MARKEDNESS CONSIDERATIONS IN THE ACQUISITION OF CONDITIONAL SENTENCES

Abstract

Two experiments were conducted which were designed to assess adult 1.2 learners’ production and comprehension of English conditional sentences. The analyses provided lend support to the explanatory power of markedness theory in explaining 1.2 acquisition. Different relative orders of difficulty emerged in the production and comprehension, respectively, of three conditional types, suggesting that form and function may be acquired at different times in the 1.2 acquisition of syntax. Of real, unreal, and past unreal conditions, the real conditions were the easiest to produce but the most difficult to comprehend. These relative orders of difficulty and other developmental differences that emerged between proficiency levels are explained in terms of the nature of the distinctive features assigned indifferent domains of grammar Learners’ responses to markedness values in the interacting contexts of morphology. syntax, semantics, presupposition, and discourse provide a more accurate picture of the acquisition process.