1. Universal Grammar Functional Approaches
THE LINGUISTICS OF SLA
Frances Fabiani

2. Noam Chomsky
(1928 – present)
American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian and activist.
Described as “father of modern linguistics”.
The creator of Universal
Grammar Theory.

3. Universal Grammar
Chomsky suggested that the human brain contains a limited set of rules for organizing language.
Therefore, all languages have a common structural basis.
This is known as Universal Grammar.

4. Chomsky states..
“Every phrase in every language has the same elements; including a Head.”
e.g.
a noun phrase (NP) has a noun head (N)
a verb phrase (VP) has a verb head (V)
a pre/postpositional phrase (PP) has a pre/postposition head (P)

5. Parameter Setting
Head Direction: the position of the Head in relation to other elements in the phrase.
Two choices only:
Head-initial
Head-final

6. Head-Initial English language generally has a
head-initial parameter setting.
e.g.
John kicked the ball.
[V] [P]
John rode in the car.
[V] [P]

7. Head-Final Japanese language generally has a
head-final parameter setting.
e.g.
John-wa booru-wo ketta.
John ball kicked (translation)
[P] [V]
John-wa kuruma-ni notta.
John car-in rode (translation)
[P] [V]

8. Language Acquisition Device
LAD is an “organ” of the brain that functions as a device for learning symbolic language.
LAD according to Chomsky is an instinctive mental capacity which enables an infant to acquire and produce language.

9. 3 conditions in the study of SLA
Initial State
Nature and development of
interlanguage
Final State

10. Initial State Case study 1
Adi is an Indonesian student (L1) and he is learning English (L2).
Ini mobil ayah.  This is car father.
The correct sentence: This is father’s car.
Indonesian parameter setting: head-final
English parameter setting: head-initial

11. Nature and development of interlanguage
Interlanguage: an emerging language system in the mind of L2 learner.
L2 learners change the parameter setting unconsciously because the L2 input they receive does not match the L1 settings they have.
Adi has to switch the parameter setting from head-final to head-initial.

12. “Why are some L2 learners more successful than others?”
Final State
“Why are some L2 learners more successful than others?”
Not all learners have the same degree of access to UG.
Different relationships between various L1s and L2s.
Some learners may receive different quality of L2 learning from others.

13. Functional Approaches
Systemic Linguistics
Functional Typology
Function-to-form Mapping
Information Organization

14. Systemic Linguistics Instrumental – “I want” function
Regulatory – “do as I tell you” function
Interactional – “me and you” function
Personal – “here I come” function
Heuristic – “tell me why” function
Imagination – “let’s pretend” function
Representational – “I’ve got something to tell you” function

15. Example of Systemic Linguistics
Nonlinguistic
Regulatory: (hitting another child who is annoying)
Interactional: Unh? (greeting)
Heuristic: (pointing at an object with a questioning look)
L2 formula or memorized routine
Regulatory: Don’t do that!
Interactional: Hi!
Heuristic: What is it?
Single L2 word
Regulatory: He! (pointing out another child’s offending behavior)
Interactional: Me? (an invitation to play)
Heuristic: What? (asking for the English term for an object)

16. Example of Systemic Linguistics
L2 phrase or clause
Regulatory: That bad!
Interactional: You me play?
Heuristic: What name this?
Complex L2 construction
Regulatory: The teacher say that wrong!
Interactional: I no like to play now.
Heuristic: What is name we call this?

17. Functional Typology
FT involves the classification of languages and their features into categories to describe patterns of similarities/differences among them.
Markedness
If the presence of p in a language implies the presence of q, then p is unmarked relative to q.
p: How are you?
q: I’m fine. (expected response; no matter what the respondent is actually feeling)
If the presence of q in a language does not imply the presence of p, then q is marked relative to p.
q: I feel so tired and cold.

18. Markedness Differential Predictions for SLA
Feature in L1
Feature in L2
Prediction
Marked
Unmarked
L2 feature will be easy to learn
L1 feature will not transfer to L2
L1 feature will transfer to L2

19. Function-to-form Mapping
Acquisition of both L1 and L2 involves a process of grammaticalization.
e.g.
Instead of saying,
“Yesterday I play soccer.”
the correct grammaticalization is,
“I played soccer.”

20. Information Organization
IO focuses on the way in which learners put their words together.
Developmental Levels:
Nominal Utterance Organization (NUO)
Learners use nouns but seldom use verbs
e.g. Charlie and girl accident
Infinite Utterance Organization (IUO)
Learners add verbs but seldom use grammatical morphemes
e.g. Charlie and girl fall on floor
Finite Utterance Organization (FUO)
Learners add grammatical morphemes to the verb
e.g. Charlie and the girl fell on the floor