Morphological complexity (MC) is a relatively new construct in second language acquisition (SLA). After critically discussing existing approaches to calculating MC in first- and second- language acquisition research, this article presents a new operationalization of the construct, the Morphological Complexity Index (MCI). The MCI is applied in two case studies based on argumentative written texts produced by native and non-native speakers of Italian and English. Study 1 shows that morphological complexity varies between native and non-native speakers of Italian, and that it is significantly lower in learners with lower proficiency levels. The MCI is strongly correlated to proficiency, measured with a C-test, and also shows significant correlations with other measures of linguistic complexity, such as lexical diversity and sentence length. Quite a different picture emerges from Study 2, on advanced English learners. Here, morphological complexity remains constant across natives and non-natives, and is not significantly correlated to other text complexity measures. These results point to the fact that morphological complexity in texts is a function of speakers’ proficiency and the specific language under investigation; for some linguistic systems with a relatively simple inflectional morphology, such as English, learners will soon reach a threshold level after which inflectional diversity remains constant.
Morphological complexity in written L2 texts / Brezina, Vaclav; Pallotti, Gabriele. - In: SECOND LANGUAGE RESEARCH. - ISSN 0267-6583. - 35:1(2019), pp. 99-119.
Data di pubblicazione: | 2019 |
Data di prima pubblicazione: | 14-lug-2016 |
Titolo: | Morphological complexity in written L2 texts |
Autore/i: | Brezina, Vaclav; Pallotti, Gabriele |
Autore/i UNIMORE: | |
Digital Object Identifier (DOI): | http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0267658316643125 |
Rivista: | |
Volume: | 35 |
Fascicolo: | 1 |
Pagina iniziale: | 99 |
Pagina finale: | 119 |
Codice identificativo ISI: | WOS:000454133000005 |
Codice identificativo Scopus: | 2-s2.0-85045104971 |
Citazione: | Morphological complexity in written L2 texts / Brezina, Vaclav; Pallotti, Gabriele. - In: SECOND LANGUAGE RESEARCH. - ISSN 0267-6583. - 35:1(2019), pp. 99-119. |
Tipologia | Articolo su rivista |
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MCI in L2 texts - submission 3.pdf | articolo principale | Post-print dell'autore (bozza post referaggio) | Open Access Visualizza/Apri |

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