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Selected Proceedings of the 9th Hispanic Linguistics Symposium edited by Nuria Sagarra and Almeida Jacqueline Toribio ISBN 1-57473-413-X library binding vi + 341 pages publication date: 2006 published by Cascadilla Proceedings Project, Somerville, MA, USA Table of contents Abstract Silvana Pacheco and Suzanne Flynn Syntax-Pragmatics Interface: Brazilian-Portuguese L2 Acquisition of English 229-240 (complete pdf) This paper presents preliminary results from an ongoing study that focuses on the L2 acquisition of overt and null subjects and objects in English by adult speakers of Brazilian Portuguese. Evidence suggest that learners develop their L2 grammars independently of their L1 grammars. Nevertheless, in this process a pragmatic strategy allowed in learners' L1 can lead them to accept L2 ungrammatical sentences. The results thus far indicate that certain errors in a learner's grammar may be more accurately explained in terms of a lack of knowledge about the syntax-pragmatic interface rather than as syntactic deficits per se. These preliminary results provide important new evidence concerning the primacy of syntax over pragmatics in L2 development. |