Second Language Acquisition Semester 1, 2004

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Second Language Acquisition Semester 1, 2004

• Week 12
• The L2 lexicon

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Two dimensions of word knowledge

• Breadth the number of words the meaning of which
  one has at least some superficial knowledge.
• - a continuum of partial to precise knowledge
• Depth how well one knows a word
• - knowledge components identified by use in
  various contexts

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Two more dimensions of word knowledge

• Receptive skills perceiving a word while
  listening or reading and retrieving its meaning
• Productive skills wanting to express a meaning
  through speaking and writing and retrieving and
  producing the appropriate spoken or written form.
• Also passive versus active

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What does it mean to know a word?

• Knowledge of form
• spoken
• written
• word parts
• Knowledge of meaning
• form meaning
• concepts referents
• association
• Knowledge of use
• grammatical functions
• collocations
• constraints on use Nation (2001), p 27

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Organisation of the mental lexicon

• Given the number of words in the working lexicon,
  word retrieval must be fast and fluent.
• There must be some systematic way in which all
  these words are organised in mental lexicon.

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Recognising words The role of sound-based links

• Word recognition is facilitated by sound-based
  links to the lemma. These links include syllable
  sequence information, the words rhythmic pattern
  and the internal structure of syllables. Access
  is achieved through a process of interactive
  activation, in which many candidates can compete
  for selection.

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Producing words From meaning to sound

• Word access in production uses lemma information
  to guide the selection of the correct meaning and
  word class. Many candidates can compete for
  selection is evident in speech error blends,
  such as She chuttled (chuckle chortle) at the
  news. My buggage (baggage luggage) is too
  heavy.

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L1 and L2 mental lexicon

• Do form and meaning in the L2 function in the
  same way as in the L1?
• Does the L2 mental lexicon develop independently
  of the L1 ?

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Form and meaning in the L2 mental lexicon

• The phonological view
• The L2 lexicon is organised primarily on a
  phonological basis.

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Evidence for the phonological view

• Findings from Word association task
• Meara (1978) presented L1 and L2 subjects a word
  in French and asked them to give a word
  associated with it.

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Syntagmatic and paradigmatic links

• Native speakers gave paradigmatic or syntagmatic
  responses, depending on semantic factors.
• Paradigmatic
• Stimulus Response
• man woman / child/ dog/ etc.
• Syntagmatic
• brush teeth
• hold hands
• bank robber
• etc.

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Clang associates

• L2 learners tended to give responses based on
  phonological similarity (clang associates),
  such as producing plafond ceiling, or
  professeur professor for the stimulus profund
  deep.
• Meara concluded that phonological organization is
  relatively more important in the L2 lexicon.

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Countering the phonological view

• Although the phonological view has had wide
  currency, several shortcomings of the original
  research have been noted (Singleton, 1999).
• gtgt L1 words may be mistaken for other words
• gtgt Few genuine clang responses
• gtgt Failure to replicate (OGorman, 1996).
• gtgt Similarities to L1 child-adult differences
• Children also produce clangs.
• Syntagmatic gtgtgt Paradimatic shift evident.
• Singleton, D. (1999). Exploring the second
  language mental lexicon. Cambridge Cambridge
  University Press

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Form and meaning in L2 word learning

• Lack of evidence for phonological view.
• Formal factors affecting L2 acquisition also
  affect L1 acquisition.
• Learning meaning is more difficult than learning
  form.
• Both form and meaning play a role from the very
  beginning in L2 word learning.

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Intralexical factors in L2 vocabulary learning

• Form-based factors that affect word learnability
• pronunciability
• length
• grammatical category
• morphological complexity

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Intralexical factors in L2 vocabulary learning

• Meaning-based factors that affect word
  learnability
• specificity of meaning
• multiple meaning
• connotational nuances
• synonymy

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The bilingual lexicon

• Common or separate memory representations?
• Evidence for common system come from studies
  showing crosslinguistic priming 'casa will
  prime 'house'.
• Kroll, J.F. (1993). Accessing conceptual
  representations for words in a second language.
  In Schreuder, R. Weltens, B. (Eds.) The
  bilingual lexicon. Amsterdam John Benjamins. Pp
  53-81

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Evidence for separate systems

• Other studies show no crosslanguage effects in
  repetition priming.
• Block A. Subjects make word-nonword decisions
  (lexical decision task) in one language.
• Block B lexical decision task on list which
  contains translation from first list. Translated
  word no faster than new word.
• Block A house table sky ...
• Block B madre casa agua.
• Methodological issues raised re the lexical
  decision task

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A common conceptual system

• Levels of representation model
• Words are surface level independent lexical
  representations
• Concepts are part of a single underlying
  conceptual system
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• Word association L2 words gain access to
  concepts via L1 words
• Concept mediation L2 words directly access
  concepts.

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The bilingual lexicon

• L2 development seen as shifting from word
  association to conceptual access.

Lexical links
L1
L2
concepts
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Conclusions about the bilingual lexicon

• Form and meaning in the L2 function in the same
  way as in the L1
• The L1 and L2 are functionally separate
  phonological and orthographic systems but have a
  close interconnection at the conceptual level.

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End of slides Week 12 SLA