On gradience and optionality in non-native grammars

Epstein et al.'s ''full access to Universal Grammar'' position is conceptually and empirically problematic. Its shortcomings are illustrated through a brief discussion of the following issues: (1) initial versus final states of grammatical knowledge in a second language, (2) knowledge of gradience of grammaticality, (3) optionality and retention in non-native grammars, and (4) the empirical measurement of syntactic knowledge.