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Moore, Jana Eleanor. "Determinants of the Acquisition of English Verb Tenses." Diss., Temple University Libraries, 2015. http://cdm16002.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p245801coll10/id/359261.
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Applied LinguisticsPh.D.
This study investigated the acquisition of English tense and aspect through the manipulation of collostructional strength, instructional saliency, and frequency of use in group activities. Past research has focused on some of the factors in this study and their influence on acquisition, such as explicit instruction, but no research to date has attempted to compare the different factors to each other and attempt to create a working model of processing depth with these factors. Additionally, little research exists on the influence proficiency level and personal meaningfulness has on acquisition and in relation to these other determinants, or the role of lexical aspect in verb use and acquisition. The participants in this study were all females from a university in Japan. They were separated into different groups based upon their proficiency level, and each group was given a different treatment of group activities that focused on learning the simple past tense, present perfect, and past progressive over the course of a two week session. Pretests, immediate and delayed posttests were conducted to attempt to measure acquisition. MANCOVAs, Factorial MANCOVAs, and a Chi-Square test were all run to determine the outcome of the treatments. The results of the study suggest a loose continuum in terms of processing depth with explicit instruction as the most effective factor followed by frequency of use, and collostructional strength having minimal and conditional, effectiveness. The results also suggest the powerfulness of proficiency level as a determiner of whether acquisition will occur, with personal meaningfulness playing a lesser but still important role. The lexical aspect use of verbs appeared to show that the learners in this study leaned heavily on activity verbs and using the progressive aspect. Overall the results add to the growing collection of knowledge in understanding how learners develop their verb use as they acquire language.
Temple University--Theses
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Bhattrai, Anju. "A contrastive analysis of the English and Nepali past tenses and an error analysis of Nepali learners' use of the English past tenses." Virtual Press, 1999. http://liblink.bsu.edu/uhtbin/catkey/1159139.
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This dissertation has two main purposes: (a) to provide an analysis of the past tenses in Nepali and compare them with those of English from a discourse pragmatic perspective; and (b) to investigate how Nepali learners of English use the English past tenses in terms of forms, meanings, and functions.A major claim of the dissertation is that tenses and aspects play various discourse functions in Nepali. Although Nepali has various past tenses as in English, their actual use is different from those of English. A significant difference between the use of the past tenses in English and Nepali is revealed in the use of the past perfect tense. In Nepali, unlike in English, the past perfect does not always require the existence of the past reference point between the event time and the speech time. Although used in similar as well as different contexts, the past perfect in both languages is found to express background information. In the analysis of the Nepali past tenses, one of the major arguments is that the traditionally termed `unknown past' does not have `past' as part of its basic meaning. The main function of this verb form is to express the speaker's unawareness of a situation at the time of its happening, whether in the past or the future.After the discussion of the Nepali past tenses in comparison with the English past tenses and aspects, an error analysis of Nepali EFL learners' use of the English past tenses in written essays is carried out. It was hypothesized that Nepali learners would make a wide variety of errors in the use of the English past tenses. Because of differences in the use of the past perfect and the past tense in the habitual sense between Nepali and English, it was expected that Nepali ESL learners would make errors in those areas. However, overgeneralization due to difference in the use was found only in a very few cases. Most of these errors cannot be traced to Nepali influence. One area, however, where Nepali has a clear effect on the students' use of English is in indirect speech. I argue that Nepali speakers do not change tenses in English indirect speech appropriately because verb tenses in Nepali are not changed from direct speech to indirect speech as in English.It is hoped that this dissertation will enhance the understanding of grammatical categories such as tense and aspect in general and of Nepali tense and aspect systems in particular. In general, this dissertation showed contribute to several areas of study in discourse analysis, second language acquisition, language transfer and contrastive analysis. A major significance of this dissertation is its demonstration of the role of tense and aspect in Nepali in the expression of various discourse functions.Department of English
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Petronienė, Saulė. "The Meaning of Lithuanian Past Tenses and their Equivalents in English." Doctoral thesis, Lithuanian Academic Libraries Network (LABT), 2009. http://vddb.library.lt/obj/LT-eLABa-0001:E.02~2009~D_20090526_111025-59099.
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The meanings of Lithuanian past simple tenses and their equivalents in English is the object of the thesis. Other forms expressing past, i.e. compound forms, participles used instead of indicative mood in the narrative speech as well as predicative indeclinable forms of past passive participles are the subject matter in the thesis. There are two simple past tenses in Lithuanian: the past simple and the past frequentative tense. Both tenses are used to express an action which happened before the moment of speech; however, the relation to the moment of speech is different: the past simple tense is used to express a very close action to the reference time (whether it is present or other past action). Thus, the past simple tense has the perfective and plusquamperfective meaning. Whereas, the past frequentative tense does not possess those meanings; it is used to express a repetitive action of a more distant past. Moreover, the relationship of analytic forms to the simple ones is determined in the study. The problem of modus relativus and the meaning of predicative participles of passive voice are covered in the thesis as well. Analytical nature of English tenses enables to perceive and evaluate the meanings and functions of Lithuanian tenses more accurately. The search for the equivalents of Lithuanian tenses in English allows determining more precise meanings of Lithuanian past tenses, particularly the grammaticalization of analytic constructions, the relationships of... [to full text]Disertacijoje analizuojami ne tik vientisinių būtųjų lietuvių kalbos laikų reikšmės ir jų atitikmenys anglų kalboje, bet ir praeities raiškos formos, įtraukiant ir vadinamąsias sudurtines arba sudėtines laikų formas, dalyvius, vartojamus vietoj tiesioginės nuosakos atpasakojamojoje kalboje, ir predikatines nelinksniuojamas neveikiamosios rūšies būtojo laiko dalyvių formas. Lietuvių kalboje yra du vientisiniai laikai: būtasis kartinis ir būtasis dažninis. Abiems šiems laikams bendra tai, kad jie reiškia veiksmą, vykusį prieš kalbamąjį momentą, o skiria juos pagrindinė santykio su kalbamuoju momentu reikšmė: būtasis kartinis laikas gali reikšti labai artimą veiksmą atskaitos momentui: ar tai būtų dabartis, ar kitas praeities veiksmas. Taigi būtasis kartinis laikas turi ir perfekto, ir pliuskvamperfekto reikšmes. Šių reikšmių neturi būtasis dažninis laikas. Jis reiškia tolesnės praeities kartojamą veiksmą, kurio atžvilgiu jis sudaro opoziciją būtajam kartiniam laikui. Darbe taip pat nagrinėjamos analitinės formos, nustatomas jų santykis su vientisinėmis: ar jos sudaro vientisinėms opozicijas, ar yra sinoniminės, ar visos santykiauja vienodai. Taip pat tiriama vadinamoji netiesioginė nuosaka (modus relativus) ir neveikiamosios rūšies formą turinčių predikatinių dalyvių reikšmė. Analitinis anglų kalbos laikų pobūdis geriau padeda suprasti ir įvertinti lietuvių kalbos laikų reikšmes ir funkcijas. Ieškojimas lietuvių kalbos laikų formoms atitikmenų anglų kalboje padeda geriau... [toliau žr. visą tekstą]
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Nicolacópulos, Nicoleta Theodoro. "The differences between the english and portuguese present tenses: a systemic analysis." reponame:Repositório Institucional da UFSC, 2013. https://repositorio.ufsc.br/handle/123456789/106113.
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Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Florianópolis, 1980.Made available in DSpace on 2013-12-05T19:17:44Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 321890.pdf: 2988341 bytes, checksum: 0c621ec09a3b0257d32aa8ae0d5ccc3c (MD5)
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Gagné, Maxime. "L'impact des jeux vidéo sur la maîtrise des temps verbaux en anglais langue seconde = : The effect of video games on the mastery of verb tenses in English as a second language (ESL)." Master's thesis, Université Laval, 2021. http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11794/69382.
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Les jeux vidéo ne sont pas seulement une source de divertissement, étant donné qu'ils constituent aussi un apport linguistique authentique pour les apprenants de langue seconde. Cette étude tente de déterminer l'impact des jeux vidéo sur la maîtrise grammaticale de l'anglais comme langue seconde de manière spécifique, parmi un échantillon ciblé de Québécois. Afin de vérifier l'hypothèse supposant que les jeux vidéo mènent à un niveau supérieur de maitrise de l'anglais comme langue seconde, un sondage a été envoyé à 16 participants volontaires. Ils ont été divisés en deux groupes spécifiques, les joueurs et les non-joueurs. Les participants ont écrit un texte d'environ 250 mots en anglais sur un sujet libre. Chaque texte a été évalué selon la qualité grammaticale et lexicale. Tous les participants étudiaient à l'UQAC et étaient tous originaires de régions très majoritairement francophones d'un point de vue historique. De plus, un petit nombre de participants ont été observés directement alors qu'ils jouaient dans le but d'évaluer l'usage spécifique et la fréquence de certains temps verbaux communs. Tous les textes ont été évalués selon le bon usage des temps verbaux et les données ont été recueillies d’après le nombre d'erreurs grammaticales et lexicales. La comparaison de ces éléments rend possible d'analyser ces deux groupes de participants d'une manière qualitative. En général, les joueurs ont mieux performé statistiquement que les non-joueurs, autant au niveau grammatical que lexical. Ils ont également fait moins d'erreurs. Cependant, il est devenu évident lors de cette étude que d'autres sources pouvaient aussi contribuer à la maîtrise de l'anglais comme langue seconde.Video games are not only a source of entertainment, as they also provide authentic language input for second language learners. Specifically, this study investigates the effect of video games on grammatical mastery of English as a second language (ESL) among a targeted sample of Quebecers. To test the hypothesis that video games impact a higher level of mastery of ESL, an online survey was distributed to 16 volunteer participants who were divided into two specific groups identified as gamers and non-gamers. Participants provided a written text in English of approximately 250 words on any topic which was evaluated for grammar and lexical quality. All participants were UQAC students, and all students were identified as originating from historically high percentage French-speaking environments. Moreover, a small sample of participants was directly observed during the process of gaming to evaluate the specific use and frequency of certain common verb tenses. All submissions were evaluated for the correct use of verb tense and data was gathered based on the number of grammatical and lexical errors. Comparison of these values allows for a qualitative means of analyzing these two groups of participants. In general, it was found that gamers statistically performed better than non-gamers, both grammatically and lexically. They also made fewer mistakes. However, it became apparent during this study that there are additional influences that may contribute to the mastery of ESL.
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Flahive, Patrick J. "Past tense marking in Chinese-English interlanguage." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2004. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc4664/.
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This data study concentrates on the past tense marking in the interlanguage (IL) of Chinese speakers of English. Following the assumptions of Hawkins & Lizska, (2003), it is assumed that unlike native speakers of English, Chinese speakers of English have a higher level of optionality within the past tense marking of their grammars. It is claimed that the primary reason for this occurrence is the lack of the functional feature T(ense) [+/-past] in Mandarin Chinese. If a particular functional feature is missing in a learner's L1 grammar, it is thought that it will be absent in one's L2 grammar as well. Three advanced Chinese speakers of English were tested on the past tense marking in their IL production. Both spontaneous oral and reading speech were used for this data analysis.
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Shaer, Benjamin M. "Making sense of tense : tense, time reference, and linking theory." Thesis, McGill University, 1996. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=34452.
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This study examines the forms and meanings of tensed and non-tensed clauses in English, and proposes an analysis of them that is 'Reichenbachian' in spirit and syntactic in orientation. The study considers tensed verb forms in simple sentences, focussing on 'present', 'future', and 'perfect' forms and their interaction with adverbials of temporal location; and those in complement, relative, and temporal clause constructions. It also considers three types of non-tensed verb forms--infinitives, gerunds, and 'bare infinitives'--in verb complements.The study demonstrates that the interpretation of tensed and non-tensed forms can be described in terms of Reichenbach's (1947) temporal schemata, which express relations between 'S' ('speech time'), 'R' ('reference time'), and 'E' ('situation time'). However, its central claim is that the tensed forms themselves are 'temporally underspecified', encoding relations between 'S' and 'R', and leaving the relation between 'R' and 'E' and the location and duration of both of these intervals to be determined by lexical properties of the verb and its arguments, temporal adverbials, and context. Non-tensed verbs forms have a similar syntactic representation, differing primarily in not fully encoding a relation between 'S' and 'R'. This claim is cashed out in terms of two devices: a feature system that expresses tenses as particular values of the feature matrix (Anterior, Posterior); and a device of 'tense linking', based on Higginbotham's (e.g. 1983) proposal for binding theory, which associates verbs with temporal adverbials or tensed Infl, and one (tensed or non-tensed) Infl with a higher one.
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Lastra, John. "Future Tense in Modern American English." Thesis, Högskolan i Skövde, Institutionen för kommunikation och information, 2008. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:his:diva-2239.
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Okuwaki, Natsumi. "Acquisition of tense and aspect in L2 English." Thesis, University of Essex, 2005. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.421141.
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Hu, Jiazhen. "Temporal interpretation in English." Diss., The University of Arizona, 1988. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/184595.
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This dissertation investigates the interaction between the basic rules for tense interpretation, on the one hand, and temporal types of VPs or sentences, time expressions and syntactic distribution of tense forms, on the other. This dissertation proposes an analysis in which each tense form is associated with at least three time identities, the zero time point, the event time and the reference time. The zero time is defined as the time from which a situation is considered and interpreted, the event time as the time at which a situation takes place and the reference time is the time at which the situation holds and which is part of the event time under consideration. Concerning the temporal structures of situations expressed by VPs or sentences, this dissertation proposes a six-type temporal classification and treats temporal types not as atomic but as reducible to temporal features. By so doing, this dissertation brings to light the internal structure among various temporal types. Regarding the relation between tense and time expressions, this dissertation analyzes it to be one of temporal inclusion and provides a successful account of why time adverbs do not necessarily mark both ending points of a given homogeneous situation, though this is true with a nonhomogeneous situation. In accounting for tense interpretation in complement clauses, this dissertation maintains that complement tense forms and matrix tense forms can be interpreted in the same way and they differ only in the interpretation of the zero time point. In the matrix clause, tense is interpreted with respect to the speech time and, in the complement clause, tense is interpreted relative to the reference time of the matrix clause. Because the zero time is used instead of the speech time in the proposed basic tense rules, these rules are general and powerful enough to be applicable to tenses in any syntactic environment.
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Hantrakul, Chanpen Steffensen Margaret S. "English tense and aspect usage in controlled written discourse by non-native speakers." Normal, Ill. Illinois State University, 1990. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/ilstu/fullcit?p9101113.
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Thesis (D.A.)--Illinois State University, 1990.Title from title page screen, viewed November 4, 2005. Dissertation Committee: Margaret S. Steffensen (chair), Irene T. Brosnahan, Ronald J. Fortune, Ronald S. Halinski, Bruce W. Hawkins. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 144-150) and abstract. Also available in print.
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Eriksson, Anders. "Tense and aspect in advanced Swedish learners' written English /." Göteborg : Acta Universitatis Gothoburgensis, 2008. http://opac.nebis.ch/cgi-bin/showAbstract.pl?u20=9789173466097.
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Guthrie, Anna Marie. "Quotative tense shift in American English authority-encounter narratives." CSUSB ScholarWorks, 1994. https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/etd-project/916.
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Kim, Shin-hye. "The acquisition of tense and aspect by Korean and Chinese learners of English /." Digital version accessible at:, 1999. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/utexas/main.
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Loi, Raymond. "Variation in past tense marking in L2 English in Macao." Thesis, University of Macau, 2004. http://umaclib3.umac.mo/record=b1636193.
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Yang, Yingli. "Corrective feedback and Chinese learners` acquisition of English past tense." Thesis, McGill University, 2009. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=32269.
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This quasi-experimental study investigated how recasts and prompts benefited Chinese learners' acquisition of regular and irregular English past tense. The research hypotheses were: 1) Learners who receive corrective feedback while performing the communicative activities will outperform those in the control group who are carrying out the communicative activity only; 2) Prompts will have more beneficial effects than recasts in learning regular past tense forms; 3) Recasts will better assist learners in learning irregular past tense forms than prompts. Seventy-two adult EFL learners in 3 intact classes at the university level participated in the study. The 3 classes were randomly assigned to one prompt group (n = 22), one recast group (n = 25), and one control group (n = 25). The instructional treatment included four communicative tasks which highlighted the target forms and elicited oral production of the target forms from the students. In the two feedback groups, teachers consistently provided one type of feedback (i.e., either recast or prompt) in response to learners' errors during the communicative activities, whereas in the control group the teacher provided feedback only on content of the communicative tasks. Participants' acquisition of the past tense forms was assessed through an oral and a written test prior to, immediately after, and two weeks after the treatment. Results of mixed-model repeated measures ANOVA showed that all three groups significantly improved their accuracy scores over time in both oral and written production. Results of the written production measure indicated that the prompt group outperformed the control group and this improvement resultCette étude quasi-expérimentale a examiné les effets de deux techniques de rétroaction, reformulations et incitations, sur l'acquisition des verbes réguliers et irréguliers au passé (en anglais) par des apprenants chinois. Les hypothèses de recherche étaient les suivantes : 1) les apprenants qui reçoivent une rétroaction corrective dans le cours d'activités de communication seront plus performants que les membres du groupe témoin qui réalisent seulement les activités de communication ; 2) les incitations auront davantage d'effets bénéfiques que les reformulations dans l'apprentissage de verbes réguliers au passé ; 3) les reformulations seront plus avantageuses pour l'apprentissage de verbes irréguliers au passé. Soixante-douze apprenants d'anglais langue étrangère dans trois classes complètes de niveau universitaire ont participé à l'étude. Les apprenants des trois classes ont été répartis, au hasard, en trois groupes : un groupe « incitation » (n = 22), un groupe « reformulation » (n = 25) et un groupe témoin (n = 25). L'expérience pédagogique comportait quatre tâches de communication qui mettaient en présence les structures ciblées et suscitaient la production orale de ces structures par les apprenants. Dans les deux groupes « rétroaction », les professeurs donnaient invariablement un type de rétroaction (soit reformulation, soit incitation) en réponse aux erreurs des apprenants dans le cours des activités de communication tandis que, dans le groupe témoin, le professeur ne fournissait de la rétroaction que sur le contenu. L'acquisition par les participants des verbes au passé a été évaluée au moyen d'un test oral
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Matuka, Yeno Mansoni. "Patterns of tense, aspects and modality in the metalanguage of academic English prose." Virtual Press, 1987. http://liblink.bsu.edu/uhtbin/catkey/505145.
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Navarro, Gabriela Casillas. "The acquisition of tense, aspect and agreement morphology in L2 English." Thesis, University of Essex, 2006. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.433588.
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Longworth, Catherine Elaine. "Understanding the regular past tense in English : a cognitive neuroscience approach." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2003. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.619663.
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Khamitov, E. "Typology of the tense-category in the English and Russian languages." Thesis, Sumy State University, 2017. http://essuir.sumdu.edu.ua/handle/123456789/51718.
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People of different nationalities have their own culture and language with their peculiarities. Consequently, the forms by which we express time can be found in the tense-category in grammar of almost every language.
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Davila, Angel Maria. "Spanish speakers' reading production of English past tense inflectional morpheme -ed." OpenSIUC, 2013. https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/theses/1280.
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AN ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS OF ANGEL MARIA DAVILA, for the Master of Arts degree in TESOL and Applied Linguistics, presented on February 21, 2013, at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. TITLE: SPANISH SPEAKERS' READING PRODUCTION OF ENGLISH PAST TENSE INFLECTIONAL MORPHEME -ed MAJOR PROFESSOR: Dr. Krassimira Charkova The main purpose of the present study was to examine if the accurate pronunciation of the three allomorphs of the -ed ending improves with the level of English proficiency in Nicaraguan Spanish EFL learners' read aloud production. There were 48 participants. They belonged to three English proficiency levels: high beginners, intermediate and high intermediate. Each level consisted of 16 informants, with the same number of women and men. The research instrument included a list of 44 regular past tense verbs to measure the three phonological realizations of the -ed inflectional morpheme. The results revealed that the effect of proficiency level was different for the three allomorphs. It was found that more advanced EFL Spanish learners had a significantly higher level of accuracy on the production of two of the three allomorphs, /t/ and /d/. In fact, their error rate on these two allomorphs was as low as 9% and 8%, respectively. In the case of the /əd, ɪd/ allomorph, no significant differences were found among proficiency levels. Moreover, this allomorph showed the lowest rate of errors overall. These results were interpreted in view of the Markedness Differential Hypothesis (Eckman, 1977) and the Similarity Differential Rate Hypothesis (Major & Kim, 1996). The trends in the data definitely suggested support for Similarity Differential Rate Hypothesis which postulates that markedness by itself cannot explain the development of L2 learners as they improve their L2 level of proficiency. In the context of the present study, this was evident in the significantly better performance of the most advanced group which showed the highest rate of accuracy on the more marked allomorphs /t/ and /d/. In view of these findings, the study offers implications for the teaching of the three phonological realizations of the -ed past tense inflection. Keywords: allomorph, inflectional morpheme, proficiency level
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Chow, Po-ki. "Tense and aspect in interlanguage error analysis in the English of Cantonese-speaking secondary school students /." Click to view the E-thesis via HKUTO, 2006. http://sunzi.lib.hku.hk/hkuto/record/B36856228.
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Taylor, Vi Linh. "Tense usage in academic writing a cross-disciplinary study /." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 2001. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk3/ftp04/MQ58551.pdf.
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Hassan, Salem Kadhem. "Time, tense and structure in contemporary English poetry : Larkin and the Movement." Thesis, University of Glasgow, 1985. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/3902/.
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Ralushai, Moses Mpfariseni. "Tense and aspect taxonomies among Tshivhenda mother tongue speakers of English : implications for Black South African English." Thesis, University of Limpopo, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10386/1752.
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Thesis (M. A. (English Studies)) -- University of Limpopo, 2015Whereas research has exponentially increased on the understanding of new varieties of English worldwide, there is a paucity of studies that have assessed the degree to which Black South African English is shared and understood across a wider spectrum of the Bantu language speaking communities in South Africa. Because of this, research has been inconclusive on causes and frequencies of identified linguistic properties of the variety. This study investigated the tense and aspect usages in English among mother tongue speakers of Tshivenda learners to develop a taxonomy of characteristic features, sources of production and frequency of occurrence in an educational context. The study focused more attention on the role of mother tongue substrate system which transfers its features to the target language. After a contrastive analysis of the collected data, learners’ essays and storytelling, the findings of the study indicate that the occurrence of tense and aspect properties among grade 11 learners is first language (L1) induced and rule-governed. Secondly, the results show that the features occur with high frequency, suggesting that they are institutionalised. In particular, the study denotes that expressions of temporal reasoning follow the L1 grammatical structure that favours external formation to the verb phrase; i.e., verbal arguments are preferred to morphological conjugations. Based on these findings, it is concluded that the logic of temporal reasoning, described as Bantu language logic as developed by Makalela (2004, 2007, and 2013), rather than grammatical forms, is transferred in the production of BSAE tense and aspect properties. When seen in this light, it is evident that BSAE cuts across different Bantu languages of South Africa, it has evolved towards being an endonormative variety, relying on its own internal logic (substrate forms) to be a new and distinct variety of English. In the end, recommendations for more robust and large scale studies in high prestige domains such as the media and institutions of higher learning are made for augmentation of these findings.
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Gaspar, García Belén. "The acquisition of tense and aspect in L2 English by Spanish speakers." Thesis, University of Essex, 2012. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.572800.
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The acquisition of tense and aspect phenomena by second language (L2) speakers has been the source of considerable interest to researchers for the light it throws on how they acquire new morphosyntactic forms and the interpretations assigned to those forms. Broadly adopting the theoretical perspective of Universal Grammar (although also considering the functionalist claims of the Aspect Hypothesis), the present study investigates knowledge of the forms and meanings of the simple past, present perfect and simple present by L 1 Spanish speakers at two proficiency levels, intermediate and advanced. Special attention is paid to the semantic properties of these three tense forms and how grammaticalising the same temporallaspectual distinctions in the L 1 might aid their acquisition. By the advanced level, the simple past and present have largely been acquired. The present perfect, on the other hand, proved to be of greater complexity. Results indicate that different form-meaning mappings have an impact on L2 performance, even when the same distinctions are grammaticalised in the native and target languages. It is shown that analysing the different perfect readings separately offers a new perspective and suggests that not all L2 learners might be treating the PF in a unitary fashion. In particular, differences were found between speakers of Latin American and European varieties of Spanish. Underlying semantic properties are shown to be an additional factor affecting all participants. It is thus argued that both L 1 transfer and properties specific to each tense form are necessary to account for the observed data. In addition, production data presents greater divergence from the target than comprehension. It is hypothesised that integrating knowledge at the syntax-semantics-pragmatics interface to access the appropriate form-meaning mappings is subject to greater computational demands in production tasks
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Chan, Chin-ying Alice, and 陳展瑩. "A corpus-based analysis of tense usage in Cantonese-English bilingual children." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 2010. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B4515093X.
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Ihsan, Diemroh. "A linguistic study of tense shifts in Indonesian-English interlanguage autobiographical discourse." Virtual Press, 1988. http://liblink.bsu.edu/uhtbin/catkey/558344.
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The purpose of the study was two-fold. First, it investigated, described, and analyzed tense shifts and the roles of the present tense forms in IEIL autobiographical discourse. Second, as a contribution to the study of English interlanguage of Indonesian EFL learners it presents some pedagogical implications for the EFL teaching and learning in Indonesia and offers suggestions for further research. The data used for the study were twenty-six essays containing 1700 verb phrases in 937 sentences, which were written by twenty-six freshman EFL learners of the University of Sriwijaya in Palembang, Indonesia, in 1986.The results of the study show that tense use in IEIL is systematic, on one hand, and variable, on the other. Shifts of tense from past to present are generally predictable. The present tense usually functions to present the writer's evaluation or opinion, habitual occurrences, general truth, or factual descriptions functioning as permanent truth in relation to the writer's childhood. Occasionally, the present tense functions as the Historical Present to narrate past events. The past tense, on the other hand, usually functions to describe past truth and, at times, to narrate historical events such as the writer's date and place of birth.Variability also characterizes IEIL autobiographical discourse. That is, IEIL writers do not completely follow the present and past tense rules. For instance, they usually use the present tense to express habitual occurrences, but at other times they use past tense accompanied by such expressions as "on Sundays," "on holidays," "whenever," etc.In addition, the following conclusions have been drawn: (1) IEIL autobiographical discourse largely contains description expressed in the past tense; (2) discourses are highly recommended to be used as the first material in teaching linguistic phenomena such as tense shifts to Indonesian EFL learners; and (3) following the IL theory and principles, EFL teachers should not treat EFL learner's should treat them as a sign that they are in fact in the process of learning.deviants as a sign of improper usage and harmful but instead should treat them as a sign that they are in fact in the process of learning.Department of English
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Sinka, Indra. "The development of tense and agreement in Latvian and English bilingual children." Thesis, University of Reading, 1999. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.270316.
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Liszka, S. A. "The development of tense and the present perfect in second language English." Thesis, University of Essex, 2002. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.395875.
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O'Brien, Josephine. "Tense and aspect in the interlanguage of Gulf Arab learners of English." Thesis, University of Leicester, 2003. http://hdl.handle.net/2381/30848.
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Expression of temporality in English through the use of finite verbs is challenging for LI Arabic learners of English. Non-target language forms have been recorded in the interlanguage of Arabic speaking Emirati students in a third level college system in the UAE. Analysis of the errors suggests that there may be systematicity in these non-TL forms. Two factors are considered in the study as possible influences on the learners' choices of verb forms. The first considers verb type, looking at how the lexical aspect of verb types affects verb form. The second factor considers the possibility of transfer from the Arabic tense/ aspect system and examines how the function of morphological forms in Arabic may affect choice of form in English. Two research instruments in the form of English grammar and Arabic translation tasks were designed to acquire data on English morphological forms selected by learners for both verb types and functions. In addition, the normal tasks required of learners i.e. free composition writing provided a source of verbs which were analysed for learner verb type, function and form associations. Learners at five language levels participated in the research. Data were analysed for rates of accuracy in the most common verb forms found in learner output and measured against expectations set by the grammar component of writing band descriptors used to assess student writing. All observed morphological choices for verb type and function were recorded, categorized and measured against the two selected hypotheses. Results indicate the relevance of certain features of both hypotheses and highlight the importance of taking dimensions other than form into consideration when considering verb use in learners' interlanguage.
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MANDAKH, OYUNCHIMEG. "A Comparative Study on the tense and aspect in English and Mongolian." Kyoto University, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/2433/199382.
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Kyoto University (京都大学)0048
新制・課程博士
博士(人間・環境学)
甲第19058号
人博第711号
新制||人||171(附属図書館)
26||人博||711(吉田南総合図書館)
32009
京都大学大学院人間・環境学研究科共生人間学専攻
(主査)教授 齋藤 治之, 教授 服部 文昭, 教授 壇辻 正剛
学位規則第4条第1項該当
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Fan, Hongli. "Acquisition of tense-aspect morphology by English learners of French and Chinese." [Gainesville, Fla.] : University of Florida, 2005. http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/UFE0011763.
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Chen, Chang-Ching. "THE REPRESENTATION AND PROCESSING OF PAST TENSE IN CHINESE ENGLISH-LANGUAGE LEARNERS." Diss., The University of Arizona, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/195450.
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In general, L2 learners have great difficulty mastering aspects of grammar in the second language. For example, Chinese-speaking ESL learners often fail to mark past tense in their speaking and writing (Aaronson & Ferres, 1987; Bayley, 1991; Bean & Gergen, 1990; Jia & Fuse, 2007; Krashen & Pon, 1975; Lardiere, 1998; Wei, 2000), and there are some suggestions in the literature that Chinese learners of English never master English tense (Lardiere, 1998). One question that arises is whether the failure to learn to use the past tense is due to a failure of competence or a failure of performance. If the former, then Chinese-speaking ESL learners should show such failures in all tasks including comprehension tasks.However, little research has investigated L2 comprehension of tense marking in reading. The studies (Gass, 2001; Guillelmon & Grosjean, 2001; Jiang, 2004, 2007) have showed that late L2 learners are not sensitive to certain types of grammatical marking. They have poor inflectional comprehension. It is possible that Chinese English-language learners are insensitive to grammatical violation involving tense during reading. This dissertation tests this idea.A group of English-proficient college students from Fu-Jen University in Taiwan was tested in a number of tasks. In paper-and-pencil tests, Chinese English-language learners showed knowledge of the past tense forms and the appropriate contexts for their usage. This suggests that past tense marking is learnable. Chinese English-language learners can acquire this knowledge. Does the relative mastery of past tense show up in comprehension in a similar L2 population? A reading comprehension test that measured reading time to sequential segments of a sentence indicated that unlike native speakers of English who were tested, Chinese English-language learners were insensitive to grammatical violation involving tense. This finding is consistent with the other studies, indicating that L2 learners are insensitive to grammatical marking during reading.Overall, it appears that high-functioning Chinese English-language learners can learn almost the proper way to use tense, but fail to do so during performance.
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Suwono, S. "Tense, aspect and time concepts in English and Bahasa Indonesia: Pedagogical implications." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 1993. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/1151.
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The aim of the study has been to provide theoretical foundations on which padagogical approaches to the teaching of English tense-aspect complexes to EFL teacher trainees in Indonesian tertiary institutions can be based. The study investigates how expression of time and related concepts in English and Bahasa Indonesia (BI) can be compared with particular regard to pedagogical implications. Two major areas of investigation have been explored: 1. questions relevant to the general linguistic theory of tense and aspect and how the two languages compared fit into such a general theory; ii. questions relevant to how the teaching of English tense-aspect complexes can be seen as consistent with contemporary views based on Second Language Acquisition (SLA) research. Within the former area, the theory of tense as a deictic category and the related 'theory' of aspect developed by Comrie (1976, 1985) are reviewed. A model of tense-aspect complexes developed for the purposes of interlanguage comparison is presented. On the basis of the model the English tense-aspectcomplexes and BI 'temporal-aspectual complexes' are described. In relation to matters pertaining to SLA theory, thefollowing steps have been taken: (1) The speciflc requirements of Indonesian EFL teacher education have been considered in the light of contemporary SLA theory; (2) Textbooks currently used for the teaching of English tense-aspect complexes in Indonesian EFL teacher education at IKIP/FKIPs have been analysed; (3) Current practices and attitudes of the teacher trainers teaching English tense-aspect complexes to EFL teacher trainees at IKlP/FKIPs have been explored. In conclusion, approaches for presenting the English tense aspect complexes based on the major findings of the study are suggested.
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Taha, Iman. "The acquisition of grammatical tense/aspect distinctions and tense/aspect morphemes in L2 English by native speakers of Syrian Arabic." Thesis, University of Essex, 2013. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.625451.
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Previous research has shown that even highly proficient second language (L2) learners who have acquired the L2 beyond a hypothesized critical period tend to use forms of the target language optionally where they are obligatory for native speakers. Lardiere (2000, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009) has recently addressed issues of morphological competence, arguing that the learning task of the language learner goes far beyond the simplistic selection of features from a universal feature inventory provided by Universal Grammar to a more complicated task by having to assemble or map features into new formal configurations in the L2. This claim is tested in this study through the investigation of the acquisition of properties of the functional categories of Tense and Aspect where the L I and L2 differ in their realisation of the properties under study. It is believed that combining the logic of feature re-assembly together with a theoretical account of universals of tense/aspect interpretations could offer explanatory insights into the nature and course of L2 acquisition. A total of 60 classroom-instructed Syrian learners of L2 English and 10 native speaker controls participated in this study and were tested on their knowledge of the simple past, present perfect and simple present at three proficiency levels: lower-intermediate, higher intermediate and advanced. A tense/aspect interpretation task, a gap filling task and a proficiency test were administered in order to collect the data relevant to the tested properties. Results indicate a significant effect for L I transfer as learners approach the learning challenge from the standpoint of how form-meaning associations are instantiated in their LI grammar. Properties involving straightforward mapping between the LI and L2 values proved to be easier to acquire than properties that are differently represented in the L 1 and L2 and hence re-structuring is required. Variability across comprehension and production, and across tasks, is detected for less-proficient L2 learners. It is proposed that a UG-based account can offer testable predictions about the acquisitional process where morphological variability is situated at the mapping/re-mapping level and processing pressure is a determining factor for target-like attainment especially in production.
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Wright, Susan Mary. "Tense, aspect and text : processes of grammaticalization in the history of the English auxiliary." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 1986. https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/265342.
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The primary object of inquiry is the semantics of the progressive and perfect constructions in English, and their interaction with the deictic category of tense. The domain of inquiry is text. The major concern is the argument that a full description of these constructions' development involves consideration of both functional (semantic- pragmatic) and formal (morphosyntactic) change. The bases of the framework constructed for analysis are Lyons' (1977; 1982) theory of locutionary subjectivism, and Traugott's (1982) model of semantic- pragmatic shifts in the grarrmaticalization process. Thus the description depends on the r ole of text in characterizing and shaping the meaning and use of auxiliary elements. Accordingly, I use a range of text-types for illustrative purposes. It is important to emphasize their exemplary function - they do not constitute a statistically defined or determined corpus. The main theme of this dissertation is the emergence of what I call the 'subjectivity' of these constructions in the context of their realization as grarrmatical markers of the English auxiliary. The study is divided into three parts. The first (chapters 1, 2, and 3) is a synchronic characterization of tense semantics focussing on subjectivity and text; and against this background, the semantics of the progressive and the perfect. The second part (chapters 4, 5, 6) is a detailed historical account of the perfect and the progressive in the framework of grarrmaticalization. A central concern of this section is the exploration of the semantic-pragmatic shifts forming part of the grarnnaticalization process. The last part, chapter 7, is an attempt to show the early instantiation of expressive meanings through the subjective function of tense, the progressive and perfect in experiential text- types, represented by the personal letter . The study is therefore organized cyclically, its major themes being the grarrunaticalization and semantic- pragmatic development of the English auxiliary, and their elucidation through text.
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Bolze, Christine. "Forms and functions of the present tense of the verb to be in the Old English Gospels." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2013. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.608157.
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Mullen, Anne. "Context-based instruction of the present perfect tense in English second language classrooms." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1997. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk3/ftp04/mq25686.pdf.
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Bahrami, Yar Mohammad. "Marking of English verbs for past tense : a study of Afghan learners' production." Thesis, Manhattan, Kan. : Kansas State University, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/2097/1516.
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Alruwaili, Ruwayshid. "Second language acquisition of aspect and tense by Saudi-Arabic learners of English." Thesis, University of York, 2014. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/7203/.
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This study investigates the influence of first language (L1) grammar on the acquisition of temporal and aspectual distinctions in second language (L2) English at different proficiency levels and in different learning settings. Specifically, the study examines interpretations of aspectual and temporal contrasts by Saudi-Arabic learners of English. The two languages share the same underlying representations involving formal syntactic features, but they are different in the morphological configurations that determine which aspectual/temporal meaning is selected. Two different tasks were administered to three learning groups: an acceptability judgment task and a gap-filling task. The learning groups were classified according to learning context (classroom vs. immersion) and performance on a cloze test. The findings revealed that Saudi-Arabic learners of English were able to establish the aspectual contrast between the habitual and progressive and produce these forms to a target-like level. However, they were unable to establish the temporal contrast between the preterite and present perfect. The investigation revealed that the learners’ behaviour on the preterite vs. present perfect contrast was constrained by their L1 grammar. Theoretical implications of these findings are that uninterpretable features are retrievable from universal inventory contra the Interpretability Hypothesis (Hawkins et al. 2008). Besides, the Aspect Hypothesis, which claims that verbal morphology is influenced by lexical aspect, the findings show that it is less likely to predict the route of L2 acquisition of tense and aspect distinctions at a later stage (Andersen & Shirai 1996). However, the results suggest that the Feature Reassembly can accommodate and predict the observed disparity in the performance of Saudi speakers (Lardiere 2008). As for pedagogical implications, the findings suggest that L2 learners follow a similar developmental route regardless of learning context, and explicit instruction does not necessarily guarantee acquisition. The overall conclusion is that L1 grammar might be deterministic in establishing the target-like interpretation, especially when other factors such as input come in play. Therefore, the approach to L2 acquisition should not only consider properties of L1 grammar but also the role of L2 input and the interaction between them in the course of development.
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Almotairi, Adel Mater. "THE PERCEPTION OF ENGLISH TENSE AND LAX VOWELS BY SAUDI SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNERS." OpenSIUC, 2015. https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/theses/1693.
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The present study examined the perception of English tense-lax vowel pairs by adult Saudi English as a second language (ESL) learners. More specifically, it looked at the effect of experience and length of exposure to the target language on the perception of these vowels. Thirty-eight male Saudi participants were recruited for the purpose of this study and were divided into two groups based on their level of proficiency and length of residence in the US, referred to as the experienced group and the inexperienced group, respectively. The research instrument contained four tense-lax vowel pairs, including /i/-/ɪ/, /e/-/ɛ/, /u/-/ʊ/, and /o/-/ɔ/. In order to control for the effect of the environment, all of the vowels were embedded in /hVd/ contexts as illustrated by the following examples: heed (/i/), hid (/ɪ/), hayed (/e/), head (/ɛ/), hawed (/ɔ/), hoed (/o/), hood (/ʊ/), and who'd (/u/). Native-speaker recordings of each vowel token were used to test participants’ perception accuracy. The recordings included both male and female voices. According to the statistics provided by the t-tests, there were significant differences in the perception of five out of the eight vowels that were examined in this study. In all five cases, the experienced group had a significantly better perception accuracy. The vowel that showed the highest magnitude of difference between the experienced and inexperienced students was the tense mid front vowel /e/ with an effect size of 1.5. It was followed by the lax high back vowel /ʊ/ with an effect size of 1.08. The third in magnitude of difference was the lax mid front vowel /ɛ/ (effect size = 1.02), followed by the lax mid back vowel /ɔ/ (effect size = 0.79), and finally the tense mid back vowel /o/ (effect size = 0.72). On the other hand, vowels that did not show significant differences between the two groups were the tense and lax high front vowels /i/ and /ɪ/ and the tense high back vowel /u/. However, although the experienced group showed a significantly higher level of perception accuracy in five out of the eight tense-lax vowel contrasts, the participants in this group reached the 80% accuracy level with only two vowels: /i/ and /e/. On the other hand, the inexperienced group did not show mastery of any of the eight vowels as their perception accuracy scores were below 80%. In terms of related theories, some of the results supported the Perceptual Assimilation Model (Best, 1994), the Speech Learning Model (Flege, 1995), and the Markedness Differential Hypothesis (Eckman, 1977), whereas other findings provided contradictory evidence. Overall, this study concluded that experience and exposure had a positive effect on Saudi ESL speakers’ perceptions of the tense-lax vowel contrasts in English. Even though this effect was not the same for all vowel contrasts, it carried the implication that perception accuracy can be facilitated through systematic training and practice.
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Aguilar, Amanda G. "Present tense marking as a synopsis of Southern American English: Plural verbal -s and zero 3rd singular." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2005. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc4797/.
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This thesis explores the evolution plural verbal -s ("People thinks he is guilty") and zero 3rd singular ("He think he is guilty") in data from two sources on Southern English: The Linguistic Atlas of the Gulf States (LAGS) and The Linguistic Atlas of the Middle and South Atlantic States (LAMSAS). The research questions that underlie this study consider (1) the demographic association of plural verbal -s and zero 3rd singular, (2) the maintenance of each form, (3) the constraints on their use, and (4) the origins of -s variability. The atlas data suggest the following for plural verbal -s: (1) it has a British source, (2) it was present in both African American Vernacular English (AAVE) and early Southern White English (SWE), and (3) there were different grammatical constraints on its use in AAVE and SWE. Data for zero 3rd singular -s suggest this form (1) did not have a British source and (2) that it has historically been an AAVE feature.
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Chow, Po-ki, and 周寶琪. "Tense and aspect in interlanguage: error analysis in the English of Cantonese-speaking secondary schoolstudents." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 2006. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B36856228.
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Sawyer, Stephanie. "Cognitive style and overgeneralization in the acquisition of the English irregular past tense verbs." Thesis, University of Ottawa (Canada), 1988. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/5347.
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Jabbari, Ali Akbar. "Acquisition of tense and aspect by Persian learners of English as a second language." Thesis, Durham University, 1998. http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/4891/.
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This dissertation is a cross-sectional study of the acquisition of tense and aspect by 45 Persian speakers as the experimental group and 15 native English speaking children as the control group. This study specifically investigates the hypothesis of Primacy of Aspect (POA) that claims there is; (1) a strong association of past/perfective morpheme with achievement and accomplishment verbs, (2) a strong association of progressive morpheme with activity verbs, (3) no overextension of progressive inflection to stative verbs, and (4) strong association of the present morpheme '-s' with stative verbs. The study also argues for the semantic implications of the present data for the Distributional Bias Hypothesis (Andersen 1990), that the distinction of verb type in the input is skewed so as to create the acquisitional pattern found in studies of the POA in language acquisition, and for the Language Bioprogram (Bickerton 1981), that aspectual values are the knowledge a child is born with as the sources of the POA in SLA. The study also examines the syntactic implications of the data for the 'initial state' hypotheses in SLA: The Minimal Trees Hypothesis (Vainikka & Young-Scholten 1994, 1996a, 1996b), The Full Transfer/Full Access hypothesis (Schwartz & Sprouse 1996) and The Weak Parametric Transfer (Valueless Features) Hypothesis (Eubank 1993/94, 1996). The results supported the findings of the POA and the Minimal Trees Hypothesis.
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Kelley, Torin. "First and Second Language Use of Case, Aspect, and Tense in Finnish and English." BYU ScholarsArchive, 2021. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/9212.
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Important to understanding bilingualism and second language (L2) learning are L2 morphological processing and acquisition of tense and aspect. This study used narrative elicitation to examine the expression of boundedness and definiteness in Finnish and English by first language (L1) Finnish speakers who speak English as an L2 and L1 English speakers who speak Finnish as an L2. In Finnish, boundedness and definiteness were largely portrayed by using partitive and accusative cases, though tense and aspect conjugation also played a role. In English, boundedness was largely conveyed through tense and aspect conjugation and definiteness through article usage. Both L1 speaker groups appeared to demonstrate first language transfer as well as form following meaning in acquisition, meaning that a given form will be acquired first in contexts where the meaning of the form is inherent. There was also evidence pointing to avoidance by L2 speakers. Notably, varying interpretations of what the images used portrayed also seemed to play a role in some of the differences in responses across groups. The narrative elicitation methodology was useful in producing meaningful and easily comparable results.
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Lam, Sin-ting Stephanie. "Spectral and temporal features of tense-lax vowel contrast produced by Cantonese speakers of English a comparative study /." Click to view the E-thesis via HKU Scholars Hub, 2007. http://lookup.lib.hku.hk/lookup/bib/B42005528.
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Thesis (B.Sc)--University of Hong Kong, 2007."A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Bachelor of Science (Speech and Hearing Sciences), The University of Hong Kong, June 30, 2007." Includes bibliographical references (p. 31-32). Also available in print.
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Alzahrani, Dhayfullah Saeed. "THE ACQUISITION OF TENSE/LAX DISTINCTION BY ARABIC SPEAKERS LEARNING ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE." OpenSIUC, 2014. https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/theses/1364.
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The main goal of this study is to investigate the difficulties of acquiring tense/lax /i, I/ and /u, U/ contrasts by adult Arabic speakers learning English as a Second Language (ESL). Twenty Saudi ESL subjects, 16 male and 4 female, produced a list of 20 English monosyllabic words in a carrier sentence. Target vowels were preceded and followed alternately by consonant stops (e.g., /bVb/, /bVt/, /bVd/, /bVk/, /bVg/). The productions were analyzed acoustically for vowel quality and length. The results of the study revealed that most subjects had difficulties acquiring tense/lax contrasts. Their realization of the target vowel /i, I/ and /u, U/ were assimilated to their first language (L1) short vowel counterparts /i/ and /u/ respectively. However, advanced second language (L2) learners tended to produce slightly separate spectral contrasts specifically with front vowels, whereas durational differences of tense/lax contrasts were still affected by durational differences of Arabic long-short contrasts. Additionally, target back vowel contrasts were more difficult to acquire for both beginners and advanced learners. The study suggested that L2 participants were focusing on quantity rather than quality to acquire the target vowels. Orthography was observed affecting L2 production of vowel contrasts, especially with beginners. These findings have been found to support Flege's (1995) Speech Learning Model and Eckman's (1977) Markedness Differential Hypothesis.
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Ewing, Kathy S. "The effects of oral reading on the intonation and past tense verb use of adult non-native speakers of English /." Thesis, Connect to this title online; UW restricted, 2002. http://hdl.handle.net/1773/7846.
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