Reflexes of Mental Architecture in Second-Language Acquisition: The Interpretation of Combien Extractions in English-French Interlanguage

In this article, we present the results of an empirical study of the interpretation of left-branch combien 'how many' extractions in English-French interlanguage. Aspects of the syntax-semantics interface seem specific to natural language and therefore should provide a test of the hypothesis that (adult) second-language (L2) knowledge is epistemologically equivalent to (adult) first-language (L1) knowledge. Specifically, if idiosyncratic target language (form, interpretation) pairings not plausibly acquirable on the basis of the input alone are indeed acquired by L2 learners, then such acquisition must be the product of the modular interactions governed by Universal Grammar (UG) that account for these properties in L1 grammars. The results of this study show that knowledge of the interpretation of left-branch combien extraction is detectable in English-French interlanguage, well beyond what can be expected on the basis of English intuitions. This is suggestive of the role of UG in constraining L2 acquisition.