Lexical semantics in advanced second language French: The acquisition of genericity

Hermas, Abdelkader

doi:10.1016/j.lingua.2019.102761

Cited by 6 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…Neither language group showed any L1 effect as both performed similarly with indefinite specific and generic references. The results of Alzamil's (2015) study can be contrasted with those of Hermas (2020aHermas ( , 2020b, who found that L1 Moroccan Arabic learners struggled with generic references with L2 French and L3 English due to L1 transfer. Crompton (2011) explored the types of errors made by Arabic learners of English in a corpus obtained from argumentative essays written by undergraduate students in their first and second years.…”

Section: Previous Studies On the Acquisition Of Genericity In Englishmentioning

confidence: 82%

“…As explained in Section 2.5, Arabic only employs the definite article with generic references, so the use of the indefinite article in L2 English is likely to prove problematic for Arabic speakers. Recent studies by Hermas (2020aHermas ( , 2020b have found that L1 Moroccan Arabic learners face difficulty with the indefinite article with generic references in L2 French and L3 English due to L1 transfer. The first study (Hermas, 2020a) investigated the acquisition of genericity with L1 Moroccan Arabic learners of L3 English, and the second (Hermas, 2020b)…”

Section: Previous Studies On the Acquisition Of Genericity In Englishmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Recent studies by Hermas (2020aHermas ( , 2020b have found that L1 Moroccan Arabic learners face difficulty with the indefinite article with generic references in L2 French and L3 English due to L1 transfer. The first study (Hermas, 2020a) investigated the acquisition of genericity with L1 Moroccan Arabic learners of L3 English, and the second (Hermas, 2020b)…”

Section: Previous Studies On the Acquisition Of Genericity In Englishmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…French showed that they were accurate in judging the definite singular and plural with the NP generic and sentence generic, but still demonstrated low accuracy with the indefinite article due to L1 transfer (Hermas, 2020b). Alzamil (2015) found that L1 Arabic and L1 Mandarin Chinese learners of L2 English showed similar accuracy with the indefinite specific and definite and indefinite articles with generic references.…”

Section: Previous Studies On the Acquisition Of Genericity In Englishmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These studies have focused on the errors that learners make when employing definite and indefinite articles. Fewer have focused on specificity (Al-Zahrani, 2011) or genericity (Crompton, 2011;Sabir, 2015;Abumlhah, 2016;Hermas, 2020aHermas, , 2020b. It would therefore be valuable to investigate both specificity and genericity with Saudi-Arabic learners as much uncertainty remains about how accuracy with the different features of definiteness might present with Saudi-Arabic learners.…”

Section: Introduction 11 Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The role of first language transfer in the acquisition of definiteness in specific and generic contexts by Saudi-Arabic learners of English

Aboras¹

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Studies on the acquisition of definiteness in English by Arabic learners have largely focused on the errors made using articles. The present study investigates the accuracy of Saudi-Arabic learners with regard to the different features associated with definiteness: specificity and genericity. Arabic, like English, contains a definite article and an indefinite article; however, article usage differs between the languages in that Saudi-Arabic tends to drop the indefinite article as it is not obligatory, as it is in English. The purpose of this study is therefore to examine the accuracy with which learners employ specificity and genericity and the effect of the first language on learners’ accuracy. The thesis examines the effects of proficiency level and vocabulary level (receptive and productive). Two experimental studies were carried out, the first focusing on specificity by testing the Bottleneck Hypothesis (Slabakova, 2008) and the Fluctuation Hypothesis (Ionin et al., 2004). The former posits that learners are able to map features between L1 and L2 and that similarities and differences between languages affects acquisition. The latter hypothesis relates to definiteness and specificity, postulating that learners fluctuate between article settings until they acquire the Article Choice Parameter in English. The second experiment focused on genericity with singular and plural contexts, testing the Bottleneck Hypothesis (Slabakova, 2008) and the Representational Deficit Hypothesis (Hawkins & Chan, 1997), which argues that learners cannot acquire a new uninterpretable feature if it is already set in their L1. These experiments demonstrated that the accuracy of Saudi-Arabic learners of English varies according to definiteness features, as the participants performed more accurately with specificity than with genericity. First language transfer affected uses involving genericity more than those involving specificity. The other factors – proficiency level and receptive and productive vocabulary knowledge – affected the learners’ accuracy with respect to both specificity and genericity.

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Section: Previous Studies On the Acquisition Of Genericity In Englishmentioning

confidence: 82%

Section: Previous Studies On the Acquisition Of Genericity In Englishmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Previous Studies On the Acquisition Of Genericity In Englishmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Previous Studies On the Acquisition Of Genericity In Englishmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introduction 11 Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The role of first language transfer in the acquisition of definiteness in specific and generic contexts by Saudi-Arabic learners of English

Aboras¹

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Nunation and the L2 acquisition of English indefinite articles by L1 Najdi and Hijazi speakers

Alzamil¹

2023

Heliyon

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Acquisition of kind-reference by Arabic, Chinese, and Turkish L2 learners of English

Köylü

2023

Can. J. Linguist.

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This study examines the acquisition of kind-referring expressions such as The dodo is extinct. The objective is to investigate whether second language (L2) learners’ acquisition of nominal number marking and articles expressing kind-reference in English is affected by their first language (L1), their L2 proficiency in English, or the syntactic position of the kind-referring noun phrase (NP). L2 learners of English with Arabic, Chinese, and Turkish L1 backgrounds and a control group of native English speakers (NSs) participated in the study. The results from a Fill in the Gaps Task (FGT) and an Acceptability Judgment Task (AJT) demonstrated that L2 learners were more successful in their production and acceptability judgments when the expression of kind-reference in the target language was similar to that in their L1. The results also showed non-facilitative L1 transfer in the domain of bare singulars, as well as a positive effect of higher L2 proficiency on kind-referring NPs. Finally, the study revealed a subject/object asymmetry in the acquisition of kind-referring NPs in L2 English.

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Lexical semantics in advanced second language French: The acquisition of genericity

Cited by 6 publications

References 12 publications

The role of first language transfer in the acquisition of definiteness in specific and generic contexts by Saudi-Arabic learners of English

The role of first language transfer in the acquisition of definiteness in specific and generic contexts by Saudi-Arabic learners of English

Nunation and the L2 acquisition of English indefinite articles by L1 Najdi and Hijazi speakers

Acquisition of kind-reference by Arabic, Chinese, and Turkish L2 learners of English

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