Selective effects of age of acquisition on morphological priming
- Is there an ideal time window for language acquisition after which nativelike
representation and processing are unattainable? Although this question has
been heavily debated, no consensus has been reached. Here, we present
evidence for a sensitive period in language development and show that it is
specific to grammar. We conducted a masked priming task with a group of
Turkish-German bilinguals and examined age of acquisition (AoA) effects on
the processing of complex words. We compared a subtle but meaningful
linguistic contrast, that between grammatical inflection and lexical-based
derivation. The results showed a highly selective AoA effect on inflectional
(but not derivational) priming. In addition, the effect displayed a discontinuity
indicative of a sensitive period: Priming from inflected forms was nativelike
when acquisition started before the age of 5 but declined with increasing
AoA. We conclude that the acquisition of morphological rules expressing
morphosyntactic properties is constrained by maturationalIs there an ideal time window for language acquisition after which nativelike
representation and processing are unattainable? Although this question has
been heavily debated, no consensus has been reached. Here, we present
evidence for a sensitive period in language development and show that it is
specific to grammar. We conducted a masked priming task with a group of
Turkish-German bilinguals and examined age of acquisition (AoA) effects on
the processing of complex words. We compared a subtle but meaningful
linguistic contrast, that between grammatical inflection and lexical-based
derivation. The results showed a highly selective AoA effect on inflectional
(but not derivational) priming. In addition, the effect displayed a discontinuity
indicative of a sensitive period: Priming from inflected forms was nativelike
when acquisition started before the age of 5 but declined with increasing
AoA. We conclude that the acquisition of morphological rules expressing
morphosyntactic properties is constrained by maturational factors.…
Author: | João VeríssimoORCiD, Vera HeyerGND, Gunnar Jacob, Harald ClahsenORCiDGND |
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URN: | urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-412611 |
ISSN: | 1866-8364 |
Parent Title (German): | Postprints der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe |
Subtitle (English): | evidence for a sensitive period |
Series (Serial Number): | Postprints der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe (486) |
Document Type: | Postprint |
Language: | English |
Date of first Publication: | 2018/12/03 |
Year of Completion: | 2017 |
Publishing Institution: | Universität Potsdam |
Release Date: | 2018/12/03 |
Tag: | 2nd langauge; 2nd-language acquisition; english; experience; language-acquisition; maturational constraints; perception; speech; visual word recognition |
Issue: | 486 |
Pagenumber: | 13 |
Source: | Language Acquisition (2017) DOI: 10.1080/10489223.2017.1346104 |
Organizational units: | Humanwissenschaftliche Fakultät |
Dewey Decimal Classification: | 1 Philosophie und Psychologie / 15 Psychologie / 150 Psychologie |
3 Sozialwissenschaften / 37 Bildung und Erziehung / 370 Bildung und Erziehung | |
4 Sprache / 40 Sprache / 400 Sprache | |
Peer Review: | Referiert |
Publication Way: | Open Access |
Grantor: | Taylor & Francis Open Access Agreement |
Licence (German): | ![]() |