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

Author:

De Smet Isabeau1ORCID,Rosseel Laura2ORCID,Van de Velde Freek3ORCID

Affiliation:

1. KU Leuven and FWO [Research Foundation Flanders] , Blijde-Inkomststraat 21 bus 3308 , Leuven 3000, Belgium

2. Vrije Universiteit Brussel , Pleinlaan 2 , Brussels 1050, Belgium

3. KU Leuven , Blijde-Inkomststraat 21 bus 3308 , Leuven 3000, Belgium

Abstract

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.

Funder

FWO

Publisher

Oxford University Press (OUP)

Subject

Developmental Neuroscience,Linguistics and Language,Developmental and Educational Psychology

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