Recent research in linguistics singles out emotion words as different from other abstract words. The goal of this article is to examine five factors that may impact the use of L2 emotion vocabulary. The first study considers the impact of language proficiency, gender, and extraversion on the use of emotion words in the advanced French interlanguage of 29 Dutch L1 speakers. The second examines t...

The idea that processes of second language acquisition (SLA) are highly relevant to an account of creole genesis is far from new or original (see Plag (2008a) for some discussion and further references). However, it is still controversial which kinds of SLA processes are relevant, and how much of a given creole’s structures can be attributed to such processes. In my previous three Columns (Plag...

This study investigated how native language background influences the intelligibility of speech by non-native talkers for non-native listeners from either the same or a different native language background as the talker. Native talkers of Chinese (n = 2), Korean (n = 2), and English (n = 1) were recorded reading simple English sentences. Native listeners of English (n = 21), Chinese (n = 21), K...

Based on the statistical regularity of certain error types, an interlanguage grammar could be devised and applied to develop an intelligent computer tool, capablenot only of identifying the typical errors in L2 student writing, but also of making adequate corrections.The purpose of the correctionsis tomake the student awareof the language used and then to sharpen the focus on form. The students...

Learners’ language has been described as transitional competence (Corder, 1967) and interlanguage (Selinker, 1972), and it has been categorized as a natural language (Adjemian, 1976). This indicates that learners possess their own languages. However, the question remains whether or not learners’ language has been explained and understood on its own, and not merely compared to target-language (T...

A certain group of English verbs, the ergatives, is consistently mis-passivized in Chinese-speakers' interlanguage. Comparison of the ergative construction in Chinese and English shows that they share similar properties. However, this does not seem to facilitate learning of the target English construction. Furthermore, the passive ergatives are not attributable to exemplification in either the ...