).
• Anderson (1987): analysed learning of onset & coda clusters in English
for subjects from 3 NL backgrounds: Egyptian Arabic, Mandarin Chinese,
and Amoy Chinese
• The results supported the MDH
• Performance of Chinese-speaking subjects was less target-like than
Arabic-speaking subjects on coda clusters
• The difference in performance correlated with the degree of
markedness
• Marked final clusters caused more errors than the marked initial clusters

• In addition to predicting difficulty in L2 acquisition / typological markedness
to explain facts about language transfer
• Accessibility Hierarchy: developed in work by Keenan and Comrie (1977)
• Representing an implicational generalization for relative clause types
• The hierarchy represents a markedness relationship
• Subject-type relative clause = least marked
• Object of comparison type = most marked
First, all languages have subject
relative clauses; and second,
predictions can be made such that if a
language has a relative clause of the
type X , then it will also have any
relative clause type higher on the
hierarchy.

• Gass (1979a; 1979b) presented data from learners of English with a
wide range of native languages (Italian, Arabic, Portuguese, Farsi,
French, Thai, Chinese, Korean, and Japanese)
• Based on data from (a) free compositions (b) sentence combining (c)
grammaticality judgments
• Argument: production of relative clauses by SL learners could be
predicted on the basis of the Accessibility Hierarchy
• Result: With the exception of the genitive, the predictions of the
Accessibility Hierarchy are borne out
• Performing better on the less marked relative clause types than they
did on the more marked
• More likely to transfer NL relative clause structures that are less
marked than those that are more marked
Verification
More
marked
Less
marked

• Hyltenstam (1984): resumptive pronouns (pronominal reflexes) in relative clauses
• She danced with the man who [*he ] flew to Paris yesterday
• The woman whom he danced with [her ] flew to Paris yesterday
• An inverse relationship between the hierarchy and resumptive pronouns: resumptive
pronouns will be used in the lower hierarchical positions than in higher ones
• Resumptive Pronoun Hierarchy: OCOMP > GEN > OPREP > IO > DO > SU
• Hyltenstam (1984): investigated resumptive pronouns / data from acquisition of
Swedish as a SL by speakers of Spanish, Finnish, Greek, and Farsi
• A picture identification task: subjects were asked a question, Who is in picture number
5? with the target response being a relative clause, the man who is running…
• Results: conforming to the predictions of the hierarchy - more pronominal reflexes
occurred in positions lower on the hierarchy
Verification
This is the girli that
whenever it rains shei cries

• In more recent years: The range of studies on relative clauses has been limited
and a broader consideration of languages is needed
• Comrie (2003) proposes a different typology for some East Asian languages
• O’Grady, Lee, and Choo (2003) noted a preference for subject over direct
object relative clauses in Korean
• Jeon and Kim (2007): two kinds of Korean relative clauses: head-external and
head-internal relative clauses
• In a study of 40 learners of Korean, they found limited support for predictions
of the Accessibility Hierarchy
• In head-external relative clauses, there was a preference for subject over
direct object relative clauses, but in head-internal relative structures evidence
for that preference did not exist
Counterexamples
(Falsification)

• Ozeki and Shirai (2007): the acquisition of Japanese by Cantonese, English,
and Korean speakers
• Introducing another level of complexity — animacy
• Collecting oral data
• Result: even low-proficiency learners used more direct object and oblique
(e.g., object of preposition) relative clauses than subject relatives
• Contradicting the predictions of the accesibility hierarchy
• Further: A subset of the learners (Chinese and English native speakers)
associated subject relative clauses with animate head nouns and direct
object relative clauses with inanimate head nouns
Counterexamples
(Falsification)

• Ozeki and Shirai (2007): a follow-up study with Cantonese learners of
Japanese
• Using a sentence combining task
• Results: subject and direct object relatives were easier than oblique
relative clauses (as would be predicted)
• BUT
• When learners converted direct object and oblique relative clauses into
subject relative clauses…
• It was nearly always done with animates as heads.
• Conclusion: The selection of relative clause types is sensitive to animacy

• All in all…. / Research on relative clauses suggests…
• The predictions of accessibility hierarchy is generally confirmed
• BUT
• The situation shows greater complexity (e.g., semantics, language specifics)
than thought in the early years of research.
• As Eckman (2007, p. 327) states,
• “If the hierarchy [Noun Phrase Accessibility Hierarchy] is not as strongly
supported when other language types are brought into the data pool, then
we need to make hypotheses about what kinds of principles could be
postulated that would subsume both the SLA data from RC acquisition in
European languages as well as the SLA data from typologically distinct
languages.”

Universal Generalizations and Interlanguage
Grammar
• Learner language: idiosyncratic dialect (Corder, 1971), approximative system
(Nemser, 1971), interlanguage (Selinker, 1972).
• The idea behind this concept: L2 learners construct their own internal
grammar of target language
• Example: L2 relative clause of Hyltenstam (1984)
• Spanish-speaking subjects produced Swedish relative clauses with a pattern
of resumptive pronouns
• Neither NL in this case nor TL allows resumptive pronouns….
• The pattern cannot be accounted for in terms of either NL or TL
• It is necessary to posit a separate principle, a rule of the interlanguage
grammar, to explain the data.

Universals as Constraints on Interlanguage
Grammar
• This finding (Hyltenstam, 1984) supported the assertion that…..
• Although universal generalizations may be necessary to explain L2
utterances, NL/TL differences may not be necessary
• This idea is embodied in the Structural Conformity Hypothesis (SCH),
(Eckman et al. 1989, Eckman, Moravcsik, and Wirth 1991).
• The Structural Conformity Hypothesis (Eckman 1991: 24)
• “The universal generalizations that hold for primary languages hold also
for interlanguages”
• Most of the data reported in testing the Structural Conformity Hypothesis
has been in the area of L2 phonology…
• Though there has been some work in syntax

Grammar
• The Structural Conformity Hypothesis (Eckman, 1991)
• Eckman, Moravsik and Wirth (1989): The L2 syntactic study on the acquisition
of English questions
• Eckman et al. (1989) elicited yes/no questions and wh-questions from ESL
learners of three NL backgrounds: Korean, Japanese, and Turkish
• The relevant universal generalizations came from work by Greenberg (1963)
• a. If a language has inversion of the subject and verb (auxiliary) in yes/no
questions, that language will also have inversion in wh-questions, but not vice
versa.
• b. If a language has inversion in wh-questions, it will have sentence-initial wh-
words and are stated in.

Grammar
• Eckman, Moravsik and Wirth (1989)
• Subjects from Korean, Japanese, and Turkish NL backgrounds
• Reason: DO NOT form questions with inversion
• DO NOT require wh-words to be sentence-initial
• Findings: the generalization in (b) was upheld by all 14 IL grammars, while
(a) was confirmed by 13 subjects and disconfirmed by 1
• (systematically inverted subjects and auxiliaries in yes/no questions, but
inverted these elements in only about half of the wh-questions)
• Does it suggest that the universal is not valid for second language data?
• Invalidation of the claim that language universals is valid for all human
languages, including learner languages?
Typological Universals/Linguistic Typologya. If a language has inversion of the subject and verb (auxiliary) in yes/no questions,
that language will also have inversion in wh-questions, but not vice versa.
b. If a language has inversion in wh-questions, it will have sentence-initial wh-words
and are stated in.

Grammar
• Gass & Selinker (2008: 201)
• An alternative interpretation for the exception
• Circumstances that might reduce the strength of this universal?
• So many factors in SLA: NL, TL, pragmatics, processing limitations,
attitude, motivation, attentiveness
• Predictions cannot be made in an absolute fashion.
• Invalidate claims: When the exceptions seem to outweigh the predictions
of universals
• Second language predictions: tendencies or probabilistic predictions
• For 13, the linguistic universal wins out

Universals as Strategies for Intervention in
Interlanguage Grammar (Eckman, 2012: 485-494)
• Testing The Structural Conformity Hypothesis by using typological
universals as principles for teaching second languages (relative clauses)
• The rationale for intervention strategy
• to take advantage of the implication embodied in the markedness
relationship
• By teaching learner only one or more structures that are in a markedness
relationship…
• The strategy
• to teach a relative clause system containing only the oblique (object of a
preposition) relative clause type

• The aim of using implicational universals as an intervention
strategy….
• to cause learners to generalize their learning from the structure
being taught to structures which are not being taught
• If The Structural Conformity Hypothesis is correct,
• If the learners acquire the structure being taught (in this example,
oblique relative clauses)
• The learners would generalize in the direction from more marked
structures to less marked structures
• Three studies in this area…

• Gass (1982): one control group and one experimental group
• Both were being taught English relative clauses using the same textbook
• After two groups were given the pre-test measures, the control group was
taught three kinds of relative clauses—subject, direct object, and oblique
• The experimental group received instruction on only the oblique-type relative
clause
• Duration: The instruction for each group was carried out over three days
• Results: scores on the pre-test were not statistically significant between the
two groups
• However - The results on post-test: only the experimental group's scores (not
those of the control group) were significantly different from the pre-test

• Eckman et al. (1988): replicated, extended Gass (1982) - one control, three
experimental groups
• Pre-test: combining two sentences into one sentence containing a relative clause
• The subjects were randomly assigned to 4 groups balanced on the basis of the
pre-test and native-language background
• Each experimental group (3) was given a one-hour lesson on relative clause
formation in which only one relative clause type was taught:
• Group 1: instructed on how to form only subject relative clauses
• Group 2: direct-object relative clauses / Group 3: oblique relative clauses
• The control group was given a lesson on something other than relative clauses
• Three days after the instruction, the post-test was administered

• Eckman et al. (1988), Results: students in the control group did not
perform any differently than they did on the pre-test
• The subjects trained on subject relative clause learned only that relative
clause type (did not successfully generalize the instruction to the direct-
object or oblique type of relative clause).
• Those instructed on direct-object relative clause generalized this
instruction to subject relative clauses (but not to the oblique type).
• The students receiving instruction only on the oblique relative clause
generalized to both the subject and direct-object relative clauses.
• Conclusion: The hypothesis that generalization of instruction would
proceed unidirectionally from more marked structures to less marked
structures was supported.

• Doughty (1991): Investigating performance of students trained on English
relative clauses using computer-assisted instruction
• The markedness of relative clause type used for training
• Whether rule-based or meaning-based instruction had an effect on the
learning
• Results: Subjects learned equally well under both types of instruction
• Subjects' generalization of learning went in the direction from the more
marked to the less marked relative clause type (not the reverse).
• 3 studies employing implicational generalizations of (Noun Phrase)
Accessibility Hierarchy as intervention strategy have shown that….
• L2 learners will necessarily generalize from more marked structures to less
marked structures (but not vice versa)

Functional Typology
(Gass & Selinker, 2008: 191-218)
• Considering interlanguages from the perspective of linguistic structures
• Looking at SLA from the perspective of how language functions (how
language is used for communication purposes)
• The major concern: how different forms are used to express different
functions (how form and function relate to one another)
• Considering isolated parts of language (e.g., syntax, morphology),
• Functional approaches: consider meaning as central
• Many aspects of language: pragmatics, semantics, syntax, morphology,
and lexicon
• Multiple levels of language are considered simultaneously
• Tense and aspect

Functional Typology
(Gass & Selinker, 2008: 191-218)
• Tense and Aspect: The Aspect Hypothesis
• A major question asked by researchers studying tense and aspect: How do
learners recognize what morphological markers (e.g., past tense,
progressive) go with what verbs?
• The Aspect Hypothesis: “first and second language learners will initially be
influenced by the inherent semantic aspect of verbs or predicates in the
acquisition of tense and aspect markers associated with or affixed to these
verbs” (Andersen and Shirai, 1994, p. 133).
• A semantic approach
• Focusing on the influence of lexical aspect in the second language
acquisition of tense–aspect morphology

Functional Typology
(Gass & Selinker, 2008: 191-218)
• Andersen (1986, 1991): a study of two
native speakers of English, one child
and one adolescent
• Learning L2 Spanish
• An interesting distinction in their
development of tense–aspect marking
• The past tense (preterit) markers
emerged with punctual and
achievement verbs
• The imperfect markers emerged with
verbs that indicate states
• Examples:
• (7-30) se parti— (punctual)
• it broke
• (7-31) ense–— (achievement)
• s/he taught
• (7-32) ten’a (state)
• s/he had (imperfect form)

Functional Typology
(Gass & Selinker, 2008: 191-218)
• Andersen proposed a sequence of developmental stages
• The development of the past tense seemed to spread from
• achievement verbs accomplishment verbs activities states
• The situation is different for the imperfect: reverse order
• states activities accomplishments achievements
• Andersen argued: when tense–aspect morphology emerged in the
interlanguage of these two subjects, it was constrained by lexical aspect
• A similar phenomenon has been reported in a variety of L2 and classroom
settings (e.g., Bardovi-Harlig, 1992a, 1992b; Bardovi-Harlig and Bergstršm, 1996; Bardovi-Harlig
and Reynolds, 1995; Flashner, 1989; Hasbœn, 1995; Kaplan, 1987; Kumpf, 1984; Robison, 1990,
1995; Rocca, 2002; Shirai, 1995; Shirai and Kurono, 1998; see also reviews by Andersen and
Shirai, 1994, 1996, and Bardovi-Harlig, 1999b, 2000)

Functional Typology
(Gass & Selinker, 2008: 191-218)
• Findings from research in a number of target languages show the
following:
• 1 Past/perfective morphology emerges with punctual verbs and verbs
indicating achievements and accomplishments. The morphology then
gradually extends to verbs expressing activities and states.
• punctual – achievements – accomplishments – activities - states
• 2 Imperfective morphology emerges with activities and states, then
gradually spreads to achievement/ accomplishment and punctual verbs.
• activities / states - achievement / accomplishment - punctual
• 3 Progressive morphology is strongly associated with durative and
dynamic verbs (activities).

Falsifiability
(Gass & Selinker, 2008: 191-218)
• How to deal with linguistic counterexamples? (way)
• The domain of typological universals
• 1. To weaken the strong claims to probabilistic ones or frequency claims:
question formation in the case of the Structural Conformity Hypothesis
• 2. To claim that the interlanguage itself is shown in the variation,
compared to what native speakers do (Selinker, 1966)
• 3. To explain the exceptions, put the blame on NL or TL, or on the
methodology used in data collection
• In the work on relative clauses: not confirm the predictions made by the
Accessibility Hierarchy
• Accounting for the discrepancies in terms of the data-collection measure.

REFERENCES
• Adjemian, C. (1976). On the nature of interlanguage systems. Language Learning, 26, 297–320.
• Dušková,L. (1969). On Sources of Errors in Foreign Language Learning. International Review of Applied Linguistics 8: 11–37.
• Eckman, F., Moravcsik, E., and Wirth, J. (1989). Implicational universals and interrogative structures in the interlanguage of
ESL learners. Language Learning, 39, 173–205.
• Ekman, F.R. (2004). From Phonemic Differences to Constraint Rankings: Research on Second Language Phonology. Studies
in Second Language Acquisition 26: 513–49.
• Eckman, F.R. (2012). Linguistic typology and second language acquisition. In: J.J. Song, ed., The Oxford Handbook of
Linguistic Typology, OUP Oxford, 618-633.
• Gass, S. (1979a). An investigation of syntactic transfer in adult second language acquisition. Unpublished doctoral
dissertation, Indiana University, Bloomington.
• Gass, S. (1979b). Language transfer and universal grammatical relations. Language Learning, 29, 327–344.
• Gass, S., and Selinker, L. (2008). Second Language Acquisition: An Introductory Course. 3rd ed. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
• Gradman, H. (1971). Limitations of Contrastive Analysis Predictions. Working Papers in Linguistics 3: 11–15.
• Greenberg, J. H. (1963). Some universals of grammar with particular reference to the order of meaningful elements. In J.
H. Greenberg (Ed.), Universals of Language (pp. 73–113). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
• Lado, R. (1957). Linguistics Across Cultures. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
• Stockwell, R., and Bowen, J. (1965). The Sounds of English and Spanish. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

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