The Acquisition of the German Case System by Foreign Language Learners

Editorial page

Title page

LCC data

Table of contents

Acknowledgements

Introduction

1.1 The thematic focus

1.2 The explanatory framework

1.3 A sequence for case

1.4 Outline

The developmental problem in second language acquisition

2.1 Introduction: A burgeoning research field

2.2 Theoretical tenets of Processability Theory

2.2.1 The underlying logic

2.2.2 Language generation

2.2.3 Linguistic knowledge

2.3 Explaining developmental schedules

2.3.1 Feature unification

2.3.2 Linking arguments and constituents to functions

2.4 Application to German as a Second Language (GSL)

2.5 Conclusion

The acquisition of the German case system

3.1 Introduction

3.2 L1-acquisition

3.2.1 The early studies

3.2.1.1 Observations on developmental sequences

3.2.1.2 Explaining the L1 developmental sequences

3.2.2 Generative studies

3.2.2.1 Theoretical background

3.2.2.2 The onset of case development

3.2.2.3 The acquisition of the dative case: structural or lexical?

3.2.2.4 Conclusion

3.2.3 Functionalist approaches

3.2.4 Summary

3.3 Second language acquisition

3.4 Foreign language acquisition

3.4.1 An unexplored field

3.4.2 Contrastive/Error analysis

3.4.3 Developmental analysis

3.5 Conclusion

Feature unification and linking in case marking

4.1 Introduction

4.2 LFG and case

4.3 Representation within PT

4.3.1 Direct case mappings

4.3.2 C-to-f mapping

4.3.3 A-to-f mapping

4.4 Re-interpretation of prior research

4.4.1 Case oppositions

4.4.2 Case use with verb arguments vs. prepositional objects

4.4.3 The role of personal pronouns

4.5 Developmental hypotheses

4.6 Conclusion

Methodology

5.1 Introduction

5.2 Corpus

5.2.1 Participants

5.2.2 Data elicitation

5.2.3 Transcription and coding

5.2.4 Data set

5.3 Data analysis

5.3.1 Form-function relationships

5.3.2 Emergence criterion

Results and discussion

6.1 Introduction

6.2 Verb arguments

6.2.1 Marking SUBJ and OBJ in canonical word order

6.2.1.1 Canonical syntactic structures

6.2.1.2 ‘Case’ markers in preverbal subjects

6.2.1.3 ‘Case’ markers in postverbal objects

6.2.1.4 Developments in the intra-stage

6.2.1.5 Conclusion

6.2.2 XP-adjunction

6.2.3 Marking SUBJ and OBJ in non-canonical word order

6.2.3.1 XP VS(O)

6.2.3.2 OVS

6.2.3.3 Elliptic constructions

6.2.3.4 Passives

6.2.3.5 Conclusion

6.2.4 Implicational scaling of morpho-syntactic development

6.2.5 Ditransitive constructions

6.2.5.1 Options to express the indirect object (OBLθ)

6.2.5.2 The indirect object as a prepositional phrase

6.2.5.3 Position marking of the IO DO sequence?

6.2.5.4 Functional case assignment of the indirect object

6.2.5.5 From unmarked mapping to functional case assignment

6.2.6 COMP

6.2.7 Conclusion: From marking the position to marking the function

6.3 Prepositional phrases

6.3.1 Introduction

6.3.2 Case development with regard to one-way prepositions

6.3.3 Interface between lexical and positional/functional marking

6.3.4 Case development with regard to two-way prepositions

6.3.5 Interface between functional and conceptual marking

6.3.6 Conclusion: Prepositional phrases

6.4 Conclusion

General conclusion

7.1 The explanatory framework

7.2 The developmental sequence of case

7.2.1 … on verb arguments

7.2.2 … in prepositional phrases

7.3 Present (and future) contributions to the field

References

Appendix

Index