The multilingual lexicon: Issues in adult second language acquisition - Einzelansicht

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Recent research on second language (L2) has shown particular interest in identifying the domains of grammar, which pose difficulty for L2 learners even after prolonged L2 exposure. Morphology is observed to be one of the most difficult domains of grammar particularly for adult L2 learners. Persistent variability in the use of L2 morphology is a widely-observed phenomenon among adult learners. Variability is observed particularly in inflectional morphology and it appears in the form of omission or substitution of L2 morphemes. Among the models identifying the linguistic nature of morphological problems in L2 acquisition are the Impaired Representation Hypothesis, the Missing Surface Inflection Hypothesis, and the Feature (Re)assembly Approach. The Impaired Representation Hypothesis suggests that L2 inflection is permanently impaired due to inaccessibility of relevant abstract functional categories, features or feature strength in the L2, hinting at the possibility that these problems will not disappear even in the end state L2. The Missing Surface Inflection Hypothesis, on the other hand, proposes that L2 learners have full representation of functional categories and features at the abstract level but they may fail to realize them at the surface morphological level. The Feature (Re)assembly Approach assumes that the task of the L2 learner is to determine how to assemble the (morpho)lexical items in the L2 (e.g. -s in English) with functional features (e.g., [±plural]). This requires reconfiguring or remapping features from the way these are represented in the L1 into new formal configurations on possibly quite different types of lexical items in the L2. In the last two accounts, L2 learners’ omission of overt/surface morphology does not imply inaccessibility of corresponding functional categories/features in the L2. In addition to these representational views, there are processing accounts of morphological problems in the L2. These recent psycholinguistic models attempt to link morphological variability in the L2 to the pattern of representation/access of multimorphemic words. The first part of this lecture will focus on linguistic accounts of morphological problems in adult L2 acquisition. Different linguistic accounts (as cited above) will be covered in the lecture in reference to central issues in adult L2 acquisition such as cross-linguistic transfer and ultimate attainment. In the second part of the lecture, current psycholinguistic studies examining processing of L2 inflections via online lexical decision tasks will be discussed in relation to the issue of morphological variability in the L2. Thus the lecture will enable students to gain an understanding of how theoretical linguistics can be complemented by psycholinguistic models to explain main issues in late L2 acquisition, particularly the question of why late L2 acquisition is often characterized by morphological variability.