In this article we study the acquisition of sentential negation in English by bilingual (Spanish/Basque) learners in an institutional setting. The learners were divided into three groups according to the age at which they had begun to learn English (four, eight and eleven years respectively). At the time the oral interviews were held, they had all received a similar amount of instruction. The analysis is carried out in terms of the presence/absence of functional categories, the use of cognitive (not UG-driven) strategies, and the transfer of the order of the functional projections NegP and TP. We conclude that placement of the negative marker appears to be independent of the realization of tense and agreement features.
Belletti, A. (1990). Generalized verb movement. Turin: Rosenberg and Sellier.
2.
Bellugi, U. (1967). The acquisition of negation. Unpublished PhD thesis, Harvard University, New Jersey , USA.
3.
Birdsong, D. (1992). Ultimate attainment in second language acquisition . Language, 68(4), 706 -755.
4.
Birdsong, D. (1999). Second language acquisition and the critical period hypothesis. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
5.
Burstall, C. (1975). Factors affecting foreign-language learning: a consideration of some relevant research findings. Language Teaching and Linguistics Abstracts, 8(1), 105-125.
6.
Cancino, H., Rosansky, E.J. & Schumann, J. (1978). The acquisition of English negatives and interrogatives by native Spanish speakers. In E.M. Hatch (Ed.), Second language acquisition: A book of readings (pp. 207-230). Rowley, MA: Newbury House Publishers.
7.
Capdevila, M., & Llinás, M. (1995). The acquisition of negation in English. Atlantis, 17(1-2), 27- 44.
8.
Cenoz, J. (1998). Multilingual education in the Basque Country. In J. Cenoz & F. Genesee (Eds.), Beyond bilingualism: multilingualism and multilingual education (pp. 175-191). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
9.
Cenoz, J. (2001). The effect of linguistic distance, L2 status and age on crosslinguistic influence in the third language. In J. Cenoz, B. Hufeisen & U. Jessner (Eds.), Crosslinguistic influence in third language acquisition: Psycholinguistic perspectives (pp. 8-20). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
10.
Cenoz, J. (2002). Three languages in contact: Language attitudes in the Basque Country. In D. Lasagabaster & J. Sierra (Eds.), Language awareness in the foreign language classroom (pp. 37-60). Leioa : Universidad del País Vasco.
11.
Cenoz, J. (2003). The influence of age on the acquisition of English: General proficiency, attitudes and code-mixing. In M.P. García Mayo & M.L. García Lecumberri (Eds.), Age and the acquisition of English as a foreign language (pp. 77-93). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
12.
Cenoz, J., & Jessner, U. (Eds.). (2000). English in Europe: The acquisition of a third language. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
13.
Chomsky, N. (1995). The Minimalist Program. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
14.
Déprez, V., & Pierce, A. (1993). Negation and functional projections in early grammar . Linguistic Inquiry, 24(1), 25-67.
15.
Eubank, L. (1996) Negation in early German-English interlanguage: More valueless features in the L2 initial state. Second Language Research, 12(1), 73-106.
16.
Gallardo, F. (2004) La adquisición de la pronunciación del inglés como tercera lengua. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of the Basque Country, Spain.
17.
Gallardo, F., García Lecumberri, M.L. & Cenoz, J. (2001). English simple vowel discrimination in learners with different ages of first exposure to EFL. Proceedings of the 23rd AEDEAN Conference. CD-ROM document.
18.
García Mayo, M.P., & García Lecumberri, M.L. (2003). Age and the acquisition of English as a foreign language. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
19.
García Mayo, M.P., Lázaro Ibarrola, A. & Liceras, J.M. (2005). Place-holders in the English interlanguage of bilingual (Basque/Spanish) children. Language Learning, 55(3), 445- 489.
20.
García Mayo, M.P., Lázaro Ibarrola, A. & Liceras, J.M. (2006). Agreement in the English interlanguage of Basque/Spanish bilinguals: A minimalist farewell to pro. ITL:International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 151(1), 83-98.
21.
Guasti, M.T. & Rizzi, L. (2002). Agreement and Tense as distinct syntactic positions: evidence from acquisition. In G. Cinque (Ed.), Functional structure in DP and IP. The cartography of syntactic structures.Vol.1. (pp. 167-194). New York: Oxford University Press.
22.
Haegeman, L. (1995). The syntax of negation. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press.
23.
Haegeman, L. (1996). Root infinitives, clitics and truncated structures . In H. Clahsen (Ed.), Generative perspectives on language acquisition (pp. 271-307). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
24.
Hamann, C. (1996). Negation and truncated structures. In M. Aldridge (Ed.), Child language (pp. 72-83). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
25.
Hawkins, R. (2001) Second language Syntax. A generative introduction . Oxford: Blackwell Publishers .
26.
Hawkins, R., & Chan, Y.-H.C. (1997). The partial availability of Universal Grammar in second language acquisition: the `failed functional features hypothesis' . Second Language Research, 13(3), 187-226.
27.
Haznedar, B. (1997). L2 acquisition by a Turkish-speaking child: evidence for L1 influence. In E. Hughes, M. Hughes and A. Greenhill (Eds.), Proceedings of the 21s annual Boston University Conference on Language Development (pp. 245-56). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.
28.
Haznedar, B. (2001). The acquisition of the IP system in child L2 English . Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 23(1), 1-39.
29.
Hyams, N. (1986). Language acquisition and the theory of parameters . Dordrecht: Reidel.
30.
Hyltenstam, K. & Abrahamsson, N. (2003). Maturational constraints in SLA. In C. Doughty and M. Long (Eds.), Handbook of second language acquisition (pp. 539-588). Oxford: Blackwell .
31.
Ionin, T., & Wexler, K. (2001) L1 Russian children learning English: Tense and overgeneration of Be. In X. Bonch-Bruevich et al. (Eds.), Proceedings of the 2000 Second Language Research Forum (pp. 76 -94). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.
32.
Ionin, T., & Wexler, K. (2002). Why is is easier than `s? Acquisition of tense/agreement morphology by child second language learners of English. Second Language Research, 18(2), 95-136.
33.
Johnson, L., & Newport, E. (1989). Critical period effects in second language learning: the influence of maturational state on the acquisition of English as a second language. Cognitive Psychology, 21(1), 60-99.
34.
Krashen, S., Long, M. & Scarcella, R. (1979). Accounting for child-adult differences in second language rate and attainment. TESOL Quarterly, 13(4), 573-582.
35.
Laka, I. (1994). On the syntax of negation. New York and London: Garland .
36.
Laka, I. (n.d.) A brief grammar of Euskara. The Basque language. Euskara Institutua website. Retrieved January 12, 2003, from http://www.ehu.es/grammar/
37.
Lakshmanan, U. (1999). Object shift and the position of NegP in the child L2 grammars of Hindi. In P. Robinson (Ed.), Representation and process: Proceedings of the 1998 Pacific second language research forum (pp. 23-36). Tokyo: PacSLRF.
38.
Lakshmanan, U. & Lindsay, B. (1997). The genitive of negation and the position of NegP in the L2 acquisition of Russian. In A. Sorace , C. Heycock and R. Shillock (Eds.), Proceedings of the Conference on generative approaches to language acquisition (pp. 423-427) Edinburgh : University of Edinburgh Press.
39.
Lakshmanan, U. & Lindsay, B. (1998). The genitive of negation and the position of NegP in the L2 acquisition of Russian. Special Issue of the McGill Working Papers in Linguistics, 13, 82-92.
40.
Lakshmanan, U. & Maciukaite, S. (1999). The syntax and pragmatics of negation in child SLA. Proceedings of the Pragmatics and Language Learning Conference, Vol. 9, 213-236.
41.
Lardiere, D. (1998). Dissociating syntax from morphology in a divergent L2 end-state grammar. Second Language Research, 14(4), 359-375.
42.
Larson Hall, J. (2008) Weighing the benefits of studying a foreign language at a younger starting age in a minimal input situation. Second Language Research, 24(1), 35-63.
43.
Lasagabaster, D. & Doiz, A. (2003). Maturational constraints on foreign-language written production. In M.P. García Mayo & M.L. García Lecumberri (Eds.), Age and the acquisition of English as a foreign language (pp. 136 -160). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
44.
Lasnik, H. (2000). Syntactic Structures Revisited. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
45.
Lázaro Ibarrola, A. (2002). La adquisición de la morfosintaxis del inglés por niños bilingües euskera/castellano: Una perspectiva minimalista. Unpublished PhD thesis, Department of English and German Philology, University of the Basque Country, Spain.
46.
Liceras, J.M. (1996). La adquisición de las lenguas segundas y la gramática universal. Madrid: Síntesis.
47.
Liceras, J.M. (1997). The then and now of L2 growing pains. In L. Díaz & C. Pérez (Eds.), Views on the acquisition and use of a second language. Proceedings of the 1996 EUROSLA Conference (pp. 65-85). Barcelona: Universitat Pompeu Fabra.
48.
Liceras, J.M. (2003). Monosyllabic place-holders in early child language and the L1/L2 Fundamental Difference Hypothesis. In P. Kempchinsky & C.E. Pineros (Eds.), Theory, Practice and Acquisition: Papers from the 6 Hispanic Linguistic Symposium and the 5 Conference on the Acquisition of Spanish and Portuguese (pp. 258-283). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.
49.
Liceras, J.M. (2004). Spanish L1/L2 crossroads. Can we get `there' from `here'?. In A.T. Pérez-Leroux & Y. Roberge (Eds.), Romance linguistics: Theory and Acquisition. Selected Papers from the 32 Linguistic Symposium on Romance Languages (pp. 317-350). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
50.
Long, M. (1990). Maturational constraints on language development . Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 12(3), 251-286.
51.
Macwhinney, B. (2000). The CHILDES project: Tools for analyzing talk . Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum .
52.
Mayer, M. (1969) Frog, where are you?New York : The Dial Press.
53.
Meisel, J. (1997) The acquisition of the syntax of negation in French and German: Contrasting first and second language development. Second Language Research, 13(3), 227-263.
54.
Meisel, J., Clahsen, H. & Pienemann, M. (1981). On determining developmental stages in natural second language acquisition. Studies in Second Language Acquisition , 3(2), 109-135.
55.
Muñoz, C. (1999). The effects of age on instructed foreign language acquisition. In S. González, A. Valdeón, D. García , A. Ojanguren, M. Urdiales & A. Antón (Eds.), Essays in English language teaching. A review of the communicative approach (pp. 1-22). Oviedo: Servicio de Publicaciones de la Universidad de Oviedo.
56.
Muñoz, C. (2003). Variation in oral skills development and age of onset. In M.P. García Mayo & M.L. García Lecumberri (Eds.), Age and the acquisition of English as a foreign language (pp. 161-181). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
57.
Muñoz, C. (Ed.). (2006) Age and the rate of foreign language learning. Clevedon : Multilingual Matters.
58.
Ouhalla, J. (1991). Functional categories and parametric variation . London: Routledge.
59.
Perales, S. (2004). La adquisición de la negación en ingles por hablantes bilingües de euskera/ castellano. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of the Basque Country, Spain.
60.
Pollock, J.Y. (1989). Verb movement, Universal Grammar, and the structure of IP. Linguistic Inquiry, 20(3), 365- 424.
61.
Pollock, J.Y. (1997). Notes on clause structure. In L. Haegeman (Ed.), Elements of Grammar (pp. 237-279). Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
62.
Rizzi, L. (1993/1994). Some notes on linguistic theory and language development: the case of Root Infinitives. Language Acquisition, 3(4), 371-395.
63.
Schütze, C. (2001). The status of He/She don't and theories of Root Infinitives. Manuscript, UCLA. Retrieved August 15, 2005 from http://ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/
64.
Schwartz, B. & Sprouse, R. (1996). L2 cognitive states and the Full Transfer/Full Access model. Second Language Research, 12(1), 40-72.
65.
Singleton, D. (2001). Age and second language acquisition. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 21, 77-89.
66.
Stauble, A.M. (1984) A comparison of Spanish-English and a Japanese-English second language continuum: Negation and verb morphology. In R. Andersen (Ed.), Second languages: A cross-linguistic perspective (pp. 323-353). Rowley, MA: Newbury House.
67.
Stevens, A.M. (1992). The structure of negation in Spanish and English. Unpublished PhD Thesis, University of Washington.
68.
Stromswold, K. (1990). Learnability and the acquisition of auxiliaries . Unpublished doctoral dissertation, MIT.
69.
Swain, M. & Lapkin, S. (1982). Evaluating bilingual education: A Canadian case study. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters .
70.
Tsimpli, I.M. & Roussou, A. (1991) `Parameter resetting in L2?'UCL Working Papers in Linguistics, 3, 149-169.
71.
Wode, H. (1981) Learning a second language. Tübingen: Gunter Narr.
72.
Zanuttini, R. (1996). On the relevance of tense for sentential negation . In A. Belletti & L. Rizzi (Eds.), Parameters and functional heads. Essays in comparative syntax (pp. 181-207). New York: Oxford University Press.
73.
Zanuttini, R. (1997). Negation and clausal structure. A comparative study of Romance Languages. New York: Oxford University Press.
74.
Zanuttini, R. (2001). Sentential negation. In M. Baltin & P. Collins (Eds.), Handbook of contemporary syntactic theory (pp. 407- 438). New York: Oxford University Press.
