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The goal of this note is to offer a critical review of the contrastive analysis hypothesis within the field of second language acquisition. The notions of interlanguage, universal grammar and mental grammar are discussed. Transfer is redefined as the output of underlying rules in the grammar of a second language. Through Jackendoff’s notion of a mental grammar we reconcile the contribution of structural and generative grammar to the understanding of the phenomenon of transfer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we deal with two mentalist approaches to the study of language: the generative and the cognitive approaches. First, we put forward the assumptions of generative linguistics, which is focused on the formal study of computational properties of language; and, second, we compare them with those of the alternative program of cognitive linguistics, according to which language is not to be analyzed as a specific computational property of the human mind but rather as a capacity based on general cognition principles. After having presented the different theoretical foundations of both approaches, some meeting points between them are offered. The present work concludes with an appeal to the need to establish some bridges between different approaches that allow them to face the challenges currently posed by different advances in language sciences and cognitive science in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Faculty of Language: the 'Assembly-Only Hypothesis' and Domain Specificity". The faculty of language was always considered as the paradigm of a cognitive capacity that illustrates the property of domain specificity. In the minimalist-biolinguistic approach, this property seems to blur. However, the reason usually cited (for example, universal grammar is now "less rich"), does not seem adequate from the point of view of the conceptual coherence of the notion of domain specificity. In this paper I will distinguish between a sense of specificity of domain that is interesting or useful for cognitive research and another vacuous one. I will show that if the analysis of the notion of domain specificity is conceptually coherent and the available empirical evidence is accepted, then these constitute the reasons why domain specificity cannot be attributed to the faculty of language under the assembly-only hypothesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Copyright of Lenguaje is the property of Universidad del Valle and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Common errors are examined in the use of the Spanish pronoun se with unaccusative predicates in the written production of English speaking advanced adult students of Spanish as a foreign language in an institutional setting. These errors have in common not to respond to L1 (native language) surface transfer, in the sense of not corresponding to a mere L2 (non-native language) relexification of L1 surface syntax. They rather involve a process of construction of the L2 grammar which results in structures different from both the L1 and the L2. It is suggested and argued that they originate in the interaction of Universal Grammar principles and both L1 and L2 influence in a restructuring process of the L1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we analyse the incidence of English as an L2 in the acquisition of Italian as an L3. To this effect we have chosen a linguistic element that presents an interesting challenge in the research of language acquisition: the subject. Taking into account Luigi Rizzi's hypothesis that parameters are binary in general (A parametric approach to comparative syntax: properties of the pronominal system (1997)), we consider that languages are divided into pro-drop and non pro-drop. We have compared the production of subjects in students whose native language (Spanish) is pro-drop, their second language (English) is non pro-drop and are at present learning Italian (pro-drop) as their L3. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]