Acquisition of Morpho-phonological Changes in Individuals Learning Turkish as a Foreign Language

Year 2023, Issue: 40, 1 - 20, 29.12.2023

Gamze Hallı

https://doi.org/10.26650/jol.2023.1252566

Abstract

One of the most frequently researched topics in the field of applied linguistics is how words are stored and accessed in a lexicon. Although various models of word processing can be found in the literature, they have failed to explain the word recognition process in agglutinative languages such as Turkish. Moreover, despite the fact that there are many factors that can affect the visual word recognition process (e.g., sound onset effect, age of language acquisition, number of phonological and orthographic neighbors), previous studies in applied linguistics have frequently referred to two main factors: a) morphological factors and b) the word frequency effect. Meanwhile, the majority of the models related to the visual word recognition process have been limited to the findings of monolingual individuals. Therefore, this study examines the acquisition of morpho-phonological changes among a sample of individuals learning Turkish as a foreign language, with specific focus on the representation of inflected words in the lexicon. For this purpose, a quasi-experimental research design was used and a lexical decision test was administered to the participants. In this regard, the effects of language proficiency levels, morphophonemic changes (regular or irregular), and word frequency (low or high) on their visual word recognition process were investigated. Based on the data obtained, it is concluded that (1) in the acquisition of morpho-phonological changes by adults with L2 Turkish, words are processed holistically at the beginner level - as a whole without separating roots and affixes – and as their proficiency level increases, the analysis of roots and affixes develops afterwards, in other words, dual mechanisms are effective in the lexical access process depending on the proficiency level. Also, (2) the words with a high number of orthographic neighbors have a positive effect only on the linguistic performance of the L2 A2 level group, and (3) the words with a high frequency of use have a positive effect only on the linguistic performance of the L2 B2 level group, while processing words with regular morpho-phonological changes.

Keywords

Morpho-phonological changes, lexicon, language acquisition, word processing, word frequency effect

Yabancı Dil Olarak Türkçede Biçim-Sesbilgisel Değişimlerin Edinimi

Abstract

Sözcüklerin dil edinicisinin zihinsel sözlüğünde nasıl saklandığı ve bunlara nasıl erişildiği uygulamalı dilbilimin en sık araştırılan konularından biridir. Alan yazınında sözcük işlemlemeye dair çeşitli modeller sunulmuştur. Fakat bu modeller, Türkçe gibi biçimler açısından zengin sondan eklemeli dillerdeki sözcük tanıma sürecini açıklamakta yetersiz kalmaktadır. Görsel sözcük tanıma sürecinde sözcük erişimini etkileyen birçok faktör (örn. seslem ve seslem başlangıç etkisi, dil edinim yaşı, fonolojik ve imla komşu sayısı vb.) olmasına rağmen uygulamalı dilbilim çalışmalarında sıklıkla iki ana faktöre atıfta bulunulmaktadır: a) biçimbilimsel faktörler ve b) sözcük sıklığı etkisi. Görsel sözcük tanıma sürecine ilişkin modellerin çoğunlukla tek dilli bireylerden elde edilen bulgularla sınırlı olduğu görülmektedir. Bu nedenle bu çalışmada, yabancı dil olarak Türkçe öğrenen bireylerin biçim-sesbilgisel değişimleri edinme yolları incelenmiş, çekimli sözcüklerin zihinsel sözlükte temsilinin araştırılması amaçlamıştır. Yarı-deneysel araştırma deseninin kullanıldığı bu çalışmada katılımcılara süreç-içi yöntemlerden sözcüksel karar testi uygulanmıştır. Yabancı dil olarak Türkçe öğrenen bireylerin a) dil yeterlik düzeylerinin, b) biçim-sesbilgisel değişim türünün (düzenli veya düzensiz) ve c) sözcük sıklığının (düşük veya yüksek) görsel sözcük tanıma sürecini ne yönde etkilediği araştırılmıştır.

Keywords

Biçim-sesbilgisel değişimler, zihinsel sözlük, dil edinimi, sözcük işlemleme, kullanım sıklığı

Thanks

Yüksek lisans tez danışmanım Doç. Dr. Mehmet GÜRLEK’e teşekkür ederim.

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