Examining transfer in the acquisition of the count/mass distinction in L2 English
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11655872 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Wenting Tang (0000-0002-4914-0974, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, corresponding author), Robert Fiorentino (0000-0002-2864-1200), Alison Gabriele (0000-0002-8064-5284, University of Kansas) |
| Year | 2021 |
| Volume | 39 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 231-257 |
| Publication date | 2021-06-24 |
| 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 | 10.1177/02676583211023729 |
| OpenAlex | W3175268562 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 21 |
We investigate whether second language (L2) learners of English rely on first language (L1) transfer and atomicity in the acquisition of the count/mass distinction by examining L1-French and L1-Chinese learners of English. Atomicity encodes whether a noun contains ‘atoms’ or minimal elements that retain the property of the noun. As a semantic universal, atomicity holds across languages. However, the count/mass status of nouns may differ cross-linguistically. Our results, which show difficulty on atomic mass nouns in both learner groups, support an argument that atomicity is used as a semantic universal in the L2. Our results also suggest that both count/mass status in the L1 and word frequency in the L2 impact performance, suggesting roles for both L1 lexical transfer and lexical frequency. In addition, learners had better performance on abstract as opposed to concrete atomic mass nouns, providing evidence consistent with a theory of the accessibility of atoms
Argument (complex analysis · Atomicity · Grammatical Gender · Linguistics · Natural language processing · Noun · Programming language · Categorization, perception, and language · Chemistry · Computer Science · Philosophy · Psychology · Second Language Acquisition and Learning · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation
Mandarin Chinese
Word Order and Nominative Case in Non-Native Language Acquisition
Quantity judgments and individuation
Groups, I
Moving beyond Kučera and Francis
Introducing LexTale
Plurality of Mass Nouns and the Notion of “Semantic Parameter”
L1 Korean and L1 Mandarin L2 English learners’ acquisition of the count/mass distinction in English
Mass nouns, vagueness and semantic variation
L2 cognitive states and the Full Transfer/Full Access model
Mandarin Chinese
Bare and Not-So-Bare Nouns and the Structure of NP
| Unique citing works | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 2 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2026 (2) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |