English for Children
Seminar Paper by Helen Doron - part 4
Ellis goes on further to integrate the horizontal analysis within a vertical framework. He claims that it is non-systematic variability that leads to the development of individual vernacular styles. He also claims that you get non-systematic variation when new linguistic forms have not yet been internalized. He goes on that according to the economy principle, all linguistic data is integrated into the system by distinguishing meanings or contexts, or are eliminated. Thus, after the internalization of new linguistic forms, there is the progressive organization of form-function relationships, and this step leads to the elimination of redundant forms.
He further claims that it is the non-systematic variability that accounts for language change.
The claim being made in this paper is that although non-systematic variability exists in IL, it is only part of an overall process. Ellis himself states this. However, whereas he sees non-systematic variability as the key to understanding the vertical dimension of IL, it would seem that this does not bring meet the criterion of explanatory adequacy. Indeed, it seems like the children's joke of asking what the below is:
It is, of course, a giraffe walking past a window.
In the same way, a purely horizontal description of IL, ignoring L1 and TG and the relationship between them is much like this joke: a partial picture which is deceptive and non-explanatory. It remains a mere description. We need the source and the goal to go beyond the descriptive level to the predictive level. Within this predictive level remains much scope for variability of the systematic and of the non-systematic type. None-the-less, the non-systematic type has a framework and a direction: from L1 to TG. Without this perspective, the description has no explanatory validity.
Bibliography
Chomsky, N . Aspects of the Theory of Syntax. The MIT Press, 1965.
Ellis, R. Sources of Variability in Interlanguage. in Applied Linguistics, Vol. 6, No.2. 1985.
Labov, W. The study of language in its social context. in Studium Generale 23: 30-87. 1970.
Selinker, L. and Douglas, D. Wrestling with "context" in interlanguage theory. in Applied Linguistics, Vol. 6, No.2. 1985.
Spolsky, B. Conditions for Second Language Learning. OUP, 1989.
Tarone, E. On the variability of interlanguage systems. in Applied Linguistics 4/2: 142-63, 1983.
- English for Children - Seminar2 - part 1
- English for Children - Seminar2 - part 2
- English for Children - Seminar2 - part 3
- English for Children - Seminar2 - part 4