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SUMMARY:Complexity as L2-difficulty: Implications for syntactic change - G
 eorge Walkden\, University of Manchester
DTSTART:20131121T160000Z
DTEND:20131121T173000Z
UID:TALK48233@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Madeleine Forbes
DESCRIPTION:Trudgill (2011) has suggested that different types of language
  contact situation lead to differential simplification and complexificatio
 n: for instance\, long-term co-territorial contact is predicted to lead to
  additive complexification\, whereas short-term contact involving extensiv
 e adult L2 use is predicted to lead to simplification.\n\nIn this talk I e
 xplore the implications of Trudgill's sociolinguistic insight for syntacti
 c change. Following Trudgill\, I take complexity to be L2-difficulty\, i.e
 . the difficulty that a particular linguistic feature poses to an adult le
 arner. I assume a specific definition of syntactic L2-difficulty taken fro
 m the generative literature on second language acquisition: the Interpreta
 bility Hypothesis\, which states that syntactic features that are not sema
 ntically interpretable are particularly difficult for adults to acquire.\n
 \nThe approach then predicts that\, in sociohistorical situations in which
  adult L2 learners are particularly dominant\, uninterpretable features wi
 ll typically be lost. I will offer three case studies in support of this p
 rediction: the loss of bipartite negation\, the loss of consistent null-su
 bject status\, and the loss of case. Data will be drawn from the history o
 f Low German\, (post)colonial varieties of Spanish and Portuguese\, and mo
 re.
LOCATION:Lecture Block\, Room 1\, Sidgwick Site
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