Jia Gisela
Department of Psychology, Lehman College, City University of New York, Bronx 10468, USA.
J Speech Lang Hear Res. 2003 Dec;46(6):1297-311. doi: 10.1044/1092-4388(2003/101).
Although the acquisition of the English plural morpheme by monolingual English-speaking children (L1 learners) has been studied extensively, little is known about the processes through which native speakers of other languages (L2 speakers) acquire the English plural morpheme. To understand the similarities and differences between L1 and L2 English plural morpheme acquisition, 10 native Mandarin-speaking children who immigrated to the United States between ages 5 and 16 years were followed for 5 years. Their proficiency in English plural morpheme production was measured by a picture description task and by their spontaneous speech. In contrast to L1 learners who master the plural morpheme within 3 years of age, only 7 of these 10 L2 learners did so after 5 years of English exposure. Age of initial exposure to English and language environment explained individual differences to some extent. Participants' speech illustrated all error types made by L1 learners; however, L2 learners more frequently marked the same noun inconsistently in the same testing session, and more often overgeneralized the plural morpheme in singular or mass noun contexts. Differences between L2 learners and L1 learners with specific language impairment are also discussed.
虽然单语英语儿童（第一语言学习者）对英语复数语素的习得已得到广泛研究，但对于其他语言的母语者（第二语言使用者）习得英语复数语素的过程却知之甚少。为了了解第一语言和第二语言英语复数语素习得之间的异同，对10名5至16岁移民到美国的以普通话为母语的儿童进行了为期5年的跟踪研究。通过图片描述任务和他们的自发言语来衡量他们对英语复数语素的掌握程度。与在3岁以内掌握复数语素的第一语言学习者不同，这10名第二语言学习者中只有7人在接触英语5年后做到了这一点。初次接触英语的年龄和语言环境在一定程度上解释了个体差异。参与者的言语体现了第一语言学习者出现的所有错误类型；然而，第二语言学习者在同一测试环节中更频繁地对同一个名词做出不一致的标记，并且在单数或物质名词语境中更常过度泛用复数语素。还讨论了第二语言学习者与有特定语言障碍的第一语言学习者之间的差异。
