Is the Idiom Principle Blocked in Bilingual L2 Production?

Abstract

Abstract This paper hypothesizes that the idiom principle (Sinclair, 1991) that drives word selection in monolinguals may be blocked in the second language (L2) of bilinguals and the open choice principle governs instead. In order to investigate the validity of this hypothesis a small corpus of non-native speaker – non-native speaker ( lingua franca ) communication is examined and compared to a similar study (Kecskes, 2007) where the bilingual speakers used their L2 (English). Based on the two studies we can conclude that the idiom principle is the most salient guiding mechanism in any language production. But it results in less formulaic language use in L2 than in the first language(L1) of bilinguals. This claim basically concurs with the findings of other studies (cf. Bolander, 1989; Pawley & Syder, 1983; Warga, 2008; Weinert, 1995), which also talked about the limited use of formulaic language in L2. Keywords: idiom principle, bilingual idiom processing, formulaic language, psychological salience, second language idiom processing, lingua franca Based on the findings of some studies that argued that even advanced second language (L2) users have difficulty with formulaic language (Ellis, Simpson-Vlach, & Carson, 2008; Kecskes, 2007; Prodromou 2008; Warga, 2005), this paper hypothesizes that the idiom principle (Sinclair, 1991) that drives word selection in monolinguals may be blocked in the L2 of bilinguals and the open choice principle governs instead. In order to investigate the validity of this hypothesis, a small corpus of non-native speaker - non-native speaker ( lingua franca ) communication is examined where the bilingual speakers use their L2 (English).