Acquisition of English nominal suffix -er by advanced EFL learners: a view from usage-based perspective
Acquisition of English nominal suffix -er by advanced EFL learners: a view from usage-based perspective

Summary/Abstract: The present study investigated advanced Croatian EFL learners’ knowledge of five meanings of the English nominal (deverbal) suffix -er. It probed their ability to comprehend and produce corpus-rare and presumably unentrenched -er nouns n their prototypical agent and instrument meanings and their non-prototypical patient, locative, and causative meanings. It was hypothesized that participants would deal effortlessly with agent and instrument meanings of the low frequency nouns since the corpus-attested high type frequency of -er agents and instruments, among others, suggests the existence of productive corresponding schemas. We hypothesized that participants would struggle with patient, locative and causative meanings of the low frequency nouns since the corpus-attested low type frequency of the three functions arguably does not support their association with -er. A recognition and a production test were administered to two separate groups of English majors at a Croatian public university (n = 131). Results confirm general usage-based predictions about better performance with low-frequency agent and instrument -er nouns. However, a detailed examination reveals unexpected results, which confirm that frequency, however important, is not the only factor to include in a future model of EFL learners’ derivational proficiency.

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