Acquisition of Word Formation Devices in First & Second Languages: Morphological Cross-linguistic Influence

by Endri Shqerra

Early school-age English children acquire over 3000 words a year. The main factors which account for such rapid vocabulary growth are context and word-formation knowledge.
Such vocabulary growth is also of great interest in the L2 acquisition. Using empirical tests, the book puts side by side L1 and L2 acquisition of word-formation devices. The first chapter explores the early acquisition of word-formation devices by English children and presents the principles through which cross-linguistic influence diverts L2 learners from the natural way of acquiring word-formation devices of their target language. It also presents the 'Dual Semantic Transparency' Hypothesis in the L2 acquisition. The second and third chapters utilize empirical evidence in examining the advanced acquisition of word-formation devices by both native speakers and L2 learners, as well as highlight the points in which morphological cross-linguistic transfer is more evident to L2 learners. The fourth chapter offers suggestions over the way L2 learners' knowledge of word-formation devices of their target language can be improved. The book is targeted to anyone interested in language acquisition.

119 pages, Paperback

First published November 9, 2016

About the author

Endri Shqerra completed his graduate studies at the University of New York Tirana. His writing career started just there when his diss. got a distinguishing mark and was subsequently published by LAMBERT Academic Publishing. Here is worth making a note for his supervisor, Prof. Kostantinos Giakoumis, whose commitment and hard work with his diss. deserve to remind him as the co-author in his first book; even though his name does not appear in the book cover. Later, the publisher (LAMBERT Academic Publishing) asked him a book related to the topic of an essay he had published. It was at that time when the work with the second book began. Since then his devotion has been writing and he is proud of following the path of his father and other relatives who were writers, an inheritance which intensifies his commitment to writing.

Reviews

[Isabelle | Nine Tale Vixen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I received a review copy from the author. This does not affect my rating or opinions.

As someone with only a rudimentary knowledge of linguistics (as in, I am currently taking an introductory college course and do not have prior knowledge), I had quite a bit of trouble keeping up with the concepts presented here — especially as key terms and theories are not explained; or if they are, it's later on in the book and/or in terms of other jargon — and it didn't help that there were some errors in the writing itself. From what I could understand in this book, I also noticed some technical-writing mistakes that I encountered a lot as a writing tutor, especially pertaining to quotes of straight facts (i.e., which would be better incorporated if paraphrased and analyzed, instead of directly quoted and then restated) and general organization; it wasn't always clear how each case study was connected to the main thesis.

I applaud English-language learners, I honestly do (it's a really difficult language to master, with all its exceptions and various influences!) but precision of language is so important in a theory-based work like this one. The topic matter is fascinating, but I'm honestly not sure I was able to understand or retain much at all.