scholarly journals An Optimality Analysis of the Morphophonemic Development of Triconsonantal Verbs of Normal Jordanian Speaking Children

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 92
Author(s):  
Majd S. Abushunar ◽  
Radwan S. Mahadin
Keyword(s):  
Optimality Theory ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Spontaneous Speech ◽  
Naming Task ◽  
Jordanian Arabic ◽  
Morphological Complexity ◽  
Action Naming

This study carries out an analysis using the framework of Optimality Theory to investigate the acquisition of the morphophonemics of JA triconsonantal verbs. The analyzed data consist of speech samples obtained from a picture/action naming task as well as spontaneous speech collection. The sample of the study consists of 64 normally developing children who are acquiring spoken Jordanian Arabic as their mother tongue. The participants whose ages range from 2;1 to 6 years are selected randomly from different preschools in two Jordanian cities. The major findings of the study suggest that children overcome the morphological complexity of Arabic verbs by applying a number of processes, including: cluster simplification, glottalization, and truncation. The OT analysis indicates that these processes are associated with highly-ranked markedness constraints and lower-ranked faithfulness constraints in child grammar. In addition, the root/affix asymmetry triggers unmarked patterns to emerge in the affix. Finally, the results display that children’s morphophonological abilities improve with age and that the majority of children’s morphophonological processes disappear at age six years.

Learning Complex Features: A Morphological Account of L2 Learnability

2013 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 218-244 ◽  
Author(s):  
Job Schepens ◽  
Frans van der Slik ◽  
Roeland van Hout
Keyword(s):  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Morphological Features ◽  
Morphological Similarity ◽  
L2 Proficiency ◽  
Proficiency Levels ◽  
Morphological Complexity ◽  
First Languages ◽  
Morphological Differences ◽  
Complex Features ◽  
Degree Of Similarity

Certain first languages (L1) seem to impede the acquisition of a specific L2 more than other L1s do. This study investigates to what extent different L1s have an impact on the proficiency levels attained in L2 Dutch (Dutch L2 learnability). Our hypothesis is that the varying effects across the L1s are explainable by morphological similarity patterns between the L1s and L2 Dutch. Correlational analyses on typologically defined morphological differences between 49 L1s and L2 Dutch show that L2 learnability co-varies systematically with similarities in morphological features. We investigate a set of 28 morphological features, looking both at individual features and the total set of features. We then divide the differences in features into a class of increasing and a class of decreasing morphological complexity. It turns out that observed Dutch L2 proficiency correlates more strongly with features based on increasing morphological complexity (r = -.67, p < .0001) than with features based on decreasing morphological complexity (r = -.45, p < .005). Degree of similarity matters (r = -.77, p < .0001), but increasing complexity seems to be the decisive property in establishing L2 learnability. Our findings may offer a better understanding of L2 learnability and of the different proficiency levels of L2 speakers. L2 learnability and L2 proficiency co-vary in terms of the morphological make-up of the mother tongue and the second language to be learned.

scholarly journals Assessment and final reports in foreign language lessons

EduLingua ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-65
Author(s):  
Feryal Çubukçu
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Human Memory ◽  
Western Coast ◽  
State University ◽  
Morphological Complexity ◽  
Single Root ◽  
Complex Words ◽  
Shed Light ◽  
Separate Entry

Psycholinguists are interested in how words are stored in human memory. The question as to whether words are stored as single root words or whether they are stored along with the affixes still remains a controversial issue. Aitchison (1987) believes that each word has a separate entry. Mackay (1978) and Taft (1981) hold that words are made of constituent morphemes. When we listen, we decompose the morphemes and when we speak, we combine them to make multimorphemic words. The decomposition view claims that only the root is stored in memory. To test this claim, a group of 50 intermediate level students at the preparatory department of a state university situated on the western coast of Turkey were selected. They were taught 10 pseudo root nouns and verbs and 10 psuedo complex nouns and verbs. To see how the morphological complexity affected lexical access and which type of words were better remembered, they were tested on these words. Then the same group was given 10 root and 10 complex words in their mother tongue and their answer times were compared. Students recalled the root words more easily and accurately.The results shed light on the validity of the decomposition theory, showcasing we remember the words in roots better.

Verwerving Van Woordvolgorderegels In Het Nederlands Als Tweede Taal

1994 ◽  
Vol 50 ◽  
pp. 73-86
Author(s):  
Wilma Eising
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Spontaneous Speech ◽  
Max Planck ◽  
European Science Foundation ◽  
Language Research ◽  
European Science ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
Insight Into

This contribution discusses the research questions and preliminary results of a PhD-project carried out at the Free University of Amsterdam. The aim of the project is to gain more insight into the ways in which Turkish and Moroccan immigrants in the Netherlands learn word-order rules of Dutch. The main differen-ce between the languages spoken by the two groups of learners is that Turkish, like Dutch, is an SOV-language, whereas the Moroccan languages (Berber and Moroccan Arabic) are VSO/SVO languages. The central question to be answered is whether all learners, regardless of their mother tongue, go through three acquisitional stages, in which certain word-order rules are acquired as part of a cluster. The idea is that learners build an interlanguage system on the basis of structures they can process; once certain rules are acquired, restructuring of the interlanguage system takes place. This, in turn, may lead to the acquisition of another cluster of rules. In order to be able to answer the research questions, we decided to analyse spontaneous speech samples and to elicite lacking information by means of four experiments. Once the second part will be completed, we hope to be able to decide whether rules are learned as a cluster, which would indicate that restructuring of the interlanguage system has taken place. The first part of the project is mainly aimed at individual language development; this part has not yet been completed. The analysis of spontaneous speech samples was made possible by the Max-Planck Institut für Psycholinguistik in Nijmegen, which made available data of the European Science Foundation Second Language Databank; these data consisted of transcripts of speech samples of 4 Turks and 4 Moroccans, collected over a period of 30 months. The first part of the paper presents some of the theoretical notions employed in second language research, as well as the main rules of Dutch that have to be acquired. Also, the three languages involved in the project are compared. In the next sections the research questions, the design, the data analysis and some interim results are discussed. The main conclusion is that there are indications that certain rules are indeed clustered together, although the different stages are not strictly separated.

What’s Beyond the Language of Apology? A Case Study

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 43
Author(s):  
Ala’ Al-Qtaishat
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Sole Source ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Written Discourse ◽  
Jordanian Arabic ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Linguistic Patterns ◽  
Completion Test ◽  
The Impact

This study investigates the realization of the speech act of apology. It seeks to analyze the linguistic patterns used to represent apology from a pragmalinguistic point of view. It aims at presenting an actual insight on the impact of gender and social practices on performing different apology strategies through providing empirical evidence on the impact of the mother tongue on acquiring apology competence by EFL learners. The study made use of the written Discourse Completion Test (DCT) including 20 scenarios administrated to three groups of respondents of both genders: 100 native speakers of Jordanian Arabic, 100 Jordanian EFL learners, and 50 native speakers of American English. The findings revealed that gender has influenced the use of different apology strategies between the males and females of each group. It was also indicated that the sociocultural practices have played a big role in the socio-linguistic realization of apology. This impact was more pronounced throughout the different preference to the use of apology strategies among the three groups. In addition, it was found that there are interlingual hypotheses concerning the foreign language pragmatics prompting the EFL learners to deviate from the native language and English norms of apology. Thus, it was concluded that the mother tongue influence is not the sole source of pragmatic deviations from the second language norms; this influence cannot be described as negative transfer but a creative process done by EFL Learners to master English.

scholarly journals Language interference and inhibition in early and late successive bilingualism

2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (5) ◽  
pp. 1009-1034 ◽  
Author(s):  
ELENI PERISTERI ◽  
IANTHI MARIA TSIMPLI ◽  
ANTONELLA SORACE ◽  
KYRANA TSAPKINI
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Age Of Onset ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
First Language ◽  
Naming Task ◽  
Grammatical Gender ◽  
Inhibitory Processes ◽  
Interference Resolution ◽  
Language Context ◽  
Language Conflict

The present study explores whether age of onset of exposure to the second language affects interference resolution at the grammatical gender level and whether cognitive functions contribute to interference resolution. Early and late successive Serbian–Greek bilinguals living in the second language context, along with monolinguals, performed a picture-word interference naming task in a single-language context and a non-verbal inhibition task. We found that gender interference from the first language was only present in late successive bilinguals. Early bilinguals exhibited no interference from the grammatical gender of their mother tongue and showed more enhanced inhibitory abilities than the rest of the groups in the non-verbal task. The distinct sizes of interference from the grammatical gender of the first language across the two bilingual groups is explained by early successive bilinguals’ more enhanced domain-general inhibitory processes in the resolution of between-language conflict at the grammatical gender level relative to late successive bilinguals.

scholarly journals A Contrastive Study on Noun Diminutive Formation in Tafili Spoken Arabic and Jijilian Spoken Arabic

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. p51
Author(s):  
Mahmoud Qudah ◽  
Isra’a Isam Al-Hanaktah ◽  
Bashar Mohammad Al-Kaseasbeh
Keyword(s):  
Optimality Theory ◽  
Jordanian Arabic ◽  
Phonological Processes ◽  
Contrastive Study ◽  
Vowel Epenthesis ◽  
Glottal Stop ◽  
Spoken Arabic

The present study aims at contrasting the patterns governing noun diminutive formation between Tafili Spoken Arabic (TSA), a dialect in Jordanian Arabic (JA), and Jijilian Spoken Arabic (JSA), a dialect in Algerian Arabic, and then accounting for that within the framework of Optimality Theory (OT). Throughout the analysis of the collected data, it is found that the diminutive forms in both dialects are based on a change in the phonological processes of a word by insertion, deletion or changing of some phonological segments. However, the present study has disclosed that noun diminutive forms in TSA result from the application of the following phonological processes: vowel epenthesis, vowel shortening, glide insertion, vowel syncope, and the insertion of the glottal stop at the beginning of words. Whereas noun diminutive forms in JSA result from the application of the following phonological processes: vowel syncope, vowel epenthesis, vowel shortening, glide insertion, degemination and metathesis. The application of OT to account for those phonological processes indicates that they happen from a continual conflict between some markedness constraints and faithfulness constraints. The researchers recommend for another study to be applied investigating and contrasting the patterns governing noun diminutive formation between other two dialects by accounting for that within the framework of OT.

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