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‘The moustache’ returns: referential metonymy acquisition in adult learners of English as an additional language (EAL)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 March 2021

JOSEPHINE BOWERMAN Open the ORCID record for JOSEPHINE BOWERMAN [Opens in a new window] ,
INGRID LOSSIUS FALKUM  and
NAUSICAA POUSCOULOUS
JOSEPHINE BOWERMAN*
Affiliation:
University College London
INGRID LOSSIUS FALKUM
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, Classics, History of Art and Ideas / Department of Linguistics and Scandinavian Studies, University of Oslo
NAUSICAA POUSCOULOUS
Affiliation:
University College London
*
Address for correspondence: Josephine Bowerman, University College London, Chandler House, 2 Wakefield Street, LondonWC1N 1PF, United Kingdom. e-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

Referential metonymy, e.g. ‘the moustache (= man with a moustache) sits down first’, appears early in L1 acquisition (Falkum, Recasens & Clark, 2017). Yet how does it emerge in pragmatically mature but linguistically developing adult L2 learners? We used one comprehension and two production tasks, based on Falkum and colleagues (2017), to investigate metonymy abilities in 34 Japanese adult learners of English as an additional language (EAL) and a control group of 31 native English speakers. We also examined how time constraints and exposure to examples of referential metonymy affected production. In the comprehension task, both EAL-learner and native-speaker participants chose metonymic readings at above chance levels. In both production tasks, all participants produced innovative metonyms. Additionally, the findings indicate that, in L2, exposure to examples dramatically increases metonymy production, while time pressure decreases it. The results suggest that participants can both comprehend and produce novel metonyms in L2, with a possible explicitness vs. production costs trade-off.

Keywords

metonymyL2 acquisitionreference-makingfigurative language
Type
Article
Information
Language and Cognition , Volume 13 , Issue 2 , June 2021 , pp. 254 - 290
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Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

[*]

Thanks are due to: Marta Recasens for contributing to the photographs for the comprehension task; the staff and students at Chandler House for their invaluable assistance in preparing task materials; Professor Richard Breheny of UCL for his advice and support; the staff and teaching assistants of the Downing-Keio Summer School 2019, in particular Dr Kamran Yunus; and, above all, the Downing-Keio 2019 students. JB: ESRC Studentship; ILF: Research Council of Norway, Project No. 240324.

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