L2 ACQUISITION AND OBLIGATORY HEAD MOVEMENT: English-Speaking Learners of German and the Local Impairment Hypothesis

Abstract

This paper presents results of a response-latency (RL) experiment with English-speaking learners of German that investigated to what extent—if any—two different groups of second language (L2) learners permit raising of the thematic verb. The framework under which the study was conducted involves varying theoretical predictions derived from the native-language (NL) transfer view of Schwartz and Sprouse (1994, 1996), the gradual-development view of Vainikka and Young-Scholten (1994, 1996), the underspecification view of Eubank (1993/1994), and a local-impairment view that presents a more parsimonious solution to the L2 developmental problem than standard “no access” views. The L2 results reported here show that learners respond in different ways to stimulus sentences with raised and unraised verbs depending on the subjects' level of development. Surprisingly, it is the less advanced learners who exhibit an RL preference for apparently raised-verb experimental stimuli; the more advanced learners do not differentiate between raised-verb and unraised-verb stimuli. Analysis of these findings reveals that the less advanced group may only project VPs, consistent with the gradual-development view of Vainikka and Young-Scholten. Crucially, however, the Local Impairment Hypothesis is the only view that is consistent with the results from the more advanced learners, especially when they are seen in developmental context.