Adult access to universal grammar in second language acquisition

The Principles and Parameters approach to second language acquisition within the framework of Chomsky's Universal Grammar has provided researchers with the opportunity to test hypotheses concerning parameter resetting and adult access to Universal Grammar. Some have argued that adult learners can reset parameters given exposure to appropriate input (Flynn 1987, White 1989), while others have countered that resetting is not possible because parameters (and Universal Grammar) are not involved in adult acquisition (Clahsen and Muysken 1986). This dissertation builds on persuasive arguments for parameters in first language acquisition, contending that the correlation of superficially unrelated syntactic phenomena based on impoverished input is present in second language acquisition as well. The study provides evidence that setting a specific parameter in the second language, namely the Verb Movement Parameter, also entails the appearance of clusters of related syntactic phenomena despite impoverished input. The parameter is examined in the context of Verb Phrase Deletion and Antecedent Contained Deletion, both of which are disallowed in languages which permit verb raising (Hornstein 1994). Raising is present in Spanish and deletion is disallowed, whereas English does not require raising and allows deletion. Second language learners assessed the grammaticality of sentences relevant to the Verb Movement Parameter in Spanish and English in a written grammaticality judgement task. Results suggest that parametric clustering effects are present in the second language grammar and that subjects are able to make successful judgements regarding properties of deletion which are not taught and are unlikely to be manifested in the input data. This fact strongly suggests that adult access to the principles and parameters of Universal Grammar is indeed possible.