Robert,
I have no argument against the notion that native speakers acquire/learn morpho-syntactic structures in their native language (such as "knowledge about phrasal verbs that ALL native-speakers of English have") that non-native speakers need to be taught explicitly. How does this happen? I assume that none of us, can provide evidence for the way this happens. Is it a learned behavior through CDs? Is it due to the the UG brain wiring?
In his book, An Introduction to Language and Linguistics,Ralph Fasold mentions four theories of "language acquisition" (I would add to them the "cognitive" theory):
1. Behaviorism
2. Nativism
3. Connectionism
4. Social interactionism
Which of them is "correct"? Which of them explains in full the process of "native language acquisition"? One of them? Some of them? All of them combined? I don't know. Do you?
Let me tell you a story, and ask you a few questions:
When my daughter was born(and a little later my son) in Romania, I could read English well and I had an intermediate-to-advanced knowledge of the English language grammar, but I could speak only a few words in English. I started to teach the mother and the children English in the best way I knew, learning along with them. First we learned words, then we formed two word sentences, and then we expanded those sentences until we reached the discourse level. The children had little exposure to the Romanian language because we spoke as much English as we could with them at home.We also read to them, and let them listen to music,language tapes, and radio in English.
Five years later we were all rather fluent in English, but the children had a more expanded English lexicon, and a much better command of the English language than the parents. I watched the children develop their English morpho-syntactic systems, and I was often amazed that they were using language and expressing themselves in ways in which I had not taught them, and which I did not know. We had never had contact with native speakers of English, and I and my wife were the only ones who "taught" them English.
Two years later we came to the United States. They had attended only a quarter of public school in Romania, and their Romanian was not good, but when they were tested at a public school in Queens my daughter was placed in the second grade (she was seven), and my son in the first grade (he was six). They needed no ENL and got none. They fit into their classes as if they had grown in Queens (except for a little vocabulary adjustment because the English we had learned in Romania had been British English). All through their public school and college education in New York their English seemed to be at least as good if not better than most of their classmates. They both scored high on their New York State Regency language tests.
My daughter is now 33 and my son 32. They appear to speak with no foreign accent, they use "native" ("native-like"?)English morpho-syntactic structures, and their lexicons and command of the English language seems to be better than the ones of many "native" Englsh speakers around them. My daugher speeks basic Romanian. My son speaks survival Romanian. Both speak Romanian with an English accent.
Questions:
1. Which is the L1 of my children, Romanian or English?
2. Which is the L2 of my children, English or Romanian?
3. How did they learn English morpho-syntactic structures that seem to be unique to the native speakers while we were in Romania,isolated from native speakers of English?
4. If the parameters of their UG's were switched from Romanian to English, when did this happen and under what kind of language stimulus?
5. How did they achieve such an advanced level in the English language, considering that during their "critical period" of language acquisition they seemed to suffer from a "poverty of stimulus" in the (L1?/L2?) language they were acquiring/learning?
Eduard
----- Original Message -----
From: "Robert Yates" <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Sunday, September 4, 2011 10:02:08 AM
Subject: Re: The Domain of Grammar
Here is another example of confusing knowledge of what is possible in the language and how that knowledge is used.
>>> Eduard Hanganu <[log in to unmask]> 09/04/11 7:50 AM >>>
You still have not provided any evidence that "native speakers" are "experts" in their own language. ALL native speakers of any language have trouble expressing themselves. No native speakers are "masters" of their dialects or languages and can express themselves without flaw.
. . .
No one claims that speakers of a language don't make mistakes. However, there are all kinds of examples about knowledge of our primary language that people are never taught. Let me give an example.
In English there are phrasal verbs like turn off, pick up, put out.
1) She turned off the lights.
2) She picked up the dog.
3) She put out the dog.
Now, the particle can "move" after the object.
4) She turned the lights off.
5) She picked the dog up.
6) She put the dog out.
This is not an optional rule if the object is a pronoun; the movement is obligatory.
8a) She turned them off.
b) She turned off them.
9a) She picked it up.
b) *She picked up it.
10a) She put it out.
b) *She put out it.
Eduard, as you know, this rule is taught to non-native speakers of English. It is not a rule that is in any book to teach grammar in English.
How do you explain this knowledge about phrasal verbs that ALL native-speakers of English have?
Bob Yates, University of Central Missouri
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