Reassessing the applicability of Processability Theory
The case of nominal plural
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11655786 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Helen Charters (University of Auckland), Loan Dao (Australian National University), Louise Jansen (Australian National University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2011 |
| Volume | 27 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 509-533 |
| Publication date | 2011-07-05 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Second language Research (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0267-6583 • E-ISSN: 1477-0326 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/0267658311405923 |
| OpenAlex | W2101425415 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
| References cited | 15 |
This article identifies empirical evidence (Dao, 2007; in preparation) conflicting with Processability Theory’s (PT) prediction that in acquisition of English as a second language (ESL), plural-marking emerges first in bare nouns and only later in numeric expressions. Specifically, it presents results from Dao’s (2007) cross-sectional study of ESL in 36 Vietnamese learners, which was designed to test PT’s predictions that inflections emerge in lexical contexts before agreement in phrasal contexts, but found that emergence occurred in the reverse order. The article explores whether Dao’s findings invalidate PT’s crosslinguistic principles or whether there is a problem in applying these to language-specific empirical contexts. The exploration reveals weaknesses in the description of PT’s principles, as these are based on implicit assumptions, which may be invalid in specific first language / second language (L1/L2) typological contexts and thus lead to incorrect predictions. The findings are explained by reference to L1 transfer represented in the framework of one of PT’s feeder theories: Levelt’s (1989) Theory of Speaking as modelled in Weaver++ (Levelt et al., 1999). Our L1 transfer account is in line with PT’s Developmentally Moderated Transfer Hypothesis
Linguistics · Noun · Plural · Second-language acquisition · Vietnamese · Computer Science · Language Development and Disorders · Neurobiology of Language and Bilingualism · Philosophy · Psychology · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation
The research manual
Language Processing and Second Language Development
Speaking
A theory of lexical access in speech production
An Incremental Procedural Grammar for Sentence Formulation
Exploring the typological plausibility of Processability Theory
The Mental Representation of Grammatical Relations
Variation in Interlanguage Morphology
Adult Acquisition of English as a Second Language Under Different Conditions of Exposure
Reference to Kinds across Language
| Unique citing works | 5 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,38 |
| Citation span | 2013 - 2022 (10) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 5 |