Japanese as a second language : a test case for the typological plausibility of PT

One of the key assumptions inherent in PT is its universal nature. The design of PT is based on the architecture of the language processor; therefore, the theory needs to apply to all human languages. In this chapter, the focus will be on two grammatical structures in Japanese which look rather similar on the surface, canonical word order and passive constructions. It will be shown how these structures can be accounted for by PT and which predictions can be derived from PT for their order of acquisition. The key empirical evidence relating to these predictions will then be summarized. The chapter ends with a brief overview of research on Japanese as a second language within the PT framework.