Universal Grammar

Functional Approaches

THE LINGUISTIC OF SLA

ENY ERIANTI (1823005)

UTARI YANDA PUTRI (1823026)
Universal Grammar
• Chomsky suggested that the human brain contains
a limited set of rules for organizing language.
• Therefore, all languages have a common structural
basis.
• This is known as Universal Grammar.
Parameter Setting
• Head Direction: the position of the Head in relation
to other elements in the phrase.
• Two choices only:
1. Head-initial
2. Head-final
Head-Initial
English language generally has a
head-initial parameter setting.
e.g.
1. John kicked the ball.
[V] [P]

2. John rode in the car.

[V] [P]
Head-Final
Japanese language generally has a
head-final parameter setting.
e.g.

1. John-wabooru-woketta.

John ball kicked (translation)

[P] [V]

2. John-wakuruma-ninotta.

John car-in rode (translation)

[P] [V]
3 conditions in the study of SLA
• Initial State

• Nature and development of

interlanguage

• Final State
Initial State
• Case study 1
Adi is an Indonesian student (L1) and he is learning
English (L2).

Ini mobil ayah. This is car father.

The correct sentence: This is father’s car.

Indonesian parameter setting: head-final

English parameter setting: head-initial

Nature and Development of
Interlanguage
• Interlanguage : an emerging language system in the
mind of L2 learner.
• L2 learners change the parameter setting
unconsciously because the L2 input they receive
does not match the L1 settings they have.
• Adi has to switch the parameter setting from head-
final to head-initial.
Final State
“Why are some L2 learners more successful than
others?”

• Not all learners have the same degree of access to

UG.
• Different relationships between various L1s and
L2s.
• Some learners may receive different quality of L2
learning from others.
Functional Approaches
• Systemic Linguistics
• Functional Typology
• Function-to-form Mapping
• Information Organization
Systemic Linguistics
• Instrumental – “I want” function
• Regulatory – “do as I tell you” function
• Interactional – “me and you” function
• Personal – “here I come” function
• Heuristic – “tell me why” function
• Imagination – “let’s pretend” function
• Representational – “I’ve got something to tell you”
function
 Functional Typology
• FT involves the classification of languages and their features into
categories to describe patterns of similarities/differences among them.

• Markedness

If the presence of p in a language implies the presence of q, then p is

unmarked relative to q.

p: How are you?

q: I’m fine. (expected response; no matter what the respondent is actually

feeling)

If the presence of q in a language does not imply the presence of p, then q

is marked relative to p.

p: How are you?

q: I feel so tired and cold.

Function-to-form Mapping
• Acquisition of both L1 and L2 involves a process of
grammaticalization.
e.g.
Instead of saying,
“Yesterday I play soccer.”
the correct grammaticalization is,
“I played soccer.”
 Information Organization
• IO focuses on the way in which learners put their words together.

• Developmental Levels:

1. Nominal Utterance Organization (NUO)

Learners use nouns but seldom use verbs

e.g. Charlie and girl accident

2. Infinite Utterance Organization (IUO)

Learners add verbs but seldom use grammatical morphemes

e.g. Charlie and girlfall on floor

3. Finite Utterance Organization (FUO)

Learners add grammatical morphemes to the verb

e.g.Charlie and the girl fell on the floor