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Constructions in Contact 2: Language change, multilingual practices, and additional language acquisition
Edited by Hans C. Boas and Steffen Höder
[Constructional Approaches to Language 30] 2021
► pp. 375–428

Intensifying constructions in second language acquisition

A diasystematic-constructionist approach

| F.R.S.-FNRS | Université catholique de Louvain
| Université catholique de Louvain

This study analyzes the acquisition of Dutch intensifying constructions by French-speaking learners in Belgium. Additionally, it compares learners enrolled in Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) programs with learners following traditional second language instruction. Within the framework of Diasystematic Construction Grammar, we study the potential impact of CLIL on the acquisition of Dutch intensification by conducting an in-depth constructional analysis at three different levels of schematization.

The results of our study indicate that a beneficial CLIL effect is apparent throughout the different levels of abstraction. Moreover, the results allow us to unveil specific reorganizational processes that occur in the diasystem of French-speaking learners of Dutch, such as the overgeneralization of particular schematic patterns and the inaccurate tagging of specific intensifiers.

Keywords: intensification, L1 French, L2 Dutch, Diasystematic Construction Grammar, Second Language Acquisition, Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL), learner corpus research
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Multilingualism and DCxG
    • 2.1Multilingualism and language contact in Belgium
    • 2.2Multilingualism and SLA
      • 2.2.1Holistic view of multilingualism
      • 2.2.2Exposure-induced implicit learning
      • 2.2.3Cross-linguistic influence
    • 2.3A DCxG view of multilingualism and SLA
  • 3.Intensifying constructions in French and Dutch: A DCxG view
    • 3.1Intensification from a CxG perspective
    • 3.2Intensifying constructions at the formal level
    • 3.3Intensifying constructions at the semantic level
    • 3.4A diasystematic constructional network of intensification in Dutch and French
  • 4.Corpus data and methods
    • 4.1Participants
    • 4.2Task and collected data
    • 4.3Annotation of the data and methods
  • 5.Intensifying constructions in the diasystem of French-speaking learners of Dutch (non-CLIL and CLIL)
    • 5.1Intensifying constructions at the schematic level
      • 5.1.1Formal properties
      • 5.1.2Semantic properties
    • 5.2Intensifying constructions at the semi-schematic level
      • 5.2.1Variation in use: General observations
      • 5.2.2Semi-schematic constructions with a lexically specified intensifier
      • 5.2.3Semi-schematic constructions with a lexically specified adjective
      • 5.2.4Semi-schematic L1 idioconstructions
    • 5.3Intensifying constructions at the substantive level
      • 5.3.1Mutually attracted intensifier-adjective pairs
      • 5.3.2Types of non-target-like use of intensifying constructions
    • 5.4Discussion: Intensifying constructions in the diasystem of French-speaking learners of Dutch
  • 6.Conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
  • Appendix
Published online: 3 June 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/cal.30.12van
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