Journal article
Verb learning and the acquisition of aspect L1 transfer of verb semantics
Linguistic approaches to bilingualism, Vol.11(3), pp.323-367
06/04/2021
DOI: 10.1075/lab.18084.nis
Abstract
Although SLA research has extensively investigated the role of lexical aspect in L2 acquisition of tense-aspect marking, the role of L1 is not yet fully understood. This paper investigates the effect of cross-linguistic variation in lexical aspect and explores how the learning of lexical aspect interacts with the acquisition of aspectual morphology, using oral picture-description and written judgment tasks. 391 learners of Japanese ( L1 English, Chinese, and Korean) participated in the study. The results show that L2 learners have problems in rejecting incorrect L2 aspectual structures (but not in accepting correct ones) when such structures involve L1-L2 discrepancy in lexical aspect. The results also confirmed a strong L1 effect at the level of surface inflected verbal form, showing significantly higher accuracy for items for which direct translation yields correct meaning than those that do not. It is argued that L1 transfer may be playing an important role in the L2 acquisition of aspect in that both positive and negative transfer collectively determine the order of acquisition predicted by the Aspect Hypothesis.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Verb learning and the acquisition of aspect L1 transfer of verb semantics
- Creators
- Yumiko Nishi - University of IowaYasuhiro Shirai - Case Western Reserve University
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Linguistic approaches to bilingualism, Vol.11(3), pp.323-367
- DOI
- 10.1075/lab.18084.nis
- ISSN
- 1879-9264
- eISSN
- 1879-9272
- Publisher
- John Benjamins Publishing Co
- Number of pages
- 45
- Grant note
- BCS-0544789 / NSF; National Science Foundation (NSF)
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 06/04/2021
- Academic Unit
- Asian and Slavic Languages and Literatures
- Record Identifier
- 9984397912502771
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