Acquiring English particle verbs: Age and transfer effects in second language acquisition

This study tests the Full Transfer/Full Access Hypothesis (Schwartz and Sprouse 1994, 1996) and the Fundamental Difference Hypothesis (Bley-Vroman 1989) by investigating the acquisition of English particle verbs by native Spanish-speaking adults and children.; We assume that there are two classes of particle verbs. Transparent particle verbs retain the compositional meaning of the verb and particle (e.g., She threw out the garbage), while idiomatic particle verbs are non-compositional (e.g., She mixed the batter up) (Ramchand & Svenonius 2002; Sawyer 1999; Wurmbrand 2000). Particle verbs can be produced with the verb and particle adjacent, or with the verb and particle split by the object. The current study explores how native Spanish-speaking adults and children acquire transparent and idiomatic particle verbs, comparing their acquisition patterns with those observed in first language acquisition as well as looking at similarities and differences between adult and child second language learners (L2ers).; Participants were 33 native Spanish-speaking adults, 32 native Spanish-speaking children and 16 native English-speaking adult and child controls. The native Spanish-speakers completed an English skills assessment (Curtiss and Yamada 1985) and an elicited production task designed to elicit 28 particle verbs.; The results show that both adult and child L2ers demonstrate different acquisition patterns for idiomatic and transparent particle verbs. Both groups omit the idiomatic particle with overwhelming frequency across proficiency levels and when the particle is retained it almost always surfaces in the adjacent form. While children in the lowest proficiency level frequently omit the transparent particle, they show a decline in transparent particle omission coupled with an increase in the split form at the medium proficiency level. We argue that these results are indicative of diminishing transfer effects across proficiency levels and suggest that child L2ers show evidence for structural acquisition of the target grammar at the medium proficiency level. The adults demonstrate a similar developmental trend, but the effect is weak and delayed relative to the L2 children. The difference between adults and children in the acquisition of transparent particle verbs is attributed to transfer effects, which are stronger and more persistent in adults than children.