The present semantic priming study explores the integration of newly learnt L2 German words into the L2 semantic network of German advanced learners. It provides additional evidence in support of earlier findings reporting semantic inhibition effects for emergent representations. An inhibitory mechanism is proposed that temporarily decreases the…

There is presently a lively debate in second language (L2) acquisition research as to whether (adult) learners can acquire linguistic phenomena located at the interface between syntax and other modules, such as semantics, pragmatics, and lexical semantics, in contrast to phenomena that are purely syntactic in nature. For some researchers, the…

This study examined how English learners in second-language (SL) and foreign-language (FL) contexts employ tense backshifting in indirect reported speech. Participants included 35 international students in the United States, 37 Bulgarian speakers of English, 38 Bosnian speakers of English, and 41 native English speakers. The instrument involved…

This experimental study on the acquisition of the double-object construction in Spanish as a second language (L2) by a group of first language (L1) English adults investigates the role of Universal Grammar (UG) and its interaction with L1 in two modules of grammar: morphosyntax and semantics. The double-object construction in Spanish differs from…

Surveys the development of second language acquisition research in the area of tense and aspect. Research in this area has grown from the incidental investigation of tense-aspect morphology as part of the morpheme-order studies to investigations of the construction of interlanguage temporal semantics. (Author/VWL)

Presents the results of a cross-linguistic study of the role of scope phenomena in untutored second language acquisition, or how adult learners in different source and target language settings acquire the means to express which part of an utterance is semantically affected by scope-bearing elements such scope particles or negation. (Author/VWL)

Examines the proposition that second language (L2) lexical forms are often mapped to the existing semantic content of their first language translations rather than to new semantic specifications of their own. Native and Nonnative English speakers were asked to perform two semantic judgment tasks in which they had to determine the degree of…

Acquisition of negation in Italian as a second language (L2) is investigated on the basis of the longitudinal data of five learners with different first languages in the framework of a functional approach focusing on the semantic and pragmatic principles governing the organization of learner varieties and the process of their complexification.…

Presents the results of a one-year longitudinal analysis of the interlanguage of an adult acquiring English without formal instruction. Observations of the form-function relationships in the early interlanguage are included as well as the ways these relationships change over the 12 months of the study. (SL)

Results of a study of two methods of morpheme quantification--one by suppliance in obligatory contexts, the other by target-like use--produced substantially different percentages of accuracy for subjects' production of the morphemes progressive "-ing," progressive auxiliary, and past irregular. This demonstrates that, as a consequence of applying…

Describes a study that explores whether less fluent non-native listeners attend more to syntactic than to semantic cues by testing three groups: native English-speakers and advanced and intermediate non-natives. Results show that semantically acceptable responses increased progressively for intermediate, advanced, and native groups, while…

It has been suggested that tense and aspect distributions are very difficult to learn in a second language (L2), they are prone to fossilize universally, and their interpretive properties are subject to a critical period (Coppieters, 1987). This study focuses on the acquisition of the semantic implications of the preterite-imperfect contrast in…

The acquisition of German in three adult Poles over a three-year period is examined based on an acquisition profile of each person that specified the sequences in acquisition. The findings suggest that cognitive factors must be considered to explain the varying degree of success in the acquisition process. (40 references) (Author/LB)

Follows up on a study by Dagut and Laufer (1985), who found that Hebrew learners of English avoid phrasal verbs. Three tests (multiple choice, memorization, and translation) were administered to Dutch learners of English to determine whether Dutch learners would tend not to avoid English phrasal verbs because they do not exist in Dutch. (Author/OD)

This paper reports replications of studies of implicit artificial grammar (AG) learning and explicit series-solution learning with experienced second language learners in order to examine their population and content generalizability. As found by Reber, Walkenfeld, and Hernstadt (1991), there was significantly greater variance in explicit compared…