Third Language Acquisition and Linguistic Transfer

Provides a comprehensive overview of third language acquisition (additive multilingualism) in adulthood, an increasingly important subfield of language acquisition.

Jason Rothman (Author), Jorge González Alonso (Author), Eloi Puig-Mayenco (Author)

9781107443433, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 9 June 2022

338 pages, 18 b/w illus. 15 tables
22.8 x 15.1 x 1.8 cm, 0.49 kg

'This book will be of enormous interest to anyone interested in how languages come to be represented in the human mind and absolutely indispensable for anyone concerned with nonnative language acquisition. The authors engagingly guide the reader on a journey through the most influential models of the acquisition of (second and) third languages (and beyond) and offer insightful background and commentary on the thinking underlying this vital branch of linguistics and psychology. Because this book is both profoundly scholarly and a joy to read and contemplate, it is destined to inspired much productive further research.' Rex Sprouse, Indiana University

Is acquiring a third language the same as acquiring a second? Are all instances of non-native language acquisition simply one and the same? In this first book-length study of the topic, the authors systematically walk the reader through the evidence to answer these questions. They suggest that acquiring an additional language in bilinguals (of all types) is unique, and reveals things about the links between language and mind, brain, and cognition, which are otherwise impossible to appreciate. The patterns of linguistic transfer and what motivates it when there are choices (as can only be seen starting in third language acquisition) underscores a key concept in linguistic and psychological sciences: economy. Overviewing the subfields examining multilingual acquisition and processing, this book offers an expanded systematic review of the field of multilingual morphosyntactic transfer, as well as providing recommendations for the future emerging field.

1. Setting the context
2. Theoretical approaches to sequential multilingualism
3. Multilingual lexis (acquisition and processing) and phonology
4. Transfer in multilingual morphosyntax
5. A review of published work
6. Moving on and going forward in L3/Ln acquisition.

Subject Areas: Bilingualism & multilingualism [CFDM], Language acquisition [CFDC], Psycholinguistics [CFD], Sociolinguistics [CFB]