Typological Universals and Second Language Acquisition

Abstract

In the first part of this paper I deal with some points concerning the relationship between typology and Second Language research that were touched upon by Joseph Greenberg in his 1991 article: the contribution of L2 research to linguistic theorizing, the nature vs. history dichotomy, the relation between second languages and pidginization processes. Next, I point out the relevance of typological universals to accounts of learner behavior. Finally, the issue of tense and aspect marking in second languages is addressed in the light of the theoretical proposal known as the “Primacy of aspect hypothesis”. The explanatory power of this hypothesis is discussed by drawing on the notion of prototype, which is in turn argued to be in need of further refinements.