From a serializing L1 to a non-serializing L2: A preliminary discussion of transfer and Tense-driven restructuring in language contact situations

This paper highlights parallels between L1 influence in early second language acquisition (SLA) and substrate influence in creole formation by examining (i) correspondences between serial verb constructions (SVCs) in the L1 and the interlanguage of Vietnamese-speaking learners of English, as well as (ii) correspondences between SVCs in certain creoles and their substrates. On the grounds that the verb raising and serialization parameters work in tandem and that Tense has no temporal specifications in serializing languages (cf. Stewart, 1998), the paper suggests that transferred SVCs are not retained in typical SLA situations involving non-serializing L2s since input conditions favour the building up of Tense as per L2 norms. The paper concludes with a proposal for an L2 acquisition study that investigates the special nature of Tense in serializing languages as well as the tenability of the "no-impairment" transfer hypothesis, which suggests that the initial state L2 grammar is the L1 grammar in its entirety (Schwartz & Sprouse, 1996; Prévost & White, 2000)