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Briefly discuss the relevance of universal grammar in SLL

      

Briefly discuss the relevance of universal grammar in SLL

  

Answers


Francis
First we should note that when Chomsky came up with the idea of Universal Grammar, his purpose was to explain the acquisition of LI and not L2. However his UG theory has also been found to be relevant to second language acquisition in some ways:
First the notions of core grammar and peripheral grammar are relevant to second language learning in the sense that they bring out the idea of markedness and unmarkedness. Core grammars are marked while peripheral grammars are unmarked. It is proposed that only minimal exposure is needed to learn a core rule but peripheral rules take longer to learn because they are usually idiosyncratic features of a language.
Second the theory of UG is relevant in explaining the structure of learner language. In the IL model we saw that IL like all natural languages is a rule governed system. The UG theory supports this in its assumption that all grammars interim or final reflect principles of the UG. Thus IL grammars must be constrained in the same way as LI and TL grammars. Thus IL must contain language that adheres to the rules of UG. One may not therefore encounter the following sentences in IL:
*Goed after mother visiting home school at me. - “Mother went home after visiting me at school”
*Cooking Juliet and lazy Linda while chatting friends with. - “Juliet is cooking while lazy Linda is chatting with friends”

But the following sentences are possible:
*Mother goed home after me visiting at school.
*Juliet cooking while Linda friends chatting with
francis1897 answered the question on March 9, 2023 at 06:06


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