Are non-native speakers the drivers of morphological simplification? A Wug experiment on the Dutch past tense system

Isabeau De Smet; Laura Rosseel; Freek Van de Velde

doi:10.1093/jole/lzac008

Are non-native speakers the drivers of morphological simplification? A Wug experiment on the Dutch past tense system

Isabeau De Smet, Laura Rosseel, Freek Van de Velde

Linguistics and Literary Studies

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Abstract

It has often been suggested that there is an inverse correlation between the number of adult non-native speakers in a language and its morphological complexity. Secluded languages often show more complex morphology, while high-contact languages go through more severe simplifications throughout the ages. One such simplification linked to language contact is the regularization of the Germanic past tense. Yet, a Wug task on the English past tense system by Cuskley et al. (2015) showed that non-native speakers tend to use the irregular past tense even more than native speakers. In this article, we replicate the Wug experiment for Dutch. Our results show similar evidence for a higher rate of irregularization across non-native speakers. Furthermore, we do not find any other simplification strategies among non-native speakers. Though caution is warranted, these converging results may suggest that non-native speakers are not the drivers of morphological simplification.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	224-245
Number of pages	22
Journal	Journal of Language Evolution
Volume	7
Issue number	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1093/jole/lzac008
Publication status	Published - 1 Jul 2022

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
I.D.S. is funded by the FWO (Research Foundation Flanders) (grant number at the time of the research: 11ZZN18N, current grant number: 12W5522N). F.V.d.V. is funded by the FWO (Research Foundation Flanders) (grant number G071719N).

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Author(s). Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.

Keywords

Dutch
language variation and change
language learning
language contact

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10.1093/jole/lzac008

De_Smet_Rosseel_VandeVelde_Wug_experiment_Dutch_past_tense_finalpublishedversionAccepted author manuscript, 438 KBLicence: CC BY-NC

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abstract = "It has often been suggested that there is an inverse correlation between the number of adult non-native speakers in a language and its morphological complexity. Secluded languages often show more complex morphology, while high-contact languages go through more severe simplifications throughout the ages. One such simplification linked to language contact is the regularization of the Germanic past tense. Yet, a Wug task on the English past tense system by Cuskley et al. (2015) showed that non-native speakers tend to use the irregular past tense even more than native speakers. In this article, we replicate the Wug experiment for Dutch. Our results show similar evidence for a higher rate of irregularization across non-native speakers. Furthermore, we do not find any other simplification strategies among non-native speakers. Though caution is warranted, these converging results may suggest that non-native speakers are not the drivers of morphological simplification.",

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AU - Rosseel, Laura

AU - Van de Velde, Freek

N1 - Funding Information: I.D.S. is funded by the FWO (Research Foundation Flanders) (grant number at the time of the research: 11ZZN18N, current grant number: 12W5522N). F.V.d.V. is funded by the FWO (Research Foundation Flanders) (grant number G071719N). Publisher Copyright: © 2022 The Author(s). Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.

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Are non-native speakers the drivers of morphological simplification? A Wug experiment on the Dutch past tense system

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

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Does language contact lead to morphological simplification? Possible counterevidence from the Dutch preterital system.

Wat doen Franstaligen als ze de verleden tijd moeten vormen van een onbestaand werkwoord in het Nederlands?

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