Abstract
Most previous studies of difficulties in learning a second/foreign language focused on sources of learner errors caused by cross-linguistic differences in various levels of linguistic structure, but most of such studies remain at a rather superficial level of description. This study explores sources of learning difficulties at an abstract level by studying the nature and activity of the bilingual mental lexicon during interlanguage production. The bilingual mental lexicon is defined as the mental lexicon containing abstract entries called cross-linguistic “lemmas” underlying particular lexeme. This study claims that it is language-specific lemma which drives interlanguage production at three levels of abstract lexical structure: lexical-conceptual structure, predicate-argument structure, and morphological realization patterns. It further claims that it is cross-linguistic lemma variations in abstract lexical-conceptual structure which result in not only inappropriate lexical choices but also errors in interlanguage production of target language predicate-argument structure and morphological realization. Naturally occurring interlanguage production date for the study include several native and target language pairs: Japanese-English, Chinese-English, and English-Japanese. Some typical instances of language transfer involving other language pairs are also cited in support of the argument that the lexical-conceptual approach to interlanguage production is fundamental in any study of the nature of learner errors in interlanguage development.
Highlights
There have been various theories and models proposed to account for the sources of learner errors or language transfer in second/foreign language learning
This study considers some essential questions about the developing nature of IL: As commonly recognized, learners build up and revise the developing or interim linguistic system (i.e., IL) by gradually increasing the complexity of the target language (TL) system, but what is the origin of IL itself? How can the TL items be lexically projected and morphosyntactically realized if learners’ knowledge of the TL at various linguistic levels is insufficient? May learners fall back on their L1 lexical-conceptual structure and morphosyntactic procedures in different stages of learning and incrementally move toward the ones as specified in the TL? To answer such questions, this study follows several abstract theoretical assumptions as made in the Bilingual Lemma Activation Model (BLAM) about the nature and activity of the bilingual mental lexicon during IL production
Following the BLAM, it claims that the bilingual mental lexicon is a composite, and the linguistic systems involved in IL, such as learners’ L1, their TL and their IL, contribute different amounts to the IL production
Summary
Xuexin Liu1* & Longxing Wei Department of World Languages and Cultures, Spelman College, Georgia, USA 2 Department of Linguistics, Montclair State University, New Jersey, USA * Xuexin Liu, Department of World Languages and Cultures, Spelman College, Georgia, USA
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