Second language acquisition of complex nominals: The architecture of the second language lexicon, individual differences, and second language development

This dissertation investigates the question of how the second language lexicon is functionally organized and how lexical information is processed in real-time. An answer to this question is pursued by looking at complex nominals (e.g., coffee cup), a rarely explored linguistic target in psycholinguistics-based SLA research. While taking into account first language backgrounds and individual cognitive abilities, the focus is on whether native speakers and non-native speakers interpret a complex nominal via retrieval and/or computational routes.;Three groups participated in this study: (1) an L2 English group whose L1 (Chinese and Korean) has a modifier-head complex nominal structure (e.g., orange-juice), (2) another non-native speaker group whose L1 (Spanish and Thai) has a head-modifier structure (e.g., juice-orange), and (3) an L1 English group as a control. All the participants completed three computer-based tasks: (1) a lexical sense decision task, (2) an inhibitory control test, and (3) a working memory test.;Results showed that native and non-native speakers relied on both retrieval and computational routes in the recognition of complex nominals taken from a large corpus. The L1 group tended to use more retrieval mechanisms whereas the L2 groups were inclined to resort to computational routes. Also, the effects of cognitive abilities were confounded with processing costs and L1 background.;This study emphasizes that two key concepts (storage and computation) of the language faculty are integral to L2 lexical acquisition. The contribution of empirical L2 data to linguistic inquiry is also highlighted.