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Mónica Cabrera and María Luisa Zubizarreta
13-26 (complete pdf)
This study provides evidence in favor of the view that overgeneralization of causatives by L1 Spanish/L2 English and L1 English/L2 Spanish learners is driven by selective transfer at different levels of proficiency. The authors propose that not all aspects of the grammar are transferred at once; properties of the causative construction are transferred first, and verb-specific properties are transferred later. Pre-advanced learners overgeneralize L1 properties of the causative construction: they prefer verbs of change of state/location in lexical causatives. Advanced learners put to use L1 properties of specific verb classes: they restrict the overgeneralization of causatives to verb classes that are allowed in lexical causatives in their L1. This analysis provides a unified account of the overgeneralization of causatives. The authors discuss issues related to the L2 initial state and recoverability from overgeneralization and undergeneralization.
Published in:
Proceedings of the 7th Generative Approaches to Second Language Acquisition Conference (GASLA 2004)
edited by Laurent Dekydtspotter, Rex A. Sprouse, and Audrey Liljestrand
Table of contents
ISBN 978-1-57473-406-5 library binding
v + 291 pages
publication date: 2005
published by Cascadilla Proceedings Project, Somerville, MA, USA