González-Fernández, B. orcid.org/0000-0002-4370-1822 and Webb, S. (2024) How well are primary and secondary meanings of L2 words acquired? Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 46 (3). pp. 818-840. ISSN 0272-2631
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) learned secondary polysemous and homonymous meanings of familiar words and primary meanings of unfamiliar words using flashcards. Knowledge of target words was measured using meaning–recall 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 |
---|---|
Authors/Creators: |
|
Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2024 The Authors. Except as otherwise noted, this author-accepted version of a journal article published in Studies in Second Language Acquisition is made available via the University of Sheffield Research Publications and Copyright Policy under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC-BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
Keywords: | vocabulary learning; meaning acquisition; secondary meanings; polysemy; homonymy |
Dates: |
|
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: | 20 Nov 2024 11:02 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Cambridge University Press |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1017/S0272263124000317 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:209826 |
Downloads
Filename: Appendix 1 - Target items.pdf
Licence: CC-BY 4.0
Filename: Appendix 2 - Test battery.pdf
Licence: CC-BY 4.0
Filename: Appendix 3 - Additional analyses.pdf
Licence: CC-BY 4.0