Discontinuity in Second Language Acquisition: The Switch between Statistical and Grammatical Learning (Second Language Acquisition, 80)

Hardcover, viii + 259 pages, NOT ex-library. Mild handling wear only. Book is clean and bright throughout, with unmarked text, free of inscriptions and stamps, firmly bound. Issued without a dust jacket. -- This book challenges incrementalist models of second language development by proposing a novel theory of "discontinuity with gemination," arguing that adult L2 morphosyntactic acquisition is a quantized, two-stage process. The core thesis posits a fundamental switch between two distinct cognitive mechanisms: an initial, domain-general Statistical Learning (SL) system and a subsequent, language-specific Grammatical Learning (GL) system. Rather than one replacing the other, the model contends they cohabit in the learner's competence, leading to the "gemination," or dual representation, of the same linguistic items - once as probabilistic chunks and again as computationally derived structures. The work systematically details this process, explaining how SL operates through bottom-up tracking of transitional probabilities in the input, providing the necessary cognitive foundation and raw material (chunks) for the later emergence of GL. This second system engages in top-down, abstract computation, allowing for generalizations beyond frequency and input patterns. This discontinuous framework generates strong, falsifiable predictions about the trajectory of L2 development. It argues that aspects of grammar that cannot be pre-processed or bootstrapped by the SL mechanism - specifically those involving abstract, non-adjacent dependencies such as empty categories, displaced constituents, and "Internal Merge" - are profoundly difficult or impossible for adult learners to acquire. Grounding its claims in neurocognitive evidence, including the declarative/procedural model and ERP data (N400/P600), the book bridges the divide between innatist and general-domain theories, proposing a model where a non-language-specific capacity becomes a necessary prerequisite for the successful engagement of abstract grammatical computation in the maturing brain.…