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 details: | Joao Marques VeríssimoORCiDGND, Vera HeyerGND, Gunnar JacobORCiD, Harald ClahsenORCiDGND |
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URN: | urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-412611 |
ISSN: | 1866-8364 |
Title of parent work (German): | Postprints der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe |
Subtitle (English): | evidence for a sensitive period |
Publication series (Volume number): | Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe (486) |
Publication type: | Postprint |
Language: | English |
Date of first publication: | 2018/12/03 |
Publication year: | 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 |
Number of pages: | 13 |
Source: | Language Acquisition (2017) DOI: 10.1080/10489223.2017.1346104 |
Organizational units: | Humanwissenschaftliche Fakultät |
DDC 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 |
Publishing method: | Open Access |
Grantor: | Taylor & Francis Open Access Agreement |
License (German): | CC-BY-NC - Namensnennung, nicht kommerziell 4.0 International |
External remark: | Bibliographieeintrag der Originalveröffentlichung/Quelle |