This commentary discusses the recent keynote article in Second Language Research by Westergaard (2021), which extends the Micro-cue Model to second language (L2) and third language (L3) acquisition. The commentary comments on such questions as: What makes a given property easy or hard to acquire? How do learners determine similarity? What exactly is the role of UG, on a non-parametric view? And what explains the differences between L1 and L2/subsequent acquisition?
Bley-VromanR (2009) The evolving context of the fundamental difference hypothesis. Studies in Second Language Acquisition31: 175–98.
2.
ChoJ (2016) The acquisition of different types of definite noun phrases in L2-English. International Journal of Bilingualism21: 367–82.
3.
HerschensohnJ (2007) Language development and age. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
4.
IoninTKoHWexlerK (2004) Article semantics in L2 acquisition: The role of specificity. Language Acquisition12: 3–69.
5.
IoninTChoiSHLiuQ (in press) What transfers (or doesn’t) in the second language acquisition of English articles by learners from article-less native languages?Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism.
6.
IoninTBaekSKimEKoHWexlerK (2012) That’s not so different from the: Definite and demonstrative descriptions in second language acquisition. Second Language Research28: 69–101.
7.
LardiereD (2009) Some thoughts on the contrastive analysis of features in second language acquisition. Second Language Research25: 173–227.
8.
LegateJYangC (2007) Morphosyntactic learning and the development of tense. Language Acquisition14: 315–44.
9.
MontrulS (2008) Incomplete acquisition in Bilingualism: Re-examining the age factor. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
10.
SchwartzBDSprouseRA (1996) L2 cognitive states and the full transfer/full access model. Second Language Research12: 40–72.
11.
WestergaardM (2009) The acquisition of word order: Input cues, information structure and economy. Linguistik Aktuell / Linguistics Today, volume 145. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
12.
WestergaardM (2014) Linguistic variation and micro-cues in first language acquisition. Linguistic Variation14: 26–45.
13.
WestergaardM (2021) Microvariation in multilingual situations: The importance of property-by-property acquisition. Second Language Research37(3): 379–407.
14.
WhiteL (1990) The verb-movement parameter in second language acquisition. Language Acquisition1: 337–60.
15.
YangC (2002) Knowledge and learning in natural language. Oxford: Oxford University Press.