Comparative Perspectives on Language Acquisition

Marzena Watorek is Professor in Linguistics at the University Paris 8. Her research interests include first and second language acquisition, particularly discourse production, initial processing of the input by adult learners, and the interface between language acquisition and teaching.Sandra Benazzo is Associate Professor in Linguistics and French as a Second Language at the University Lille 3. Her research mainly concerns L2 acquisition in the domain of temporality, information structure, discourse organization and the comparison with L1 acquisition.Maya Hickmann is Research Director in the Laboratoire Structures Formelles du Langage (CNRS and Université Paris 8). Her research mainly focuses on the role of structural vs. functional and universal vs. language-specific determinants in first and second language acquisition.

This well-edited collection of papers responds to the theoretical issues that concerned Clive Perdue throughout his productive career. The 29 chapters examine similarities and differences between monolinguals, childhood bilinguals, and adult and child learners of a second language. We see how learner productions are influenced by perceptual abilities, L1 transfer, and explicit learning as they operate across the lifespan, rather than some uniform expiration of a critical period.

• Introduction-Marzena Watorek, Sandra Benazzo & Maya Hickmann: New Comparative Perspectives in the Study of Language Acquisition – Clive Perdue’s LegacyPart I. Second Language Acquisition: From Initial to Final Stages1. Wolfgang Klein: From the Learner’s Point of View2. Rebekah Rast: L2 Input and the L2 Initial State: The Writings of Clive Perdue3. Angelika Becker: Finiteness and the Acquisition of Negation4. Sara Schimke, Joshe Verhagen & Giusy Turco: The Different Role of Additive and Negative Particles in the Development of Finiteness in Early Adult L2 German and L2 Dutch5. Giuliano Bernini: Lexical Categories in the Target Language and the Lexical Categorisation of Learners: The Word Class of Adverbs6. Jili Sun: Is it Necessary for Chinese Learners to Mark Time? Reflexions about the Use of Temporal Adverbs with Respect to Verbal Morphology Relations7. Pascale Trévisiol: The Development of Reference to Time and Space in L3 French: Evidence from Narratives8. Alexandra Vraciu: Accounting for Verbal Morphology in Advanced Varieties of English L2: Aspect or Discourse?9. Inge Bartning: High-level Proficiency in Second Language Use: The Case of French10. David Singleton: Ultimate Attainment and the CPH: Some Thorny Issues11. Sandra Benazzo: Learner Varieties and Creating Language Anew: How Acquisitional Studies can Contribute to Language Evolution Research12. Ivani Fusellier: Multiple Perspectives on the Emergence and Development of Human Language: B. Comrie, C. Perdue and D. SlobinPart II. L1 and L2 Acquisition: Learner Type Perspective13. Dan Slobin: Child Language Study and Adult Language Acquisition: Twenty Years Later14. Natasha Müller & Nadine Eichler: Mixing of Functional Categories in Bilingual Children and in Second Language Learners.15. Suzanne Schlyter & Anita Thomas: L1 or L2 Acquisition? Finiteness in Child Second Language Learners (chL2), Compared to Adult L2 Learners (adL2) and Young Bilingual Children (2L1)16. Rosmary Tracy & Vytautas Lemke: Young L2 and L1 Learners: More Alike than Different17. Christine Dimroth & Stefanie Haberzettl: The Older the Better, or More is More: Language Acquisition in Childhood18. Sandra Benazzo, Clive Perdue, Marzena Watorek: Additive Scope Particles and Anaphoric Linkage in Narrative and Descriptive Texts: A Developmental Study in French L1 & L219. Patrizia Giuliano: Discourse Cohesion in Narrative Texts: The Role of Additive Particles in Italian L1 and L220. Henrëtte Hendriks & Marzena Watorek: The Role of Conceptual Development in the Acquisition of the Spatial Domain by L1 and L2 Learners of French, English and Polish21. Ewa Lenart: The Grammaticalisation of Nominals in French L1 and L2: A Comparative Study of Child and Adult AcquisitionPart III. Typological Variation and Language Acquisition22. Anna Giacalone-Ramat: Typology Meets Second Language Acquisition23. Rainer Dietrich, Chung Shan Kao & Werner Sommer: Linguistic Relativity…Another Turn to the Screw24. Annie-Claude Demagny: Path in L2 Acquisition: The Expression of Temporality in Spatially Oriented Narratives25. Carmen Muñoz: A Cross-linguistic Study of Narratives with Special Attention to the Progressive: A Contrast between English, Spanish and Catalan26. Tatiana Aleksandrova: Reference to Entities in Fictional Narratives of Russian/French Quasi-Bilinguals27. Cecilia Andorno: The Cohesive Function of Word Order in L1 and L2 Italian: How V-S Structures Mark Local and Global Coherence in the Discourse of Native Speakers and of Learners28. Christiane Von Stutterheim, Ute Halm & Mary Carroll: Macrostructural Principles and the Development of Narrative Competence in L1 German: The Role of Grammar in 8-14 Year Olds29. Michèle Kail: On-line Sentence Processing in Children and Adults: General and Specific Constraints: A Crosslinguistic Study in Four Languages Closure-Sir John Lyons: A Personal Tribute