Selective transfer in the acquisition of english double object constructions by brazilian learners



Document title: Selective transfer in the acquisition of english double object constructions by brazilian learners
Journal: Alfa : revista de linguistica
Database: CLASE
System number: 000429710
ISSN: 0002-5216
Authors: 1
2
1
Institutions: 1Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Faculdade de Letras, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais. Brasil
2Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto, Instituto de Ciencias Exatas e Biologicas, Ouro Preto, Minas Gerais. Brasil
Year:
Volumen: 57
Number: 2
Pages: 519-544
Country: Brasil
Language: Inglés
Document type: Artículo
Approach: Analítico
Portuguese abstract The present study investigates the acquisition of the English double object constructions (GOLDBERG, 1995) by Brazilian learners. We hypothesize that, due to first language (L1) influences, the prepositional ditransitive construction (John gave a book to Mary) will be acquired earlier, while the ditransitive construction (John gave Mary a book) will be part of the learner’s interlanguages (SELINKER, 1972) only at the advanced level of proficiency. We also hypothesize that learners may transfer (ODLIN, 1989) the placement of the object pronoun in pre-verbal position from their L1 to their interlanguage in early stages of acquisition (João me deu um livro / *John me gave a book). We test our hypotheses by comparing the performance of three groups of learners (beginning, intermediate, and advanced) and native speakers of English on an acceptability judgment task used as a measure of learnability and generalization. Results confirm the order of acquisition of the English double object constructions predicted for native speakers of Brazilian Portuguese. Moreover, results suggest that, although mother tongue influences may have taken place, they do not do so pervasively, but rather selectively, corroborating the proposal by Kellerman (1983)
Disciplines: Literatura y lingüística,
Educación
Keyword: Lingüística aplicada,
Pedagogía,
Brasileños,
Inglés,
Lenguaje
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