On the question of topics in topic prominent interlanguage

Marie Fellbaum Korpi

    Research output: Chapter in Book / Conference PaperConference Paperpeer-review

    Abstract

    ![CDATA[For twenty-five years, interlanguage researchers have accepted an early period of topic prominence in the language of a native speaker of Hmong learning English (Huebner 1983). The study was based on Li and Thompson's Typology of Subject-Prominent and Topic Prominent language types. Since Huebner only examined properties of topic prominent languages without also looking for evidence of subject, I revisit the study and show evidence for subjecthood from grammatical relations, semantic functions, and properties of behavior and control. An investigation of one of the properties, namely that topics control co-referential constituent deletion, suggests instead evidence for subject in serial verb constructions. After finding evidence for at least three properties of subject as a basic subject-predicate construction in the interlanguage, I propose an alternative analysis that the learner’s early interlanguage must be re-classified as both subject and topic prominent.]]
    Original languageEnglish
    Title of host publicationSelected Papers from the 2005 Conference of the Australian Linguistic Society, September 28-30, 2005, Monash University, Australia
    PublisherAustralian Linguistic Society
    Number of pages16
    ISBN (Print)9780980281507
    Publication statusPublished - 2005
    EventAustralian Linguistic Society. Conference -
    Duration: 1 Oct 2013 → …

    Conference

    ConferenceAustralian Linguistic Society. Conference
    Period1/10/13 → …

    Keywords

    • interlanguage (language learning)
    • syntax

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