A Tale of Two Mouses: The Acquisition of Irregular English Plural Nouns

Abstract

In an earlier study, Kisjes & Manning (2017) set out to find if congruity of language irregularities influenced the acquisition of second language (L2) word formation irregularities, i.e. for English, the plural of man is men instead of *mans. The results of the previous study were promising but limited: significant results were found for both congruity of irregularity and L2 irregularity, yet the results were inconclusive due to a small participant group and various opaque test items. The current study is based on this premise, adapting a similar method, but using more transparent test items, testing a larger heterogeneous group of participants and analysing the data with more appropriate statistical tests. The results provide strong evidence for the influence of congruity of irregularity on the acquisition of L2 pluralization irregularities.

Please cite this contribution as follows:

Kisjes, J. (2021). A tale of two mouses: the acquisition of irregular English plural nouns, "forsch!" - Studentisches Online-Journal der Universität Oldenburg, 1, 75 -83.

https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:101:1-2022011413490584299035