The acquisition of negation in French L2. An analysis of Moroccan Arabic and Spanish "learner varieties"

This paper investigates the acquisition of negation in French as L2 by Spanish and Moroccan Arabic speaking informants of the Project Second Language Acquisition by Adult Immigrants, financed by the European Science Foundation (cf. Perdue 1993). The paper focuses on the acquisition of sentence or clause negation from the point of view of explicit (or formal) negation. Inherent and semantic negation are not considered. The work shows that the acquisition of verbal morphology and of the morphosyntax of negation, in adult L2 learners, follows a variable path. The marking of finiteness on the verb does not seem to emerge along the same stages as in first language acquisition. Hence, we support the conclusion that adults make use of cognitive strategies not available to children acquiring their first language (cf., for instance, Clahsen, 1990 and Meisel, 1997). Nevertheless, in the data analyzed, the mastery of T(arget)L(anguage) negation is closely related to the development of inflection on VP, since only learners who reach the postbasic variety are able to master TL negation rules. Thus, there must be some relationship between the acquisition of finiteness, at least as defined in the functionalist perspective, and the TL placement of the negator, in contradistinction to the view supported by Meisel (1997). The cognitive process leading adult L2 learners may be less abstract than those used by children L1 acquirers. This may be illustrated by the fact that finiteness is first marked on non-thematic verbs because of the “lighter” character of these morphemes, which convey relational information. Adults’ language processing may also explain the recourse to transfer. This might explain M.A. informants’ greater sensitivity to TL postverbal negation at a stage when the verbs in their learner varieties are not finite yet, and, conversely, Spanish speakers’ systematical use of preverbal negation in basic (non finite) variety. Clahsen, H., 1990, The Comparative Study of First and Second Language Acquisition, Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 12 (2), 135-154. Meisel, J. 1997, The Acquistion of the Syntax of Negation in French and German: Contrasting first and Second Language Development. Second Language Research, 13(3): 227-263. Perdue, C. 1993, Adult Language Acquisition. : Cross-linguistic perspectives. Vols. I & II. Cambridge, C.U.P.