Tense-Aspect-Modality in a Second Language

Editorial page

Title page

LCC data

Table of contents

Introduction. Tense, aspect and modality in second language acquisition

1. Introduction

2. The L2 learner’s tense-aspect system: Emergence of tense-aspect markers

2.1 Acquisition and use of tense-aspect verb morphology: The case of the past tenses

2.2 Grammatical aspect

2.3 Inherent lexical aspect

2.4 Factors constraining the L2 learner’s variable use of TAM morphology

2.5 Acquisition and use of TAM verb morphology: The expression of futurity and modality

2.6 Cross-linguistic influence in the L2 acquisition of tense-aspect-modality

2.7 Input issues in the study of L2 tense-aspect-modality acquisition

3. The contribution of this volume

3.1 Chapter synopses

References

1. Beyond individual form-meaning associations in L2 Tense-Mood-Aspect research

1. Introduction

2. Functional analyses

2.1 Tense-Mood-Aspect systems

2.2 Expanding our understanding of how future fits into two additional subsystems: Progressive and modality.

3. Tense-Mood-Aspect and text type

3.1 Narrative discourse

3.2 Non-narrative discourse

3.3 Descriptions

3.4 Arguments

3.5 Irrealis: Hypothetical and future texts

4. The realization of Tense-Mood-Aspect and constraints of pronunciation and spelling

4.1 Studies of oral production

4.2 Comparison of oral and written production of the same text

5. Concluding remarks

References

2. The grammatical representation of aspect

1. Introduction

2. The original claim of Coppieters (1987)

2.1 The methodological approach of Coppieters’ study

2.2 The non-consequential effect of Coppieters’ findings

3. How complex is the definition of aspect?

3.1 The effect of aspectual meanings beyond the theoretical construct of aspect

3.2 The broad representation of the theoretical construct Aspect

4. Non-prototypical challenges brought up by context

4.1 Perfective as default for basic tense meanings

4.2 Imperfective as default for inanimate / non-agentive subjects

5. Conclusion

References

3. Issues in the acquisition of grammatical aspect in Greek-English bilingual children

1. Introduction

2. Grammatical and lexical aspect

3. Acquisition of aspect

4. The present study

4.1 Method

4.1.1 Participants

4.1.2 Materials

4.1.3 Procedure

4.1.4 Data coding

4.1.5 Predictions

4.2 Results

4.2.1 Results analysed by age

4.2.2 Results analysed by vocabulary knowledge

5. Discussion

Acknowledgments

References

Appendix

4. Is it really easier to acquire a closely-related language?

1. Introduction

2. Cross-linguistic influence: The effect of proximity / distance and transferability conditions

3. The present study

3.1 Data collection / design: Subjects and task

3.2 The temporal relations investigated: Continuation and iteration in the Finite Story narrative task

3.3 Some similarities and differences between the iterative and continuative means available in the languages investigated

4. Results

4.1 Iterative contexts

4.1.1 Native productions in French, Italian and German

4.1.2 Learner productions in French L2

4.2 Continuative contexts

4.2.1 Native productions in French, Italian and German

4.2.2 Learner productions in French L2

4.3 Summary and discussion

5. Concluding remarks

References

5. ‘It starts to explode.’ Phasal segmentation of contextualised events in L2 English

1. Introduction

2. Empirical context

2.1 Grammatical aspect and event segmentation across L1s

2.2 Research on event segmentation in learner varieties

3. Central notions and theoretical grounding

4. Structural contrasts in the source and the target languages

5. Research questions and hypotheses

6. Method

6.1 Participants

6.2 Instruments

6.3 Analysis

7. Results

7.1 Production

7.2 Acceptability judgements

8. Discussion

8.1 Learner-specific modification of granularity degrees

8.2 Non-standard decomposition of events – overgeneralised inceptive phase marking

8.3 Discrepancy between acceptability judgements and production

8.4 Variation in judgements linked to verb type

8.5 L1-specific segmentation and its influence on L2

8.6 Limitations and avenues for future inquiry

9. Conclusion

Acknowledgements

References

Appendices

Appendix A. A typical acceptability judgement set with four situation types: 0-state (0S), 1-state (1S), 2-state cumulative (2SC), and 2-state instantaneous (2SI)

Appendix B. Sample fragments from the elicitation video illustrating event progression from episode 1 (E1.1) to episode 6 (E6). The full video and its event map can be downloaded from the IRIS database, an online repository of L2 data collection materials

6. The acquisition of modal auxiliaries in English by advanced Francophone learners

1. Introduction

2. Modality

2.1 Mood and modal systems

2.2 Types of modality

2.3 Expressing modality in English

2.4 Expressing modality in French

2.4.1 Devoir

2.4.2 Pouvoir

2.4.3 Savoir

2.4.4 Falloir

3. Literature review of ESL studies

4. Research questions and methodology

4.1 Participants

4.2 Elicitation tasks

5. Results

6. Discussion and conclusion

References

7. Using the present tense to talk about irreality

1. Introduction

2. The notion of counterfactuality

3. Counterfactuality in second language acquisition

4. Research questions

5. Method

5.1 Participants

5.2 Stimulus and instructions

5.3 Identifying the mutation cores

6. Quantitative analysis

6.1 Learner group

6.2 French L1

6.3 Italian L1

7. Qualitative analysis – Predictive task

7.1 French L1

7.2 Learner group

7.2.1 Present tense

7.2.2 Use of the conditional

7.2.3 More frequent use of the conditional

7.3 Summary of the learners’ patterns

7.4 Italian L1

8. Discussion

8.1 Verbal morphology and L2 proficiency

8.2 The role of immersion in the production of conditional forms

8.3 Stylistic preference

8.4 L1 influence

9. Conclusion

Acknowledgments

References

Appendices

Appendix 1. Stimulus in French

Index