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CATEGORIES:Cambridge Linguistics Forum
SUMMARY:Complexity as L2-difficulty: Implications for synt
 actic change - George Walkden\, University of Manc
 hester
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20131121T160000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20131121T173000
UID:TALK48233AThttp://talks.cam.ac.uk
URL:http://talks.cam.ac.uk/talk/index/48233
DESCRIPTION:Trudgill (2011) has suggested that different types
  of language contact situation lead to differentia
 l simplification and complexification: for instanc
 e\, long-term co-territorial contact is predicted 
 to lead to additive complexification\, whereas sho
 rt-term contact involving extensive adult L2 use i
 s predicted to lead to simplification.\n\nIn this 
 talk I explore the implications of Trudgill's soci
 olinguistic insight for syntactic change. Followin
 g Trudgill\, I take complexity to be L2-difficulty
 \, i.e. the difficulty that a particular linguisti
 c feature poses to an adult learner. I assume a sp
 ecific definition of syntactic L2-difficulty taken
  from the generative literature on second language
  acquisition: the Interpretability Hypothesis\, wh
 ich states that syntactic features that are not se
 mantically interpretable are particularly difficul
 t for adults to acquire.\n\nThe approach then pred
 icts that\, in sociohistorical situations in which
  adult L2 learners are particularly dominant\, uni
 nterpretable features will typically be lost. I wi
 ll offer three case studies in support of this pre
 diction: the loss of bipartite negation\, the loss
  of consistent null-subject status\, and the loss 
 of case. Data will be drawn from the history of Lo
 w German\, (post)colonial varieties of Spanish and
  Portuguese\, and more.
LOCATION:Lecture Block\, Room 1\, Sidgwick Site
CONTACT:Madeleine Forbes
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