González-Fernández, B. orcid.org/0000-0002-4370-1822 and Webb, S. (Accepted: 2024) How well are primary and secondary meanings of L2 words acquired? Studies in Second Language Acquisition. ISSN 0272-2631 (In Press)
Abstract
Most words in a language have more than one meaning. Yet, few studies have explicitly examined the acquisition of secondary meanings of L2 words, and the extent to which polysemy and homonymy affect vocabulary learning. This study explores the effect of polysemy and homonymy on the deliberate acquisition of the form-meaning connections of L2 words. Thirty-six EFL learners (compared with a control group of 30) learnt secondary polysemous and homonymous meanings of familiar words and primary meanings of unfamiliar words using flashcards. Target words’ knowledge was measured using meaningrecall and meaning-recognition tests immediately after the treatment and again one week later. The findings indicated that learning another meaning for a familiar word was just as difficult as learning the primary meaning of an unfamiliar word, suggesting that the type of meaning (primary, secondary polysemous or secondary homonymous) might not be an influencing factor in the deliberate acquisition of L2 words.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2024 The Author(s). This is an author produced version of a paper accepted for publication in Studies in Second Language Acquisition. Article available under the terms of the CC-BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). |
Keywords: | vocabulary learning; meaning acquisition; secondary meanings; polysemy; homonymy |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Arts and Humanities (Sheffield) > School of English (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 04 Mar 2024 16:21 |
Last Modified: | 04 Mar 2024 21:40 |
Status: | In Press |
Publisher: | Cambridge University Press |
Refereed: | Yes |
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Filename: Appendix 1 - Target items.pdf
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Filename: Appendix 2 - Test battery.pdf
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Filename: Appendix 3 - Additional analyses.pdf
Licence: CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0