Abstract:
This project investigates the relationship between lexical semantics and
causative morphology in the acquisition of causative/inchoative-related
verbs in English as a foreign language by Iranian speakers. Results of
translation and picture judgment task show although L2 learners have largely
acquired the correct lexico-syntactic classification of verbs in English, they
were constrained by the morphological patterns of their first language (L1)
when learning zero morphology, especially with causative/inchoative verbs.
Results also show the lack of the learners' proficiency level in all
causative/inchoative contexts and in almost all contexts in grammatical
judgment task.The transitivity errors documented are analogous to the
overgeneralization errors reported in the L1 and L2 acquisition literature of
English and other languages. In this study, we also suggest that L2 learners
are atuned to the rich morphology of Persian and that the acquisition of
derivational morphology and lexical semantics are not dissociated in these
interlanguage grammars.
Machine summary:
"Results of translation and picture judgment task show although L2 learners have largely acquired the correct lexico-syntactic classification of verbs in English, they were constrained by the morphological patterns of their first language (L1) when learning zero morphology, especially with causative/inchoative verbs.
We found the picture judgment task first-language-constrained variability in the second-language acquisition of argument-structure-changing morphology with causative verbs" interesting.
Subjects’ performance in causative and inchoative verbs (View the image of this page) A paired sample t-test was conducted to compare the causative and inchoative contexts irrespective of the proficiency factor as it did not turn out to have a significant difference.
Inferential statistics for the comparison of normal and periphrastic contexts (View the image of this page) The above table shows that there was a significant main effect of context for all causative (transitive) contexts in both psych and non- psych verbs (p<0.
, 1996; Brooks and Tomasello,1999) and in morphologically complex languages (Figueira, 1984; Aksu- Koç&Slobin, 1985; Morikawa, 1991; Berman, 1993; 1994; Pye, 1994; Allen, 1996; Borer, 1997).
For example, in the oral production task administered to the participants, Juffs (1996) found that Chinese learners of English uttered more periphrastic forms (John made the ball rolldown the hill) than lexical causatives (John rolled the ball down thehill) with locative, change of state and causative psych verbs, because causative morphology is expressed overtly in Chinese by the verb –shiand zero-morphemes are not possible."