CAS LX 400 Second Language AcquisitionTypological universals(Typological) universalsMarkednessBerlin & Kay 1969: Color termsSlide 6Slide 7Eleven possible basic color termsColor hierarchyColor termsSlide 11Implicational hierarchyL2A?Question formationWh-inversionWh-frontingY/N-inversionWh-inversionEckman, Moravcsik, Wirth (1989)Slide 18Slide 19Eckman, Moravcsik, Wirth (1989) wh-inversion implies wh-fronting? resultsEckman, Moravcsik, Wirth (1989) YN-inversion implies wh-inversion? resultsSlide 22Eckman’s Markedness Differential HypothesisMarkedness Differential HypothesisMDH vs. CAHMDH example: Word-final segmentsEckman (1981)Slide 28MDH and ILSlide 30Generalizing with markedness scalesNifty!Change between pre- & post-test Eckman, Bell, and Nelson (1988)The Noun Phrase Accessibility HierarchySlide 35Slide 36Resumptive pronounsNPAH and resumptive pronounsNPAHNPAH in L2ASlide 41Next weekWeek 7b. Language Universals,part oneCAS LX 400Second Language AcquisitionTypological universals•1960’s and 1970’s saw a lot of activity aimed at identifying language universals, properties of Language.•Class of possible languages is smaller than you might think.•If a language has one property (A), it will necessarily have another (B).–+A+B, –A–B, –A+B but never +A–B.(Typological) universals•All languages have vowels.•If a language has VSO as its basic word order, then it has prepositions (vs. postpositions).VSO?Adposition typeYes (VSO) NoPrepositionsWelsh EnglishPostpositionsNoneJapaneseMarkedness•Having duals implies having plurals•Having plurals says nothing about having duals.•Having duals is marked—infrequent, more complex. Having plurals is (relative to having duals) unmarked.•Generally markedness is in terms of comparable dimensions, but you could also say that being VSO is marked relative to having prepositions.Berlin & Kay 1969: Color terms•(On the boundaries of psychophysics, linguistics, anthropology, and with issues about its interpretation, but still…)•Basic color terms across languages.•It turns out that languages differ in how many color terms count as basic. (blueish, salmon-colored, crimson, blond, … are not basic).Berlin & Kay 1969: Color terms•The segmentation of experience by speech symbols is essentially arbitrary. The different sets of words for color in various languages are perhaps the best ready evidence for such essential arbitrariness. For example, in a high percentage of African languages, there are only three “color words,” corresponding to our white, black, red, which nevertheless divide up the entire spectrum. In the Tarahumara language of Mexico, there are five basic color words, and here “blue” and “green” are subsumed under a single term.–Eugene Nida (1959)Berlin & Kay 1969: Color terms•Arabic (Lebanon)•Bulgarian (Bulgaria)•Catalan (Spain)•Cantonese (China)•Mandarin (China)•English (US)•Hebrew (Israel)•Hungarian (Hungary)•Ibibo (Nigeria)•Indonesian (Indonesia)•Japanese (Japan)•Korean (Korea)•Pomo (California)•Spanish (Mexico)•Swahili (East Africa)•Tagalog (Philippines)•Thai (Thailand)•Tzeltal (Southern Mexico)•Urdu (India)•Vietnamese (Vietnam)Eleven possible basic color terms•White, black, red, green, yellow, blue, brown, purple, pink, orange, gray.•All languages contain term for white and black.•Has 3 terms, contains a term for red.•Has 4 terms, contains green or yellow.•Has 5 terms, contains both green and yellow.•Has 6 terms, contains blue.•Has 7 terms, contains brown.•Has 8 or more terms, chosen from {purple, pink, orange, gray}Color hierarchy•White, black•Red•Green, yellow•Blue•Brown•Purple, pink, orange, gray•Even assuming these 11 basic color terms, there should be 2048 possible sets—but only 22 (1%) are attested.Color terms•BW Jalé (New Guinea) ‘brilliant’ vs. ‘dull’•BWR Tiv (Nigeria), Australian aboriginals inSeven Rivers District, Queensland.•BWRG Ibibo (Nigeria), Hanunóo (Philippines)•BWRY Ibo (Nigeria), Fitzroy River people (Queensland)•BWRYG Tzeltal (Mexico), Daza (eastern Nigeria)•BWRYGU Plains Tamil (South India), Nupe (Nigeria), Mandarin?•BWRYGUO Nez Perce (Washington), Malayalam (southern India)Color terms•Interesting questions abound, including why this order, why these eleven—and there are potential reasons for it that can be drawn from the perception of color spaces which we will not attempt here.•The point is: This is a fact about Language: If you have a basic color term for blue, you also have basic color terms for black, white, red, green, and yellow.Implicational hierarchy•This is a ranking of markedness or an implicational hierarchy.•Having blue is more marked than having (any or all of) yellow, green, red, white, and black.•Having green is more marked than having red…•Like a set of implicational universals…–Blue implies yellow Brown implies blue–Blue implies green Pink implies brown–Yellow or green imply red Orange implies brown–Red implies black Gray implies brown–Red implies white Purple implies brownL2A?•Our overarching theme:How much is L2/IL like a L1?•Do IL/L2 languages obey the language universals that hold of native languages?•This question is slightly less theory-laden than the questions we were asking about principles and parameters, although it’s similar…•To my knowledge nobody has studied L2 acquisitions of color terms…Question formation•Declarative: John will buy coffee.•Wh-inversion: What will John buy?•Wh-fronting: What will John buy?•Yes/No-inversion: Will John buy coffee?•Greenberg (1963):–Wh-inversion implies Wh-fronting.–Yes/No-inversion implies Wh-inversion.Wh-inversionWh-fronting•English, German: Both.–What will John buy?•Japanese Korean: neither.–John will buy what?•Finnish: Wh-fronting only.–What John will buy?•Unattested: Wh-inversion only.–*Will John buy what?Y/N-inversionWh-inversion•English: Both–Will John buy coffee? What will John buy?•Japanese: Neither–John will buy coffee? John will buy what?•Lithuanian: Wh-inversion only.–John will buy coffee? What will John buy?•Unattested: Y/N-inversion only.–Will John buy coffee? What John will buy?Eckman, Moravcsik, Wirth (1989)•L1: Korean (4), Japanese (6), Turkish (4)•L2: English•Note L1s chosen because they are neither/neither type languages, to avoid questions of transfer.•Subjects tried to determine