L2 Imperfective Functions With Verb Types in Written Narratives: A Cross–Sectional Study With Instructed Hispanophone Learners of French

Abstract

Through either morphological or functional approaches, previous research has examined how instructed second language (L2) learners develop control over a challenging area of French: the use of the imparfait. In order to better understand this challenge, this cross‐sectional study utilized both approaches and examined how 94 university Hispanophone learners of French developed control over 5 L2 imperfective functions with 4 verb types in 2 written narratives. Each L2 learner was assigned to 1 of 6 groups depending on the number of imperfective instances in their texts. In order to identify features of learner language, L2 imperfective use was compared to the imperfective found in first language (L1) Spanish (n = 31) and L1 French (n = 47) narratives. The analyses of the 2,176 instances of L2 imperfective use revealed that this form develops in accordance with a trend whereby a decrease is found from the characterization/state combination, to habituality/telics, to progressivity/nonpunctual dynamic verbs, to inchoative characterization/states, and to frequentation/activities. In contrast to the L1 imperfective in Spanish and French, the L2 imperfective showed variability across these combinations. Moreover, in the L2 narratives, learners favored the characterization/state association at the expense of using other imperfective functions with other verb types.

The Aspect Hypothesis and the Acquisition of L2 Past Morphology in the Last 20 years

“…In the case of Hypothesis 1, results that are inconsistent with the AH raise two main issues: (a) statives may be marked for past tense earlier than other categories (Ayoun & Salaberry, 2008;Camps, 2005;Domínguez et al, 2013;Zhao & Shirai, 2018; also reported by earlier studies such as Reynolds, 1995, andCollins, 2002, among others), and (b) perfective forms may be used in all lexico-aspectual categories (e.g., Labeau, 2005;Salaberry 2000Salaberry , 2008. Regarding Hypothesis 2, results that are inconsistent with the AH raise issues of spread (or lack thereof) across categories (imperfective morphology is associated with states and not with activities; Domínguez et al, 2013;Izquierdo & Kihlstedt, 2019; imperfective spreads across all categories; Salaberry, 2005). 7 That states attract past earlier than predicted has been reported by multiple studies.…”

The Development of Discourse and Morphological Features in L2 Narratives: A Study with Classroom Spanish-Speaking Learners of French

“…While these two languages are typologically close, there are substantial form-meaning mapping differences between them with respect to their past-tense morphology, as the following sections illustrate. Therefore, the facilitative effects of L1-L2 typological proximity are not clear-cut for Spanish-speaking learners of French (Izquierdo and Collins 2008;Izquierdo 2009Izquierdo , 2014Izquierdo and Kihlstedt 2019).…”

The Role of Linguistic Typology, Target Language Proficiency and Prototypes in Learning Aspectual Contrasts in Italian as Additional Language

“…There has been a trend in aspectual studies to examine learners of the same TL but with different L1s to bring out L1-specific effects (Collins 2002;González and Hernández 2018;Izquierdo and Collins 2008;McManus 2011McManus , 2015. In these studies, two insights were gained: first, an L1 that is typologically similar to the TL facilitates the transfer of forms being equivalent in both languages (e.g., Collins 2002;Izquierdo and Kihlstedt 2019), as for instance the present perfect in English and the compound past tense form passé composé in French. Second, in spite of a mismatch of surface forms, the grammaticalization of an aspectual meaning accelerates the remapping of the same underlying meaning onto a different target form.…”