Description, acquisition and teaching of polysemous verbs: The case of quedar
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Lucía Gómez Vicente
Abstract
This paper analyzes the usage of frequent polysemous verbs by native speakers and by L2 learners and it makes several pedagogical suggestions on how to teach polysemous verbs in a L2 classroom. To achieve these objectives, we have examined the case of the Spanish verb quedar, which means “to remain”, “to stay”, “to be left”, “to make an appointment”, etc. A methodology based on narratives and sentence elicitation has been created. The experiences were accomplished by Spanish speakers (adults and children), and French university students of Spanish, who performed productions in Spanish (L2) and in French (L1). The results of this study seem to confirm that adult native speakers used the semantic network of polysemous verbs in a very conventional manner. Meanings appear to have been acquired thanks to usage, by storing linguistic experiences as patterns, and operating mostly by analogy process. Children seem to have primarily elicited quedar in conventional situations (for instance, to fix an appointment) and depending on a cost-effectiveness criteria (only if this verb adds a pragmatic gain compared to simpler options). The acquisition path of quedar by children (L1) seems to be driven by different factors than for L2 learners. French learners of Spanish used quedar meanings differently from native speakers and they were highly influenced by their L1, both semantically and syntactically.
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© 2019 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Editorial
- Applied cognitive linguistics and foreign language learning. Introduction to the special issue
- Articles
- Description, acquisition and teaching of polysemous verbs: The case of quedar
- Mr Bean exits the garage driving or does he drive out of the garage? Bidirectional transfer in the expression of Path
- A cognitive approach to teaching deictic motion verbs to German and Italian students of Spanish
- “How to become a woman without turninginto a Barbie”: Change-of-state verbconstructions and their role in Spanish as a Foreign Language
- Exploring the pedagogical potential of vertical and horizontal relations in the constructicon:The case of the family of subjective-transitive constructions with decir in Spanish
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Editorial
- Applied cognitive linguistics and foreign language learning. Introduction to the special issue
- Articles
- Description, acquisition and teaching of polysemous verbs: The case of quedar
- Mr Bean exits the garage driving or does he drive out of the garage? Bidirectional transfer in the expression of Path
- A cognitive approach to teaching deictic motion verbs to German and Italian students of Spanish
- “How to become a woman without turninginto a Barbie”: Change-of-state verbconstructions and their role in Spanish as a Foreign Language
- Exploring the pedagogical potential of vertical and horizontal relations in the constructicon:The case of the family of subjective-transitive constructions with decir in Spanish
