The Emergence of Second Language Categorisation of the English Article Construction
This study examines the emergent cognitive categorisation of the English article construction among second language (L2) learners. One hundred and fourteen Mandarin-L1 learners of English, divided into two L2 proficiency levels (low-to-intermediate and advanced), were measured by a computer-based cl...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2020-11-01
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| Series: | Languages |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2226-471X/5/4/54 |
| _version_ | 1797548542938578944 |
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| author | Helen Zhao |
| author_facet | Helen Zhao |
| author_sort | Helen Zhao |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This study examines the emergent cognitive categorisation of the English article construction among second language (L2) learners. One hundred and fourteen Mandarin-L1 learners of English, divided into two L2 proficiency levels (low-to-intermediate and advanced), were measured by a computer-based cloze test for the accuracy and response time of appropriate use of English articles in sentential contexts. Results showed that when learners acquired the polysemous English article construction they demonstrated stronger competence in differentiating individual form-function mappings in the article construction. L2 learners’ patterns of article construction usage were shaped by semantic functions. Learners performed better on the definiteness category than on the non-definiteness categories, suggesting that learners were sensitive to the prototypicality of nominal grounding. Advanced learners demonstrated an increased sensitivity to semantic idiosyncrasy, but they lacked contextualised constructional knowledge. Competition among the functional categories and restructuring of functional categories are important ways of regularization that learners go through to acquire semantically complex systems such as articles. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T15:00:57Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-4d636ee5e2e04900a6ec21ff4220508b |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2226-471X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T15:00:57Z |
| publishDate | 2020-11-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Languages |
| spelling | doaj.art-4d636ee5e2e04900a6ec21ff4220508b2023-11-20T20:09:11ZengMDPI AGLanguages2226-471X2020-11-01545410.3390/languages5040054The Emergence of Second Language Categorisation of the English Article ConstructionHelen Zhao0School of Languages and Linguistics, University of Melbourne, Melbourne 3010, AustraliaThis study examines the emergent cognitive categorisation of the English article construction among second language (L2) learners. One hundred and fourteen Mandarin-L1 learners of English, divided into two L2 proficiency levels (low-to-intermediate and advanced), were measured by a computer-based cloze test for the accuracy and response time of appropriate use of English articles in sentential contexts. Results showed that when learners acquired the polysemous English article construction they demonstrated stronger competence in differentiating individual form-function mappings in the article construction. L2 learners’ patterns of article construction usage were shaped by semantic functions. Learners performed better on the definiteness category than on the non-definiteness categories, suggesting that learners were sensitive to the prototypicality of nominal grounding. Advanced learners demonstrated an increased sensitivity to semantic idiosyncrasy, but they lacked contextualised constructional knowledge. Competition among the functional categories and restructuring of functional categories are important ways of regularization that learners go through to acquire semantically complex systems such as articles.https://www.mdpi.com/2226-471X/5/4/54English article constructioncategorizationprototypicalityschematizationcognitive grammarsecond language |
| spellingShingle | Helen Zhao The Emergence of Second Language Categorisation of the English Article Construction Languages English article construction categorization prototypicality schematization cognitive grammar second language |
| title | The Emergence of Second Language Categorisation of the English Article Construction |
| title_full | The Emergence of Second Language Categorisation of the English Article Construction |
| title_fullStr | The Emergence of Second Language Categorisation of the English Article Construction |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Emergence of Second Language Categorisation of the English Article Construction |
| title_short | The Emergence of Second Language Categorisation of the English Article Construction |
| title_sort | emergence of second language categorisation of the english article construction |
| topic | English article construction categorization prototypicality schematization cognitive grammar second language |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2226-471X/5/4/54 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT helenzhao theemergenceofsecondlanguagecategorisationoftheenglisharticleconstruction AT helenzhao emergenceofsecondlanguagecategorisationoftheenglisharticleconstruction |