Lardiere suggests that second language acquisition (SLA) researchers should pay more attention to the distribution of a given feature in source and target languages, using the distribution of [plural] in English, Chinese and Korean to illustrate. I argue that the distribution of [definite] in English shows a similar complexity, and that this has largely been ignored in existing second language studies. I propose that it is distributional complexity of this kind that underlies the gradual development and variability observed in second language (L2) performance. A four-stage model is outlined, attributing gradual development/variability (partly) to optionality in the numeration.
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