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THE IMPLICIT LEARNING OF MAPPINGS BETWEEN FORMS AND CONTEXTUALLY DERIVED MEANINGS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 February 2011

Janny H. C. Leung  and
John N. Williams
Janny H. C. Leung*
Affiliation:
The University of Hong Kong
John N. Williams
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
*
*Address correspondence to: Janny Leung, School of English, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong; e-mail: [email protected].
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Abstract

The traditional implicit learning literature has focused primarily on the abstraction of statistical regularities in form-form connections. More attention has been recently directed toward the implicit learning of form-meaning connections, which might be crucial in the acquisition of natural languages. The current article reports evidence for implicit learning of a mapping between a novel set of determiners and thematic roles, obtained using a newly developed reaction time methodology. The results conclude that contextually derived form-meaning connections might be implicitly learned.

Type
Research Articles
Information
Studies in Second Language Acquisition , Volume 33 , Issue 1 , March 2011 , pp. 33 - 55
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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