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- Volume 8, Issue 1, 2019
Dutch Journal of Applied Linguistics - Volume 8, Issue 1, 2019
Volume 8, Issue 1, 2019
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Naive physics vs compositionality in evaluating the Lexical Aspect Hypothesis
Author(s): Henk J. Verkuylpp.: 5–23 (19)More LessAbstractIt will be argued that the LAH suffers from being based on the naive physics originating from ordinary language philosophers, who practiced ontology rather than doing semantics. Their metaphysics turns out to be incompatible with the principle of compositionality. Due to them a verb has been taken as a predicate rather than as a linguistic unit with its own lexical meaning. Therefore the leniency of a verb in the sense of being available for a wide variety of arguments has been underestimated.
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Task and L1 effects
Author(s): Paz González and Tim Diaubalickpp.: 24–40 (17)More LessAbstractResearch on tense-aspect phenomena has shown that the type of experimental task can affect the performance of L2 learners. This pilot study on the understudied language combination Dutch-Spanish investigates this issue by focusing on the interaction between known affecting variables (inherent aspect; L1 effects) and different tasks (multiple-choice, fill-in-the-blanks, free production). First findings show that, indeed, both task type and L1 have an influence on the outcome. Generally, Dutch learners seem to prefer the Imperfect over the Preterit. This stands in contrast to previous research but can be explained by the imperfective features of the Dutch Simple Past with which the learners associate the L2 forms. Whereas this L1 effect is not visible in the multiple-choice task where the choice is forced, it manifests itself in tasks where students can choose freely between forms they know. Especially in the free production task, the L1 effect interacts with a high individual variability.
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A ‘mixed methods’ approach for investigating aspect in a second language
Author(s): Laura Domínguezpp.: 41–66 (26)More LessAbstractA leading hypothesis in the study of the L2 acquisition of aspect-related verbal morphemes is the Lexical Aspect Hypothesis (LAH) (Andersen, 1989, 1991; Andersen & Shirai, 1994) which claims that learners’ use of these forms is determined by the lexical properties of events. Reviews of major studies reveal that data from one single task, usually an open-ended oral task, have often been used to support this hypothesis. I discuss copious evidence from the acquisition of Spanish to argue that when studies use a ‘mixed methods’ approach (e.g. combining oral production and experimentally elicited data) they are able to test existing hypotheses such as the LAH more reliably and can offer more valuable insights. Existing evidence from the SPLLOC project (Domínguez, Tracy-Ventura, Arche, Mitchell, & Myles, 2013; Mitchell, Domínguez, Arche, Myles, & Marsden, 2008) is used as supporting evidence for this approach and to raise questions about the appropriateness of some research methods widely used in our field.
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Transfer in L3 acquisition
Author(s): Lukas Eibensteinerpp.: 67–83 (17)More LessAbstractThe present study examines the influence of L2 English on the acquisition of perfective and imperfective aspect in L3 Spanish among German-speaking learners. We will argue that English will be activated as the default transfer source due to principles of acquisition, which are similar for both the L2 and the L3, and because of structural similarities between both languages. The analysis is based on data from 36 German-speaking learners with varying levels of knowledge of aspect in English, their L2, and learning Spanish. For data elicitation, two semantic interpretation tasks were used. The findings show that aspectual knowledge in L2 English affects the acquisition of L3 Spanish past tenses. However, the positive effect is not comprehensive, but rather, restricted to certain semantic contexts (e.g., past/perfective contexts). The discussion points to the possible effects of oversimplified one-to-one-mappings of form and meaning between L2 English and L3 Spanish.
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Speaker’s stance and subjectivity in the epistemic modal and evidential use of the Spanish imperfecto in journalistic texts
Author(s): Verónica Böhmpp.: 84–99 (16)More LessAbstractThis study contributes to the analysis of the epistemic modal and evidential use of the Spanish imperfecto with regard to the speaker’s stance and subjectively (rather than grammatically) motivated decision to use the Spanish imperfecto as an evidential strategy in journalistic texts: The speaker uses the Spanish imperfecto to express or tell a state of affairs from his perspective as a ‘narrator’, implying that he is not the author of such information and referring to third sources without mentioning it. The corpus data were obtained from the Corpus de la Real Academia Española (CREA) from the section ‘written journalistic texts’ of the standard Iberian Spanish to guarantee the authenticity of examples and avoid any case of misunderstanding it as a variety of Spanish.
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The effects of telicity, dynamicity and punctuality in L2 acquisition of Spanish Preterit and Imperfect
Author(s): Lucía Quintana Hernándezpp.: 100–116 (17)More LessAbstractThe aim of this work is to investigate the use of Spanish Preterit and Imperfect by English speaking learners of L2 Spanish following the Lexical Aspect Hypothesis (Andersen & Shirai, 1996; Díaz, Bel, & Bekiou, 2008; Domínguez, Tracy-Ventura, Arche, Mitchell, & Miles, 2013; González, 2003, 2013; Montrul & Slabakova, 2002). The article studies how aspectual features bias Preterit and Imperfect in initial, intermediate and advanced learners. The results, based on an approximate binomial distribution analysis, confirm that Preterit is the preferred past, which supports L1 transfer (Salaberry & Shirai, 2002). The results also verify that Preterit is biased by dynamicity and punctuality at all levels. Telicity effects come into play in intermediate levels, while punctuality effects are reinforced in advanced levels. Stativity influences the use of Imperfect in intermediate level, which reveals that there are differences in the bias effect regarding proficiency level.
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A single concept to teach mood contrastin Spanish
Author(s): Elena Solá Simónpp.: 117–135 (19)More LessAbstractTraditional methods for the teaching of the Spanish mood system are generally focused on the different morphosyntactic and semantic connections between the matrix and the embedded clause. This generally entails the provision of an extensive classification of subordinate clauses with the embedded verb in the subjunctive mood plus another classification with the exceptions which students need to learn/memorise in order to use them under controlled conditions. A preliminary study was carried out in which L2 learners were introduced to the subjunctive mood following a different approach (i.e. cognitive-operative). Based on the single binary opposition of declaration/non-declaration by Ruiz Campillo (2004), this approach provides a single operative value which can explain all the uses of the subjunctive without exception. The results were positive and showed that introducing Spanish mood contrast by means of this conceptual pair has the potential to improve learners’ ability to select between moods.
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