The (in)consistent ergative marking in early Basque: L1 vs. child L2

This paper attempts to describe the (in)consistency of the ergative morphology in Basque as a possible explanation for the difficulty generally observed in mastering ergative case marking. Basque is an ergaccusative language which distinguishes Subjects (S) of transitive verbs (V) from Ss of unaccusative Vs morphologically – the latter marked similarly to Direct Objects – in both the nominal (-k/zero suffix) and the verbal domain (suffix/prefix). Early language acquisition data evidenced an asymmetry in the very early acquisition of ergativity in the verbal domain (around 2;6) which contrasts with a delayed consistent marking in the nominal domain (some months later). Neither language internal inconsistency nor interlinguistic influence seems to account properly for this asymmetry. Moreover, the fact that the delay lasts less in early monolingual (L1) and bilingual first language acquisition (2L1) than in child L2 (cL2) contrasts with models that minimize L1/L2 differences. Furthermore, 2L1 and cL2 production data supports the relevance of the input and the degree of exposure to the language in early processes of language acquisition, in addition to UG and learning mechanisms.

► Some inconsistency is observed in the so-called ergative morphology of Basque.
► In early Basque, case marking is less consistently ergative than verb inflection.
► Es-Apl synchretism may explain the delayed target production of ergative case.
► Basque cL2 grammars are also ergative, despite their weaker case system.