Differences in ESL Lexical Boundary Acquisition: A Look at L2 English Boundaries of Native German Speakers According to Length of Residence in the United States

Deseret Language and Linguistic Society Symposium Volume 10 Issue 1 Article 3 2-24-1984 Differences in ESL Lexical Boundary Acquisition: A Look at L2 English Boundaries of Native German Speakers According to Length of Residence in the United States R. Kirk Belnap Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/dlls BYU ScholarsArchive Citation Belnap, R. Kirk (1984) "Differences in ESL Lexical Boundary Acquisition: A Look at L2 English Boundaries of Native German Speakers According to Length of Residence in the United States," Deseret Language and Linguistic Society Symposium: Vol. 10 : Iss. 1 , Article 3. Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/dlls/vol10/iss1/3 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Deseret Language and Linguistic Society Symposium by an authorized editor of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact , . Differences in ESL Lexical Boundary Acquisition: A LooK at L2 English Boundaries of Native Ger~an Speakers According to Length of Residence in the united States R. Kirk Belnap young University Brigha~ At the 1983 DLLS Sy;n?Osiu~, Graha'Tl and Belnap rer>rted a preliminary study investigating the acquisition of English lexical boundaries by native German and Spanish speakers. Tneir research suggests that there is Ll lexical boundary interference in the learner's L2. This paper is a follow-up study to their research. The area of semantics and the lexicon has been a sore spot for linguistic science (Weinrich, 1966, p. 53; Labov, 1973, pp. 340-41). Little is know about the relationship of the Ll lexicon to that of the L2 and the effect which the language learner's native lexical bOUndaries have on his or her L2 lexical boundaries. Still less is known about tne effect of time in residence in the L2 environment on the lexicon of tne L2; and perhaps least of all is known about the effect of the L2 lexical boundaries, as well as extended residence in that L2 environ~ent on a speaker's Ll lexical boundaries (Haugen, 1969, pp. 467-474). The Graha~ and Belnap study (1983b) raised the questions which this paper investigates: 1) Does length of residence in the L2 environment affect L2 lexical boundary acquisition? if so, how? and 2) Does length of residence in the L2 environment affect the Ll lexical boundaries? and if so, how? Review of the Literature and Belnap's study (1983b) focused on the referential domain of certain lexical items, such as cup, glass, chair, and stool, which could be represented in line drawings and varied according to heIght and width. For exa~ple, data was gathered to determine at what width a chair becomes a bench in the judgenent of native and L2 En:Jlish speakers. ESL data was collected fron native German, Spanish, and Arabic speakers; data was also collected in the native lan:ju2.jes c;: these German, Spanish, and Arabic speakers. The native GenTIan, Spanish, and Arabic lexical boundaries were compared with the corresponding ESL boundaries, which in turn were compared with English Ll lexical boundaries in order to determine if the ESL lexical boundaries corresponded to the native English boundaries and if they did not, to determine if Ll lexical boundaries were a source of interference. As mentioned, interference did appear to affect ESL lexical boundaries. Further, it was noted that the native Arabic speakers' ESL lexical boundaries were most like those of the native English speakers; on the average, the Arabic speakers had been in the U.S. longer than either the native German or Spanish speakers. In addition, preli~inary analysis suggested that there were differences between the lexical boundaries of those GeDElh s:;>eakers who had lived in the U.S. over 10 years :mj tnose who had lived in the U.S. but a short time. Graha~ Other studies, which were reviewed in depth in Graha~ and Belnap Strick (1980) investigated the (1933a) , include the followin~: 12 acquisition of A~erican terms of address by Farsi speakers living in the U.S. and found that they retained socia-linguistic elements of their native terms of address in their use of the A~erican tenus of address. Kellerman (1977) studied the transferability of concrete and metaphorical uses of a Dutch cognate into English and found that concrete meanings were more transferable. Nash (1976) investigated the occurence of positive and negative cognate transfer fram Spanish to English. She also illustrated differences between the lexicon of native English speakers and the lexicon of ESL speakers whose native language was Spanish. She pointed out that due to the restricted size of the ESL learner's English vocabulary the learner uses various communicative strategies, such as borrowing tenus from the Spanish Ll, in order to express him- or herself. She emphasized that "one's native language, materialized in its vocabulary, is a powerful force in all future linguistic experience" (Nash, 1976, p. 165). . Bennion, a presenter in the 1983 OLLS Symposium, discussed the effects of L2 on L1, particularly concerning reading skills. She focused on a review of the literature and on a study she conducted with native English speakers in advanced Spanish classes investigating their reading speed in English. In her review of the literature, she mentioned two types of lexical transfer which Kinzel (1964) reported in his bilingual daughter's speech. The first, "outright transfer" is the direct borrowing of a term from one language into another. The second, "extension" is the use of a tenu in one language using the lexical boundary of a term in another language. This corresponds to a native English speaker using heiss (hot) instead of scharf (sharp) to refer to a spicy food. Bennion also cited a study done by Elena Batista-Wallace (1977) which studied the effects of L2 acquistion on the Ll of bilingual children. She found that the L2 was a source of interference in the L1 on the productive level but not on the receptive level. Ervin-Tripp studied bilinguals use of color terms and their boundaries and found that the two languages, English and interfered with each other (Ervin-Tripp in Oil, 1973). lexical Navaho, Hypotheses None of these studies has looked at the length of residence as a moderator variable affecting Ll or L2 lexical boundaries. From the review of the literature it is evident that there is inter1ingua1 interference in the Ll and L2 lexical boundaries. It seems to logically follow that: 1) Length of residence in the L2 environment affects the L2 lexical boundaries of the language learner. 2) Length of residence in the L2 environment affects the Ll boundaries. Research Design The primary data which was used in this study came from the Graha~ and Belnap study (l983b). Subjects were 40 native German speakers and 120 native English speakers all of whom resided in Northern Utah. The German speakers were from the Federal Republ ic of Germany, the G (...truncated)