Gabrielle Klassen, John W. Schwieter

Show more
Department of Spanish and Portuguese, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada.
Department of Languages and Literatures, Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Canada.
Show less

Abstract: The functional category of determiners has undergone a number of representational changes in the last half century. Beginning with Abney in 1987 and as early as work by Brame (1981, 1982) and Postal (1966), linguists began to adapt the notion that determiners were a type of functional category with phrasal structure, and not specifiers of noun phrases. The flexibility allotted to this category to hold a significant role in syntactic structure has led to theories of feature and feature strength and the development of these features in first and second language acquisition. This paper seeks to review the current theories of syntactic structure of determiner phrases in English and universally. In particular, it examines one area of controversy regarding this category, namely nominal gender agreement, and how this affects applied areas of linguistics. Recent studies seem to favor specific transfer theories, however the default hypothesis that arises leaves much to be considered. From the discussion, we argue that gender feature agreement in L1 and L2 acquisition is distinct and merits further investigation, perhaps benefiting from the recent developments in the area of psycholinguistics.

Keywords: Morphosyntax; Determiner Phrases; Transfer Theories; Gender Agreement

Cite this paper: Klassen, G. & Schwieter, J. (2013). The Morphosyntactic Interface of Determiner Phrases. Open Journal of Modern Linguistics, 3, 360-366. doi: 10.4236/ojml.2013.34047.

References

[1]   Abney, S. (1987). The English noun phrase in its sentential aspect. Ph.D. Dissertation, Cambridge, MA: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

[2]   Aguirre, C. (1995). The acquisition of functional categories in Spanish. Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation, Madrid: Universidad Autónoma de Madrid.

[3]   Brame, M. (1981). The general theory of binding and fusion. Linguistic Analysis, 7, 277-325.

[4]   Brame, M. (1982). The head selector theory of lexical specifications and the non-existence of coarse categories. Linguistic Analysis, 10, 321-325.

[5]   Bruhn de Garavito, J., & White, L. (2002). L2 acquisition of Spanish DPs: The status of grammatical features. In A. T. Pérez-Leroux, & J. M. Liceras (Eds.), The acquisition of Spanish morphosyntax: The L1/L2 connection (pp. 151-176). Dordrecht: Kluwer.

[6]   Bull, W. (1965). Spanish for teachers: Applied linguistics. New York: The Ronald Press Co.

[7]   Carlier, A., & Goyens, M. (1988). From Old French to New French: Regression of zero degree determination and restructuring system. Cahiers de L’Institut Linguistique de Louvain, 24, 77-112.
http://dx.doi.org/10.2143/CILL.24.3.2002591

[8]   Carnie, A. (2002). Syntax: A generative introduction. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers.

[9]   Chomsky, N. (1965). Aspects of the theory of syntax. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

[10]   Chomsky, N. (1995). The minimalist program. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

[11]   Chomsky, N. (1998). Minimalist inquiries. MIT Occasional Papers in Linguistics, Cambridge, MA: Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

[12]   Clark, E. V. (2003). First language acquisition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

[13]   Cowper, E., & Currie Hall, D. (2009). Argumenthood, pronouns, and nominal feature geometry. In J. Ghomeshi, I. Paul, & M. Wiltschko (Eds), Determiners: Universals and variations (pp. 97-122). Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company.

[14]   Epstein, S., Flynn, S., & Martohardjono, G. (1996). Second language acquisition: Theoretical and experimental issues in contemporary research. Brain and Behavioral Sciences, 19, 677-758.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X00043521

[15]   Franceschina, F. (2005). Fossilized second language grammars: The acquisition of grammatical gender. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company.

[16]   Gillon, C. (2009). The semantic core of determiners: Evidence from Skwxwu7mesh. In J. Ghomeshi, I. Paul, & M. Wiltschko (Eds.), Determiners: Universals and variations (pp. 177-214). Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company.

[17]   Ghomeshi, J., & Massam, D. (2009). The proper D connection. In J. Ghomeshi, I. Paul, & M. Wiltschko (Eds.), Determiners: Universals and variations (pp. 67-98). Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company.

[18]   Green, D. (1986). Control, activation, and resource: A framework and a model for the control of speech in bilinguals. Brain and Language, 27, 210-223. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0093-934X(86)90016-7

[19]   Green, D. (1998). Mental control of the bilingual lexico-semantic system. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 1, 67-81.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S1366728998000133

[20]   Halle, M., & Marantz, A. (1993). Distributed Morphology and the Pieces of Inflection. In: K. Hale, & S. Jay Keyser, (Eds.), The view from building 20 (pp. 111-176). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

[21]   Hoeg Müller, H., & Klinge, A. (2008). Introduction. In: H. Hoeg Müller, & A. Klinge (Eds), Essays on nominal determination (pp. 163-188). Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company.

[22]   Korzen, I. (2008). Determination in endocentric and exocentric languages. In H. Hoeg Müller, & A. Klinge (Eds.), Essays on nominal determination (pp. 79-100). Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company.

[23]   Lightbown, P. (1983). Exploring relationships between developmental and instructional sequences in L2 acquisition. In: H. Seliger, & M. Long (Eds.), Classroom-oriented research in second language acquisition (pp. 217-243). Rowley, MA: Newbury House.

[24]   Liceras, J., Diaz, L., & Monegon, C. (2000). N-drop and determiners in native and non-native Spanish: More on the role of morphology in the acquisition of syntactic knowledge. In R. P. Leow, & C. Sanz (Eds.), Current research on the acquisition of Spanish (pp. 67-96). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.

[25]   Longobardi, G. (1994). Reference and proper names: A theory of N movement in syntax and logical form. Linguistic Theory, 25, 609665.

[26]   Longobardi, G. (2008). Reference to the individuals, person and the variety of mapping parameters. In: H. Hoeg Müller, & A. Klinge (Eds.), Essays on nominal determination (pp. 189-212). Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company.

[27]   López Ornat, S. (1994). The acquisition of the Spanish language. Madrid: Siglo XXI.

[28]   Mathieu, E. (2009). From local blocking to cyclic agree. In: J. Ghomeshi, I. Paul, & M. Wiltschko (Eds.), Determiners: Universals and variations (pp. 123-158). Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company.

[29]   Montrul, S., Foote R., & Perpinán, S. (2008). Gender agreement in adult second language learners and Spanish heritage speakers: The effects of age and context of acquisition. Language Learning, 58, 503-553. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9922.2008.00449.x

[30]   Postal, P. M. (1966). A note on “understood intransitively”. International Journal of American Linguistics, 32, 90-93.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/464886

[31]   Prévost, P., & White, L. (2000). Missing surface inflection or impairment in second language acquisition? Evidence from tense and agreement. Second Language Research, 16, 110-133.

[32]   Skinner, B. F. (1957). Verbal behavior. New York: Appleton-CenturyCrofts.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/11256-000

[33]   Schwartz, B., & Sprouse, R. (1996). L2 cognitive states and the full transfer/full access hypothesis. Second Language Research, 12, 4072. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/026765839601200103

[34]   Schwieter, J. W., & Sunderman, G. (2008). Language switching in bilingual speech production: In search of the language-specific selection mechanism. The Mental Lexicon, 3, 214-238.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/ml.3.2.06sch

[35]   Schwieter, J. W., & Sunderman, G. (2009). Concept selection and developmental effects in bilingual speech production. Language Learning, 59, 897-927.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9922.2009.00529.x

[36]   White, L. (1985). The “pro-drop” parameter in adult second language learning. Language Learning, 35, 47-62.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-1770.1985.tb01014.x

[37]   White, L., Valenzuela, E., Kozlowska-Macgregor, M., & Leung, Y. (2004). Gender and number agreement in nonnative Spanish. Applied Psycholinguistics, 25, 105-133.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0142716404001067

[38]   Wiltschko, M. (2009). What’s in a determiner and how did it get there? In J. Ghomeshi, I. Paul, & M. Wiltschko (Eds.), Determiners: Universals and variations (pp. 25-66). Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company.

[39]   Zamparelli, R. (2008). Bare predicate nominals in romance languages. In: H. Hoeg Müller, & A. Klinge (Eds.), Essays on nominal determination (pp. 101-130). Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company.