Language learners' brains mirror native speakers in how they reshape words
A French language researcher tracked how one learner's speech shifted over 15 months, discovering that second-language acquisition follows the same grammaticalization patterns as native language evolution. The finding suggests human cognition reorganizes linguistic tools in predictable ways—insight that could improve language teaching methods and inform AI training models for natural speech processing.
Originaltitel: Longitudinal change in linguistic resources for interaction: The case of tu vois (‘you see’) in L2 French
<p>This article presents a longitudinal study of a second language (L2) French speaker’s (Aurelia) use of the construction tu vois (‘you see’) over 15 months. Research on first language (L1) French has shown that tu vois has been subject to grammaticalization, whereby the construction in spoken language frequently serves as a discourse marker rather than a complement-taking predicate construction expressing visual perception. Drawing on longitudinal Conversation Analysis, I qualitatively and quantitatively analyze Aurelia’s use of tu vois in relation to its turn position and interactional purposes. I document a similar change happening in Aurelia’s use of the construction over time as what has been observed in L1 French: While she initially deploys tu vois exclusively in its ‘literal’ sense of visual perception and with a complement (tu vois X, ‘you see X’), she eventually starts using it as a semantically bleached discourse marker for interaction-organizational and interpersonal purposes. A few ‘hybrid’ cases demonstrate the progressive nature of this change, and indicate further similarities between L2 acquisition and L1 grammaticalization processes. I discuss possible reasons for the documented change and address implications of the findings for research on both the development of L2 grammar-for-interaction and language change more generally.</p>