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Second Language Acquisition of Turkish
Edited by Ayşe Gürel
[Language Acquisition and Language Disorders 59] 2016
► pp. 251–279

Processing morphology in L2 Turkish

The effects of morphological richness in the L1

| Yeditepe University
| Bogaziçi University

Cross-linguistic research suggests that the processing of multimorphemic words in a language is tuned by its morphological characteristics. This means the processing pattern of a language either as a first (L1) or a second language (L2) can be influenced by its morphological properties. In L2 acquisition, the question is whether learners demonstrate, like native speakers, a processing pattern that is shaped by the morphological structure of that language or whether they follow an L1-based processing route. The present study explores this via unprimed lexical decision data from L1-English and L1-Russian learners of L2 Turkish. The results revealed decomposition in Russian-speaking participants but not in Turkish speakers or English-speaking participants. This implies L2 proficiency-­based differences in the extent of L1 transfer in processing inflection.

Keywords: L1 transfer, L2 acquisition, morphological processing, Turkish
Published online: 25 May 2016
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/lald.59.10uyg
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