| Popis: |
This study addresses the question of whether or not the semantic clustering of lexical items in L1 and L2 mental lexicons is structurally different either quantitatively or qualitatively. A free sorting task using a set of 50 high-frequency English words taken from mixed word classes (30 nouns, five verbs, six adjectives, six adverbs, one pronoun, one determiner and one (conjunction) were given to 28 native speakers of English (NS) and 28 advanced-level Japanese speakers of English (NNS). The experiment found that were no statistically significant differences between the two groups in mean cluster number, mean cluster size, and variability in mean individual dendrogram distance. However, cluster analysis revealed that L1 lexical organisation differed from its L2 counterpart qualitatively. Both groups similarly produced the clusters of POWER, TIME, PLACE, MATERIAL, NATURE, etc., but the connected lexical items were differently structured. For example, NS linked arm to country, war, power and others, but NNS connected arm with form and figure. The word lot was linked to business, shop, street, place and area by NS, whereas lot was connected with nothing and all in the NNS results. L1 and L2 difference was also detected in the way the two groups conceptualised " nature and materials" in that NS put nature and matter in the same MATERIAL and NATURE cluster, while NNS placed nature and matter in separate clusters. It is concluded that a significant portion of the semantic properties of L2" lexical knowledge and structure are difficult for non-native speakers to relearn and restructure into native-like ones. |
