Conceptual meaning in Italian speaking learners’ expression of temporality in L2 English

This study explores conceptual meaning in the construal of distinct temporal concepts by L1 Italian speakers, and considers the possibility that L1 constrained perspectives may influence the L2 English production of these speakers in the form of Conceptual Transfer (CT). Adopting a Cognitive Linguistics framework, think aloud reports are used as a data collection technique capable of accessing the meanings that both L1 Italian and L1 English speakers seek to convey in relation to the target concepts in English. Analysis of the think aloud reports revealed distinctly different approaches by the two language groups in the construal of these concepts. Results of this initial exploratory study point to cross-linguistic difference in the temporal meanings expressed, a role for L1 constrained construal in second language acquisition, the potential for CT based on this and the potency of think aloud reports in revealing this and other relevant factors.

Students’ apologizing in Arabic and English: An interlanguage pragmatic case study at an Islamic boarding school in Indonesia

It is hard to select and produce appropriate semantic formulas of apologizing for paying off violation of social norms to restore harmony. It seems that it is even harder to realize such processes of selection and production in a non-native language. The study is of three folds; namely, it examines the realization of the apology strategies by students of a senior Boarding School in Arabic and English as a non-native language, the effects on the contextual factors (external vs. internal) on the students’ apologizing, and the pragmatic transfer. The participants were 101 male and 101 female students, recruited to fill in a Discourse Completion Task (DCT), which consisted of eight situations about the flouting of the politeness rules in the context of the Islamic boarding school, by drawing upon the five semantic formulas of apologizing from Blum-Kulka and Olshtain (1983) of Cross-Cultural Study of Speech Act Realization Patterns (CCSARP) for analyzing the data. The findings show that the students used identical semantic formulas in both languages. They prefer to use the “expression of regret” and “promise for forbearance” strategies. The findings also reveal that the internal and external factors affected the students’ selection and production of the apology strategies in both languages. In addition, the students’ pragmatic transfer occurred in linguistic areas, namely overgeneralization, inappropriateness, grammatical contrast, and conceptual transfer from L1 to L2, which are categorized into two types, namely, micro-negative transfer and macro-negative transfer. To conclude, these results indicate the students’ on-record-negative politeness attitudes towards the offended parties, which are determined by the contextual factors and the students’ lack of grammatical competence.

Competenze lessicali in italiano L2: gli eventi di moto in testi narrativi

This paper deals with a case of lexical cross-linguistic influence from a source language, known as conceptual transfer. In particular, narratives in Italian L2 produced by different L1 learners are examined. The theoretical framework adopted is lexical typology as developed by L. Talmy, according to which languages fall into two types as to how they encode motion events: The so-called verb-framed languages would tend to lexicalize the semantic component of the Path (eg the movement from inside to outside or vice versa) in the verb (eg It. uscire "to go out"); the satellite-framed languages preferentially encode the Path component outside the verb (eg in Eng. in the satellite out, as in "The boy ran out"). The preferences adopted in each L1 are supposed to influence production in L2. The presentation of the data in Italian L2 allows us to observe the subtle role that the L1s play in this lexical domain and to recommend giving attention to typological differences between L2 and L1 in the classroom.

A Cognitive Grammar Perspective on Temporal Conceptualization in SLA

This article shows how cognitive grammar and cognitive linguistics theory offer a fruitful paradigm within which the process of second language acquisition can be examined. The aim is to describe and examine the benefit of using notions developed within the CG and CL frameworks to the study of crosslinguistic influence, especially conceptual transfer, in multilinguals. In recent years, the growth of empirical research concerning the contribution of cognitive-inspired theories to the study of second language acquisition and multilingualism has grown extensively. This article illustrates the possible contribution of CL to SLA by focusing on one particular line of inquiry: that of construal. Specifically, it examines how the notions developed within cognitive grammar theory can be useful tools for the analysis and comparison of conceptualization patterns of events, thus giving rise to transfer effects stemming from the way a person construes and conceptualizes events. The starting hypothesis is that conceptual transfer effects in the use of the target grammar, in this case the transfer effects in the TIME domain, may originate from the conceptualization patterns that the multilingual has acquired as a speaker of another L1. Previous transfer research has obtained evidence to suggest that patterns of L1 conceptualizations may be transferred into learners’ L2 through patterns that are similar to their L1. The utilization of central tools within cognitive grammar in order to unmask conceptual differences represents an important contribution to the state of the art of crosslinguistic influence research.

Crosslinguistic influence on English and Chinese L2 speakers’ conceptualization of event series

Aims and objectives/purpose/research question: The expression of event series varies across languages in intriguing ways. One key difference is that in some linguistic systems, such as Chinese, events can be tightly sequenced using serial verb constructions (SVCs), for example, qù kāi mén ‘go open door’. Linguistic systems with this property are known as serializing, and those without it, such as English, as non-serializing. This paper explores whether second language (L2) learners with a serializing first language (L1) conceptually transfer tight L1-based event serialization patterns into their non-serializing L2, and, if L2 learners with a non-serializing L1 acquire tight SVC-modulated event serialization in the L2. Design/methodology/approach: To investigate this, a task was created to estimate temporal distances between events on a time axis. Participants were asked to circle two numbers on the axis (0 = far past, 9 = far future) based on their understanding of when two events expressed by two verbs in each stimulus sentence happen. Data and analysis: Results showed that Chinese learners of English estimated significantly shorter temporal distances between multiple events in English SVC-like sentences compared to English natives. Tighter temporal sequencing in L2 English is interpreted as L1-based conceptual transfer of event serialization patterns. In the opposite direction, English learners of Chinese marked events in Chinese SVCs as significantly further apart than did Chinese natives, also showing that their event serialization is L1-based. Originality: This study demonstrates for the first time crosslinguistic influence on the conceptual level in the domain of event serialization. Significance/implications: The reported findings inform L2 acquisition research by providing empirical support for the idea that L1-based event serialization patterns influence how L2 learners conceptualize event distances, and this holds in both directions, from a serializing to a non-serializing language as well as vice versa.

Conceptual transfer and lexical development in adjectives of space: Evidence from judgments, reaction times, and eye tracking

This study investigated conceptual transfer and lexical development for spatial adjectives using participant judgments, reaction times, and eye-tracking measures. The study focused on the Japanese adjective semai and its partially equivalent English translation narrow. The study presented participants with images depicting two rooms with slight differences in height and width and asked them to identify which room was narrower. The only variation was the language in which the instructions were given: native language (L1) instructions for two L1 control groups, second language (L2) instructions for the experimental group (L1 Japanese speakers of L2 English). The results showed fundamental differences in processing between the control groups in respect to the judgments and reaction times, but not for the eye-tracking measures. Furthermore, the experimental group’s behavior indicated a conceptual understanding of narrow that was in line with developments in proficiency, but also limited to the judgment and reaction time measures. Based on these findings, we conclude that (a) conceptual transfer affects processing on receptive language tasks, and (b) L2 conceptual representations come to resemble those of native speakers as learners develop their lexical knowledge. However, we also suggest that (c) although conceptualizations likely affect cognitive functions, our eye-tracking data were too crude to capture this.