This study investigated second language distribution of Chinese connectives by tallying responses on a mini-discourse completion test taken by English-speaking learners with different language learning backgrounds and at different proficiency levels. The results showed that an underuse pattern underlay practically all Chinese connectives as a…

This study investigates the second language (L2) acquisition of the English count/mass distinction by speakers of Korean and Mandarin Chinese, with a focus on the semantics of atomicity. It is hypothesized that L1-Korean and L1-Mandarin L2-English learners are influenced by atomicity in the use of the count/mass morphosyntax in English. This…

This study investigated French and Spanish EFL (English as a foreign language) learners' preferred use of three-word lexical bundles with discourse or stance-oriented function with a view to exploring the role of first language (L1) frequency effects in foreign language acquisition. Word combinations were extracted from learner performance data…

The present study examined visual word recognition processes in Hebrew (a Semitic language) among beginning learners whose first language (L1) was either Semitic (Arabic) or Indo-European (e.g. English). To examine if learners, like native Hebrew speakers, exhibit morphological sensitivity to root and word-pattern morphemes, learners made an…

This review article evaluates the intersection of the content of two recent anthologies in second language (L2) phonology. One of the books lays out both the methodological context and theoretical underpinnings of the field, whereas the other volume reports 11 empirical studies on the L2 acquisition of several aspects of pronunciation by adult…

This study examines an interlanguage in which Moroccan learners of Dutch use non-thematic verbs in combination with thematic verbs that can be inflected as well. These non-thematic verbs are real dummy auxiliaries because they are deprived of semantic content and primarily have a syntactic function. Whereas in earlier second language (L2) research…

Argues that the late acquisition of the third-person singular agreement affix /-s/ in second-language learners of English is the result of a syntactic configuration that makes the ending appear ungrammatical to the learner of English while allowing agreement inflection to appear when the target language has a more robust agreement model, as in the…

The aim of this article is two-fold: to test the Aspect Hypothesis, according to which the early use of tense-aspect morphology patterns by semantic/aspectual features of verbs, and Tense is initially defective (e.g. Antinucci and Miller, 1976; Bloom et al., 1980; Andersen and Shirai, 1994; 1996; Robison, 1995; Shirai and Andersen, 1995;…

Recent unrelated studies reveal what appears to be a common acquisitional pattern in second language acquisition (SLA). While some findings show that advanced learners can indeed achieve convergent, native-like competence with formal syntactic properties (even when these are underdetermined by the input), other findings suggest that they can…

Describes a linguistic analysis computational system that responds to highly complex queries about morphosyntactic and semantic structures contained in large sets of language acquisition data by identifying, displaying, and analyzing sentences that meet the defined linguistic criteria. (30 references) (Author/CB)

Learners' grammaticality reactions emerge through cognitive processes and relate to the nature of the linguistic stimulus. Discussion of such metalinguistic judgments, particularly learners' tolerance of ill-formedness, attempts to clarify established perspectives, arguing that specific aspects of test strings may influence the saliency of certain…

This article addresses the question of how second language (L2) learners understand idiomatic expressions in their second/foreign language and advances the proposition that literal meanings of idiom constituents enjoy processing priority over their figurative interpretations. This suggestion forms the core of the literal-salience resonant model of…

The applicability of transferability principles to language contact in the British Isles, especially Ireland, is shown with a detailed discussion of absolute constructions, structures with interesting relations between syntax and discourse, and with susceptibility to cross-linguistic influence. Evidence for transferability of absolutes in…

Examination of how French second language learners construct rules for French relativiser morphology found that learners did not make use of a theory of markedness like the accessibility hierarchy for relativization, but rather appeared to construct rules on the basis of the linear ordering of the constituents of restrictive relative clauses in…

Argues that, when considering subject pronouns, one must examine the input to the learner. English transcripts by two Spanish native speakers demonstrate that the pattern of learner-language pronoun use closely parallels native speaker use. Data suggest that considering principles of Universal Grammar devoid of contest is insufficient for…