Tense and Aspect in early French development in aL2, 2L1 and cL2 learners

In line with current research by Meisel (2008, 2009), this study discusses the nature of child second language (cL2) acquisition, compared with adult second language (aL2) acquisition and the development of two first languages (2L1). Early stages of tense-aspect acquisition of French are studied in these three learner types, all having Swedish as a first or concomitant language, and all with differences with regard to the Age of Onset of French. Focus is on past tense marking, lexical aspect and temporal reference. The cognitive-syntactic development of the first language is proposed to account for the differences observed between aL2 and 2L1 acquisition, as well as for the similarities in the behaviour of cL2 and aL2 learners.