Prosodic structure and the representation of L2 functional morphology: A nativist approach

In this paper, we argue against the emergentist position that functional morphology can be acquired by induction from properties of the target-language surface phonetic string. Two experiments are presented, which examine oral production data from Mandarin speakers at intermediate levels of proficiency in English. The first experiment is on the acquisition of English past tense morphology, the second on the acquisition of English articles. In both cases, learners are quite successful at supplying the appropriate morphology. A detailed examination of the phonetics of learners’ outputs shows that many of their productions cannot be derived from the surface strings available in the ambient input. In particular, the L2 learners produce tense and articles in ways which are not found in either the L1 or the L2, namely, with fortis release on tense inflection and stress on articles. We maintain that options made available by Universal Grammar, together with transfer of prosodic representations from the L1, best account for such behaviour.