The function of perception in the acquisition of nonnative inflectional morphology: The case of the past in English.
Item
-
Title
-
The function of perception in the acquisition of nonnative inflectional morphology: The case of the past in English.
-
Identifier
-
AAI9020782
-
identifier
-
9020782
-
Creator
-
Man, David Gordon.
-
Contributor
-
Adviser: William S. Stewart
-
Date
-
1990
-
Language
-
English
-
Publisher
-
City University of New York.
-
Subject
-
Language, Linguistics
-
Abstract
-
Adult second language learners of English often fail to produce inflectional forms in speech and writing. This study attempts to establish perception as a factor in problems of production by examining the extent to which a second language learner's representation of a target language's phonological system can determine the learner's ability to accurately perceive morphophonological material. Fourteen regular verbs were chosen on the basis of their stem final phonological environments, and a rank order made in terms of saliency. Each verb appeared in four different modes on a randomized list consisting of four examples of each of the fourteen verbs. Four groups of twenty-seven speakers, each group representing Spanish, Russian, Chinese, and Japanese, were asked to identify the presence or absence of the 'ed' morpheme, by deciding whether the pairs were the same or different. Subjects performed quite accurately on salient environments, but in complex environments accuracy of identification was reduced considerably. The learner's native language and level of proficiency did not contribute to performance, but rather, the phonological system of the target language itself was the main determinant. A second identification test using the same morphological material within the context of sentences, was administered. The learners performed on certain items at the level of chance. Spectrograms revealed a gap of a few milliseconds longer between the inflected form and the word following. This cue, used by native speakers in identifying the past, may well lie beyond the reach of the non-native speaker, and can explain the difference in performance.
-
Type
-
dissertation
-
Source
-
PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
-
degree
-
Ph.D.
