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From: dik@cwi.nl (Dik T. Winter)
Subject: Re: Languages in the EC
Message-ID: <D4n3vJ.IAB@cwi.nl>
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References: <3ia22b$1uv@access1.digex.net> <D4J1rK.CwK@cwi.nl>
Date: Mon, 27 Feb 1995 03:47:43 GMT
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In article <3ia22b$1uv@access1.digex.net> lojbab@access.digex.net (Logical Language Group) writes:

[This is a followup to my own article, the above mentioned base article no
longer exists here.  I may have stated the originators position wrong.]

One of the remarks of the original writer was that one of his adoptive
Russian children only recently made less errors against the irregular
formation of the past tense of verbs (I think I have this right).

Coincidentaly in my Saturday newspaper there was a report on an investigation
by people from Leiden University about regular and irregular past tense
formations (in the sequel irregular verb only means irregular past tense
formation).

One statistic is that of the 30 most used verbs, 29 are irregular.  The
other one comes in at 17th place (and by chance was irregular in old times).
Like English Dutch has regular and irregular verbs, but there is a
tendency to switch from irregular to regular forms.  Some irregular forms
I learned at school (1952-1962) are archaic nowadays.  And when I was at
school we learned some verbs as regular that were irregular not such a
long time before that.  Apparently there is a tendency (at least in Dutch)
at "regularization".  (Strange enough, this "regularization" is mostly for
the past tense, not for the past particle; which is in many cases still
irregular.)

The investigators tried to find the knowledge amongst academicians about
the irregular verbs.  They tried it at both non-native and native Dutch
speakers.  Apparently there was not much difference amongst the groups,
both made errors against the less used irregular verbs.  There were
fewer errors for widely used verbs.  So they think that the mental model
for past tense formation is to first look ik up in high-speed memory for
irregularity, and if not found use a regular fomation.  Well used verbs
are apparently found faster than less used verbs.

So I think that the lack of proper use of irregular verbs does not in
itself tend to show "non-nativeness".

(Note: some Dutch dialects have "regularized" also some other verb uses.)
-- 
dik t. winter, cwi, kruislaan 413, 1098 sj  amsterdam, nederland, +31205924098
home: bovenover 215, 1025 jn  amsterdam, nederland; e-mail: dik@cwi.nl
