Word-meaning inference in L2 Chinese: an interactive effect of learners ’ linguistic knowledge and words’ semantic transparency

This study explores how L2 linguistic knowledge as an individual learner factor and semantic transparency as a word-specific property interact to affect L2 learners’ wor d-meaning inference in Chinese. Two hundred and twelve adult L2 learners of Chinese in China completed six paper–pencil tasks, which measured participants’ short-term memory, linguistic knowledge, and meaning inference of compound Chinese words that varied in their semantic transparency. The res ults showed that linguistic knowledge interacted with semantic transparency in word-meaning inference: morpheme knowledge and grammatical knowledge were significant contributors of word-meaning inference only for transparent words when L2 learners’ short-term memory was controlled. These findings underscore how reading in an L2 involves the interplay between the learners’ characteristics (e.g., linguistic knowledge) and language-specific properties (e.g., semantic transparency).
Source: Reading and Writing - Category: Child Development Source Type: research