This article considers the current debate on the initial state of second language
acquisition (L2) and presents critical empirical evidence from Hindi learners of
English as an L2 that supports the claim that the CP (complementizer phase) is
initially absent from the grammar of L2 learners. Contrary to the predictions of
Full Transfer (Schwartz and Sprouse, 1994; 1996), the data we present suggest that
L2 learners start out without a CP and then graduate to a stage where overt
expressions of CP (complementizer phase) are in fact manifest. Although the lack of
evidence of CP appears to support the Minimal Trees/Partial Transfer (MT/PT)
hypothesis (Vainikka and Young-Scholten, 1996a; 1996b), we show that the MT/PT
hypothesis also fails to honour all the empirical facts.To account for the patterns
in our data, we propose Structural Minimality - that clausal projections are IPs -
as a hypothesis on the initial state of L2 acquisition. We argue that the Structural
Minimality hypothesis accounts for the entire array CP-acquisition facts in
Hindi-speaking learners of English as an L2.
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