The goal of this thesis is to present a detailed study of the second language acquisition (SLA) of English aspect by native speakers of Slavic languages. A parameterized distinction between English and Slavic aspect is proposed, in order to account…

Through an investigation of the acquisition of feature geometric representations in first and second language acquisition, this dissertation demonstrates how the Feature Geometry theory contained in Universal Grammar actively guides and constrains the acquisition of segmental representations by children. In…

This thesis studies the L2 acquisition of transitivity alternations in English, Spanish and Turkish within the Generative framework. in particular, it sets out to investigate the interaction of universal principles and L1 knowledge in interlanguage grammars, as well as whether…

In this thesis, I argue that early child second language (L2) grammars allow truncation, on a par with proposals by Rizzi (1993/1994) and Haegeman (1995) for first language (L1) acquisition. This account (the Truncation Hypothesis) holds that Rizzi's (1994) Root…