Morphological generalization in bilingual language production: Age of acquisition determines variability

Abstract

Morphological variability in bilingual language production is widely attested. Producing inflected words has been found to be less reliable and consistent in bilinguals than in first-language (functionally monolingual) L1 speakers, even for bilingual speakers at advanced proficiency levels. The sources for these differences are not well understood. The current study presents a detailed investigation of morphological generalization processes in bilingual speakers' language production. We examined past participle formation of German using an elicited-production experiment containing nonce verbs with varying degrees of similarity to existing verbs testing a large group of bilingual Turkish/German speakers relative to L1 German speakers. We compared similarity-based lexical extensions with generalizations of morphological rules. The results show that rule-based generalizations are used less often and more variably within the bilingual group than within the L1 group. Our results also show a selective effect of age of acquisition on the bilingual speakers' morphological generalizations.

Sensitivity to Regular and Irregular Past Tense Morphology in Native Speakers and Second Language Learners of English: Evidence From Intermediate-to-Advanced Persian Speakers of L2 English

“…Accordingly, the results supported the dual-system theory (Pinker, 1999) but not Ullman's DP models. Very recently, using an elicited-production task (without any time pressure), Clahsen and Jessen (2021) compared NSs and advanced Turkish L2ers of German in producing nonce regular-t past participle verb forms and irregular-n past participles of German. Stimuli were presented on a separate screen and participants were required to write the nonce regular and irregular verbs in sentential contexts.…”