Abstract
Several papers within this volume have raised the question of whether the adult second language learner has access to the principles and parameters of universal grammar (UG). Flynn, Mazurkewich, and White all suggest that the principles involved in first language acquisition are indeed at work in second language learning. Clahsen, on the other hand, argues that adults learners resort to other learning strategies in an effort to systematize the data of the second language. In this paper I suggest that a very different type of evidence may be brought to bear on this issue. The claim is that agrammatic speech of a Broca’s aphasic who has learned a second language as an adult may help tease apart the relevant issues. The paper is intended not so much as an answer to the question of the rule of UG in second language acquisition as much as a justification for a possible line of inquiry.
Many thanks to colleagues for helpful discussions: David Caplan, Suzanne Flynn, Yosef Grodzinsky, Janet Nicol, Michael Paradis, and Lydia White.
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Travis, L. (1988). Linguistic Theory, Neurolinguistics and Second Language Acquisition. In: Flynn, S., O’Neil, W. (eds) Linguistic Theory in Second Language Acquisition. Studies in Theoretical Psycholinguistics, vol 8. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-2733-9_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-2733-9_6
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