9. L2 acquisition of tense-aspect morphology
-
Ho Leung Chan
Abstract
Comparing universal against language-specific factors, this chapter examines the roles of lexical aspect, morphological regularity, and transfer in the developmental emergence of past and progressive morphology among four adult learners of English from Italian and Punjabi L1 backgrounds. The learner production data were obtained from the European Science Foundation SLA corpus (Perdue 1993). In contrast to qualitative findings by Klein (1995), quantitative results reveal that lexical aspect correlates with the distribution of tense-aspect morphology, supporting the core predictions of the Aspect Hypothesis (Andersen and Shirai 1994) that learners predominantly use past/perfective markers with telic predicates, and progressive morphology with activity verbs. A paucity of production data makes it difficult to pinpoint effects of morphological regularity and transfer.
Abstract
Comparing universal against language-specific factors, this chapter examines the roles of lexical aspect, morphological regularity, and transfer in the developmental emergence of past and progressive morphology among four adult learners of English from Italian and Punjabi L1 backgrounds. The learner production data were obtained from the European Science Foundation SLA corpus (Perdue 1993). In contrast to qualitative findings by Klein (1995), quantitative results reveal that lexical aspect correlates with the distribution of tense-aspect morphology, supporting the core predictions of the Aspect Hypothesis (Andersen and Shirai 1994) that learners predominantly use past/perfective markers with telic predicates, and progressive morphology with activity verbs. A paucity of production data makes it difficult to pinpoint effects of morphological regularity and transfer.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Editors and contributors ix
- Foreword: Space and time in languages, cultures, and cognition xiii
- Introduction: Linguistic diversity in the spatio-temporal domain 1
-
I. Representing location in space and time
- 1. Spatial relations in Hinuq and Bezhta 15
- 2. Pragmatically disambiguating space 35
- 3. The semantics of the perfect progressive in English 53
- 4. Drowning “into” the river in North Sámi 73
- 5. Cross-linguistic differences in expressing time and universal principles of utterance interpretation 95
- 6. Modelling temporal reasoning 123
- 7. Language-specific perspectives in reference to time in the discourse of Czech, English, and Hungarian speakers 135
- 8. More than “time” 157
-
II. Space and time in language acquisition
- 9. L2 acquisition of tense-aspect morphology 181
- 10. Motion events in Japanese and English 205
- 11. ‘He walked up the pole with arms and legs’ 233
- 12. Caused motion events across languages and learner types 263
- 13. Spatial prepositions in Italian L2 289
- 14. Expressing simultaneity using aspect 325
-
III. Dynamic relations in space and time domains
- 15. Variation in motion events 349
- 16. Italian motion constructions 373
- 17. A temporal approach to motion verbs 395
- 18. The role of grammar in the conceptualisation of ‘progression’ 417
- 19. The locative PP motion construction in Polish 437
- 20. Path salience in motion descriptions in Jaminjung 459
- Contents of the companion volume: Language, culture, and cognition 481
- Name index 483
- Subject index 487
- Language index 491
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Editors and contributors ix
- Foreword: Space and time in languages, cultures, and cognition xiii
- Introduction: Linguistic diversity in the spatio-temporal domain 1
-
I. Representing location in space and time
- 1. Spatial relations in Hinuq and Bezhta 15
- 2. Pragmatically disambiguating space 35
- 3. The semantics of the perfect progressive in English 53
- 4. Drowning “into” the river in North Sámi 73
- 5. Cross-linguistic differences in expressing time and universal principles of utterance interpretation 95
- 6. Modelling temporal reasoning 123
- 7. Language-specific perspectives in reference to time in the discourse of Czech, English, and Hungarian speakers 135
- 8. More than “time” 157
-
II. Space and time in language acquisition
- 9. L2 acquisition of tense-aspect morphology 181
- 10. Motion events in Japanese and English 205
- 11. ‘He walked up the pole with arms and legs’ 233
- 12. Caused motion events across languages and learner types 263
- 13. Spatial prepositions in Italian L2 289
- 14. Expressing simultaneity using aspect 325
-
III. Dynamic relations in space and time domains
- 15. Variation in motion events 349
- 16. Italian motion constructions 373
- 17. A temporal approach to motion verbs 395
- 18. The role of grammar in the conceptualisation of ‘progression’ 417
- 19. The locative PP motion construction in Polish 437
- 20. Path salience in motion descriptions in Jaminjung 459
- Contents of the companion volume: Language, culture, and cognition 481
- Name index 483
- Subject index 487
- Language index 491
