The acquisition of four adverbs in a learner corpus of L2 French
This empirical study of a learner corpus of 40 interviews, investigates the acquisition of the four adverbs aussi, peut-être, seulement and vraiment (also, mayby, only and really). Although these four adverbs are non-obligatory elements in the utterance, they seem to have two fundamental modifying f...
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Presses universitaires de Caen
2017-10-01
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| Series: | Discours |
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| Online Access: | https://journals.openedition.org/discours/7368 |
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| author | Victorine Hancock Anna Sanell |
| author_facet | Victorine Hancock Anna Sanell |
| author_sort | Victorine Hancock |
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| description | This empirical study of a learner corpus of 40 interviews, investigates the acquisition of the four adverbs aussi, peut-être, seulement and vraiment (also, mayby, only and really). Although these four adverbs are non-obligatory elements in the utterance, they seem to have two fundamental modifying functions, namely enhancement (aussi and vraiment) and mitigation (peut-être and seulement). They also appear at early stages of acquisition. The study concentrates on the positions and discourse functions of the adverbs in a developmental perspective. Each adverb is characterized with respect to these two parameters across six developmental stages (Bartning, Schlyter, 2004) and a “near-native” learner variety. We combine a functional framework for acquisition (cf. Klein, Perdue 1997; Benazzo 2000, 2005) with earlier observations from corpus studies concerning the positions and the semantics of the adverbs (Schlyter, 1977; Chanet, 2004; Bilger, 2004). We expected that the number of functions of the adverbs would increase with the stages and we focus on the very advanced levels (stages 5-6). The study is to our knowledge one of the first to cover learner production from beginners to very advanced and “near-native” speakers. One hypothesis generated by the study is that frequency patterns of the target language could be acquired earlier than positional patterns. As a result of the study, we propose an order of acquisition of the four adverbs. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-cd70f947ed744c3c92300323bdc170cc |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1963-1723 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2017-10-01 |
| publisher | Presses universitaires de Caen |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Discours |
| spelling | doaj-art-cd70f947ed744c3c92300323bdc170cc2025-01-30T09:52:35ZengPresses universitaires de CaenDiscours1963-17232017-10-01510.4000/discours.7368The acquisition of four adverbs in a learner corpus of L2 FrenchVictorine HancockAnna SanellThis empirical study of a learner corpus of 40 interviews, investigates the acquisition of the four adverbs aussi, peut-être, seulement and vraiment (also, mayby, only and really). Although these four adverbs are non-obligatory elements in the utterance, they seem to have two fundamental modifying functions, namely enhancement (aussi and vraiment) and mitigation (peut-être and seulement). They also appear at early stages of acquisition. The study concentrates on the positions and discourse functions of the adverbs in a developmental perspective. Each adverb is characterized with respect to these two parameters across six developmental stages (Bartning, Schlyter, 2004) and a “near-native” learner variety. We combine a functional framework for acquisition (cf. Klein, Perdue 1997; Benazzo 2000, 2005) with earlier observations from corpus studies concerning the positions and the semantics of the adverbs (Schlyter, 1977; Chanet, 2004; Bilger, 2004). We expected that the number of functions of the adverbs would increase with the stages and we focus on the very advanced levels (stages 5-6). The study is to our knowledge one of the first to cover learner production from beginners to very advanced and “near-native” speakers. One hypothesis generated by the study is that frequency patterns of the target language could be acquired earlier than positional patterns. As a result of the study, we propose an order of acquisition of the four adverbs.https://journals.openedition.org/discours/7368modifying adverbsplacementdiscourse functionslearner corpusacquisition orderdevelopmental stages |
| spellingShingle | Victorine Hancock Anna Sanell The acquisition of four adverbs in a learner corpus of L2 French Discours modifying adverbs placement discourse functions learner corpus acquisition order developmental stages |
| title | The acquisition of four adverbs in a learner corpus of L2 French |
| title_full | The acquisition of four adverbs in a learner corpus of L2 French |
| title_fullStr | The acquisition of four adverbs in a learner corpus of L2 French |
| title_full_unstemmed | The acquisition of four adverbs in a learner corpus of L2 French |
| title_short | The acquisition of four adverbs in a learner corpus of L2 French |
| title_sort | acquisition of four adverbs in a learner corpus of l2 french |
| topic | modifying adverbs placement discourse functions learner corpus acquisition order developmental stages |
| url | https://journals.openedition.org/discours/7368 |
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