Project description
The inner structure of the lexicon has been investigated both from a semantic and a formal point of view by a number of studies adopting different theoretical perspectives. In particular, it is worth mentioning Pustejovsky (1995), Olbertz / Hengeveld / García (1998) and Cruse (2004). A semantic approach was also adopted by Cruse (2004), the cognitive aspect of lexicalization was investigated by Talmy (2000), whereas the interrelation between semantics and syntax was discussed in Ježek (2003), where a classification of the argument structures of (Italian) verbs is also proposed. Words belonging to various word classes may play different roles in the lexical organisation of different languages: This assertion is confirmed by the typological study carried out by Lehman (1990), whose point of view may play a major role in the analysis of second language acquisition processes.
As for the learners’ lexical competence – which has recently regained attention (cf. Meara 2002) –, it was investigated from a psycholinguistic perspective, in relation to the development of the mental lexicon (cf., in particular, Singleton 1999), in classroom acquisition, with a special focus on the influence exerted by written language (e.g. Webb 2005). Other aspects of the research worth further investigation are: the measure of vocabulary richness in the individual competence of the learners; the acquisition of items relating to subsectors of the vocabulary of the second language, such as that of spatial expressions; the internal structure of the learner's lexicon on the morpho-syntactical level (word classes and word families) and on the semantic level (meaning relations among lexemes) Contrary to L1 acquisition, at present there are few detailed empirical studies of the growing lexical competence in the L2 based on longitudinal data.
The acquisition of the second language lexicon implies the construction of the four component of the content of the word:
- the phonological component, involving the ability to identify the words of the target language in the continuous phonetic chain of native input;
- the semantic component, involving the ability to assign the words a meaning, be it concrete (content words) or grammatical (function words);
- the syntactic component, i.e. the connections a word can establish with other words, with particular reference to word classes and to the argument structure of predicates
- the morphological component, i.e. the internal morphological structure of the word, which allows its alignment with other words of the same family.
The order of acquisition of the four components may be related to the overall development of the learner variety, with particular regard of the transition between prebasic and basic varieties and between basic and initial/advanced postbasic varieties.
First language influence, beside influence of other second languages, is among the major factors constraining the acquisition of the second language lexicon. Cross-linguistic influence conditions the learner’s perception and accessibility of the words of the second language in the phonological and in the semantic domain as well. Relevant parameters in this respect are the typological distance of first and second language and the knowledge of another second language - English in first place -, functioning as a bridge between first and second language. Additionally first language influences lexicalization patterns and the perspective taken by the learner in constructing the second language text.
The group members will investigate the development of lexicon in children and adult second language learners, comparing the acquisition processes of learners with typologically different first language backgrounds.
Data, either drawn from available data bases or newly collected for the purpose of this project, will be longitudinal as well as cross-sectional. For the sake of comparability, data to be considered are mainly narratives produced in response to the same visual stimulus (sequence of drawings or film).
Second languages investigated comprise: English, French, German, Italian, Polish. The range of the learners’ first languages comprises Albanian, Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Polish, Russian, Serbian, Turkish.
The structure of the lexicon in learner varieties is investigated:
- from the perspective of lexical semantics, i.e. of the lexicalisation strategies resorted to by the learners at different levels of acquisition, with particular regard of the domain of space and of spatial localisation events (posture and motion verbs) and of telicity;
- from the perspective of morpho-syntax, i.e. of the organization of lexical units in word classes, with particular regard of the role of the morphological component in the constitution of Nouns and Verbs and of the role played by adverbials;
- from the perspective of syntax, i.e. of the verbal lexicon in its growing complexity, with particular regard of the argument structure of the predicates involved.
References
Cruse, A. D., 2004, Meaning in language, Oxford, Oxford University Press.
Ježek, E., 2003, Classi di verbi tra semantica e sintassi, Pisa, ETS edizioni.
Lehmann, Christian, 1990, “Towards lexical typology”. In: Croft, William/Denning, Keith/Kemmer, Suzanne (eds), Studies in Typology and Diachrony for Joseph H. Greenberg, Amsterdam, Benjamins, pp. 161-185
Meara, P. 2002, “The rediscovery of vocabulary”, Second Language Research 18, pp. 393-407.
Olbertz H., Hengeveld K., García J.S. (eds), 1998, The structure of the Lexicon in Functional Grammar, Amsterdam, Benjamins.
Pustejovsky J., 1995, The Generative Lexicon, Cambridge Mass., The MIT Press
Singleton D., 1999, Exploring the second language mental lexicon, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press
Talmy, Leonard, 2000, Toward a cognitive semantics. Vol. I: Concept structuring systems; Vol. II: Typology and process in concept structuring Cambridge, MA, MIT Press.
Webb, S., 2005, “Receptive and productive vocabulary learning. The effects of reading and writing on word knowledge”, Studies in Second Language Acquisition 17, pp. 33-52.