The Lexicon Syntax Interface

The Lexicon-syntax Interface in Second Language Aquisition

Second language acquisition has to integrate the totality of the SLA process, which includes both the learning of the core syntax of a language and the learning of the lexical items that have to be incorporated into that syntax. But these two domains involve different kinds of learning. Syntax is learnt through a process of implementing a particular set of universal structures, whereas the learning of lexis is characterised by the building up of associations (or connections). Yet these two systems must come together in the creation of a whole linguistic system in the mind of an individual. This book is designed to state the implications of these two paradigms in as clear a way as possible through examples of the research carried out within each paradigm and to examine how they can be made to inter-relate in a way which would enable us to explain better the overall process of SLA.

The Lexicon-syntax Interface in the Acquisition of English as a Foreign Language

The Lexicon–Syntax Interface

The present collection offers fresh perspectives on the lexicon-syntax interface, drawing on novel data from South Asian languages like Bangla, Hindi-Urdu, Kashmiri, Kannada, Malayalam, Manipuri, Punjabi, and Telugu. It covers different phenomena like adjectives, nominal phrases, ditransitives, light verbs, middles, passives, causatives, agreement, and pronominal clitics, while trying to settle the theoretical tensions underlying the interaction of the lexicon with the narrow syntactic component. All the chapters critically survey previous analyses in detail, suggesting how these may or may not be extended to South Asian languages. Novel explanations are proposed, which handle not only the novel data presented here, but also pave alternative ways to look at issues of minimalist architecture.