Generative approaches to L1 attrition often focus on the possibility that the developing linguistic system may show evidence of irrevocable structural changes to the actual grammar of a native language. This was highlighted early on in the history of attrition research: “It is crucial to know whether a given example of language loss can be attributed to a change in how the relevant language is represented in the mind of the user or to a change in the way stable knowledge (competence) is being used.” (Sharwood Smith 1983:49, his emphasis). In a similar vein, Seliger and Vago define the object of investigation as “the disintegration or attrition of the structure of a first language (L1) in contact situations with a second language (L2)” (Seliger and Vago 1991:3). However, most research appears to indicate that attrition does not affect uninterpretable features, but that variability may be observed in features that are interpretable at the interface levels (Tsimpli et al. 2004:274; Tsimpli 2007: 85). There therefore seems to be little evidence for an actual restructuring of the language system: the narrow syntax remains unaffected, and the observed variability may be ascribed to the cognitive demands of bilingual processing.

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व्याकरणिय L1 झीज