The acquisition of the German case system by foreign language learners / Kristof Baten, Ghent University.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Print version record.

This is the first book on the acquisition of the German case system by foreign language learners. It explores how learners in their interlanguage progress from the total absence to the presence of a case system. This development is characterized by an evolvement from marking the argument's position to marking the argument's actual function. Theoretically couched within Processability Theory, the book deals with the feature unification and the mapping processes involved in case marking, and critically examines previous findings on German case acquisition. Empirically, the book consists of longi.

The Acquisition of the German Case System by Foreign Language Learners; Editorial page; Title page; LCC data; Table of contents; Acknowledgements; Introduction; 1.1 The thematic focus; 1.2 The explanatory framework; 1.3 A sequence for case; 1.4 Outline; The developmental problem in second language acquisition; 2.1 Introduction: A burgeoning research field; 2.2 Theoretical tenets of Processability Theory; 2.2.1 The underlying logic; 2.2.2 Language generation; 2.2.3 Linguistic knowledge; 2.3 Explaining developmental schedules; 2.3.1 Feature unification.

2.3.2 Linking arguments and constituents to functions2.4 Application to German as a Second Language (GSL); 2.5 Conclusion; The acquisition of the German case system; 3.1 Introduction; 3.2 L1-acquisition; 3.2.1 The early studies; 3.2.1.1 Observations on developmental sequences; 3.2.1.2 Explaining the L1 developmental sequences; 3.2.2 Generative studies; 3.2.2.1 Theoretical background; 3.2.2.2 The onset of case development; 3.2.2.3 The acquisition of the dative case: structural or lexical?; 3.2.2.4 Conclusion; 3.2.3 Functionalist approaches; 3.2.4 Summary; 3.3 Second language acquisition.

3.4 Foreign language acquisition3.4.1 An unexplored field; 3.4.2 Contrastive/Error analysis; 3.4.3 Developmental analysis; 3.5 Conclusion; Feature unification and linking in case marking; 4.1 Introduction; 4.2 LFG and case; 4.3 Representation within PT; 4.3.1 Direct case mappings; 4.3.2 C-to-f mapping; 4.3.3 A-to-f mapping; 4.4 Re-interpretation of prior research; 4.4.1 Case oppositions; 4.4.2 Case use with verb arguments vs. prepositional objects; 4.4.3 The role of personal pronouns; 4.5 Developmental hypotheses; 4.6 Conclusion; Methodology; 5.1 Introduction; 5.2 Corpus; 5.2.1 Participants.

5.2.2 Data elicitation5.2.3 Transcription and coding; 5.2.4 Data set; 5.3 Data analysis; 5.3.1 Form-function relationships; 5.3.2 Emergence criterion; Results and discussion; 6.1 Introduction; 6.2 Verb arguments; 6.2.1 Marking SUBJ and OBJ in canonical word order; 6.2.1.1 Canonical syntactic structures; 6.2.1.2 'Case' markers in preverbal subjects; 6.2.1.3 'Case' markers in postverbal objects; 6.2.1.4 Developments in the intra-stage; 6.2.1.5 Conclusion; 6.2.2 XP-adjunction; 6.2.3 Marking SUBJ and OBJ in non-canonical word order; 6.2.3.1 XP VS(O); 6.2.3.2 OVS; 6.2.3.3 Elliptic constructions.

6.2.3.4 Passives6.2.3.5 Conclusion; 6.2.4 Implicational scaling of morpho-syntactic development; 6.2.5 Ditransitive constructions; 6.2.5.1 Options to express the indirect object (OBLk); 6.2.5.2 The indirect object as a prepositional phrase; 6.2.5.3 Position marking of the IO DO sequence?; 6.2.5.4 Functional case assignment of the indirect object; 6.2.5.5 From unmarked mapping to functional case assignment; 6.2.6 COMP ; 6.2.7 Conclusion: From marking the position to marking the function; 6.3 Prepositional phrases; 6.3.1 Introduction; 6.3.2 Case development with regard to one-way prepositions.

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