The processing of phrasal verbs by native and nonnative speakers of English.
Item
-
Title
-
The processing of phrasal verbs by native and nonnative speakers of English.
-
Identifier
-
AAI9009760
-
identifier
-
9009760
-
Creator
-
McPartland-Fairman, Pamela.
-
Contributor
-
Adviser: David A. Swinney
-
Date
-
1989
-
Language
-
English
-
Publisher
-
City University of New York.
-
Subject
-
Language, Linguistics | Education, Language and Literature | Education, Educational Psychology
-
Abstract
-
Although native speakers of English often show a predilection for phrasal verbs over their single-word equivalents, non-native speakers do not seem to share that preference. A number of studies (McPartland, 1983; Dagut and Laufer, 1985; and Yorio, 1989) have demonstrated that non-native speakers of English produce very few phrasal verbs in their spontaneous speech (and when they do, make errors), generally avoid using phrasal verbs, and prefer semantically transparent combinations over opaque units, if they find they must use them.;Why do non-native speakers avoid using phrasal verbs? What makes them inherently difficult to acquire and process? Are opaque combinations more difficult to process than transparent items? What do non-native speakers comprehend when they hear phrasal verbs in context: do they become confused between the literal and the figurative meanings of these constructions?;This study investigated the comprehension of phrasal verbs by 32 advanced non-native speakers and compared the results with those of 32 native speakers of English with the goal of determining which meanings (literal, figurative, or both) are accessed during discourse comprehension and whether context plays a role in the lexical access process. In the experiment, forty phrasal verbs in context biased toward the literal or figurative interpretation were presented to the subjects auditorily. Using a cross-modal semantic priming technique, evidence was obtained about which meanings were activated. Overall, it was found that the non-native speakers' lexical access was similar to that of native speakers. Both groups simultaneously accessed the literal and figurative meanings regardless of biasing context. This suggests that the problems non-native speakers have with language comprehension, at least with ambiguous lexical items like phrasal verbs, do not take place at the level of access, and therefore, by default, must occur in a post-access stage of processing.
-
Type
-
dissertation
-
Source
-
PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
-
degree
-
Ph.D.
