Haznedar (2007) argues that longitudinal data from a child learner of English who has Turkish as a first language (L1) constitute a counterexample to the Aspect Hypothesis. In this commentary, we show that her argument is not warranted because the Aspect Hypothesis does not presuppose that tense is defective, contra her claim. However, Haznedar’s finding that many achievement verbs in past tense context are left uninflected suggests that refinement of the Aspect Hypothesis may be needed.
Aksu A. ( 1978) Aspect and modality in the child’s acquisition of the Turkish past tense. PhD dissertation, Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, CA .
2.
Aksu-Koç A. ( 1988) The Acquisition of aspect and modality: The case of past reference in Turkish. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
3.
Andersen RW ( 1991) Developmental sequences: The emergence of aspect marking in second language acquisition. In: Huebner T and Ferguson CA (eds) Crosscurrents in second language acquisition and linguistic theories. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 305-24.
4.
Andersen RW and Shirai Y. ( 1994) Discourse motivations for some cognitive acquisition principles . Studies in Second Language Acquisition16: 133-56.
5.
Andersen RW and Shirai Y. ( 1996) Primacy of aspect in first and second language acquisition: The pidgin/creole connection. In: Ritchie WC and Bahtia TK (eds) Handbook of second language acquisition. San Diego, CA : Academic Press, 527-70.
6.
Antinucci F. and Miller R. ( 1976) How children talk about what happened. Journal of Child Language3: 169-89.
7.
Bardovi-Harlig K. ( 1999) From morpheme studies to temporal semantics: Tense-aspect research in SLA. Studies in Second Language Acquisition21: 341-82.
8.
Bardovi-Harlig K. ( 2000) Tense and aspect in second language acquisition: Form, meaning, and use. Maiden, MA: Blackwell .
9.
Bardovi-Harlig K. and Bergström A. ( 1996) The acquisition of tense and aspect in SLA and FLL: A study of learner narratives in English (SL) and French (FL). Canadian Modern Language Review52: 308-30.
10.
Bardovi-Harlig K. and Reynolds DW ( 1995) The role of lexical aspect in the acquisition of tense and aspect. TESOL Quarterly29, 107-31.
11.
Bloom L., Lifter K., and Hafitz J. ( 1980) Semantics of verbs and the development of verb inflection in child language. Language56: 386-412.
12.
Bronckart JP and Sinclair H. ( 1973) Time, tense and aspect. Cognition2: 107-30.
13.
Brown R. ( 1973) A first language. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
14.
Chomsky N. ( 1995) The minimalist program. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
15.
Comrie B. ( 1976) Aspect. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
16.
Dahl Ö. ( 1985) Tense and aspect systems. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
17.
Gavruseva E. ( 2002) Is there primacy of aspect in child L2 English? Bilingualism: Language and Cognition5: 109-30.
18.
Haznedar B. ( 2007) The acquisition of tense-aspect in child second language English. Second Language Research23: 383-417.
19.
Robison RE ( 1995) The aspect hypothesis revisited: A cross-sectional study of tense and aspect marking in interlanguage. Applied Linguistics16: 344-70.
20.
Rohde A. ( 2002) The aspect hypothesis in naturalistic L2 acquisition. In: Salaberry R and Shirai Y (eds) The L2 acquisition of tense-aspect morphology . Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 199-220.
21.
Shirai Y. ( 1991) Primacy of aspect in language acquisition: Simplified input and prototype. Unpublished PhD dissertation, University of California, Los Angeles, CA.
22.
Shirai Y. ( 2007) The Aspect Hypothesis, the comparative fallacy, and the validity of obligatory context analysis: A reply to Lardiere, 2003. Second Language Research23: 51-64.
23.
Shirai Y. and Andersen RW ( 1995) The acquisition of tense-aspect morphology: A prototype account. Language71: 743-62.
24.
Torrence H. and Hyams N. ( 2004) Finiteness and temporal interpretation in early grammar: The role of lexical aspect. In: van Kampen J and Baauw S (eds) Proceedings of GALA 2003. Volume 2. Landelijke Onderzoekschool Taalwetenschap (LOT). Utrecht: University of Utrecht, 481-91.
25.
Torrence H. and Hyams N. ( 2005) Finiteness and temporal interpretation in early grammar: The role of lexical aspect. In: Okabe R and Nielsen K (eds) UCLA working papers in linguistics, no.13: Papers in psycholinguistics 2. Los Angeles, CA: Department of Linguistics, UCLA, 1-13.
26.
Vainikka A. and Young-Scholten M. ( 1996) The early stages in adult L2 syntax: additional evidence from Romance speakers. Second Language Research12: 140-46.
27.
Vendler Z. ( 1967) Linguistics in philosophy. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
28.
Weist RM ( 1989) Aspects of the roots of language: Commentary on Cziko . First Language9: 45-49.
29.
Weist RM, Wysocka H., Witkowska-Stadnik K., Buczowska E., and Konieczna E. ( 1984) The defective tense hypothesis: On the emergence of tense and aspect in child Polish. Journal of Child Language11: 347-74.