abstractReferential metonymy, e.g. ‘the moustache (= man with a moustache) sits down first’, appears early in L1 acquisition (Falkum, Recasens & Clark, 2017). Yet how does it emerge in pragmatically mature but linguistically developing adult L2 learners? We used one comprehension and two production tasks, based on Falkum and colleagues (2017), to investigate metonymy abilities in 34 Japanese adult learners of English as an additional language (EAL) and a control group of 31 native English speakers. We also examined how time constraints and exposure to examples of referential metonymy affected production. In the comprehension task, both EAL-learner and native-speaker participants chose metonymic readings at above chance levels. In both production tasks, all participants produced innovative metonyms. Additionally, the findings indicate that, in L2, exposure to examples dramatically increases metonymy production, while time pressure decreases it. The results suggest that participants can both comprehend and produce novel metonyms in L2, with a possible explicitness vs. production costs trade-off.

中文翻译：

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“小胡子”回归：英语作为附加语言 (EAL) 成人学习者的参考转喻习得

摘要指代转喻，例如'小胡子（= 留着小胡子的男人）先坐下'，出现在 L1 收购的早期（Falkum、Recasens 和 Clark，2017 年）。然而，它是如何出现在语用成熟但语言发展的成年 L2 学习者身上的？基于 Falkum 及其同事 (2017)，我们使用一项理解和两项生产任务来调查 34 名将英语作为附加语言 (EAL) 的日本成人学习者和 31 名以英语为母语的对照组的转喻能力。我们还研究了时间限制和接触指称转喻的例子如何影响生产。在理解任务中，EAL 学习者和以母语为母语的参与者都选择了高于机会水平的转喻阅读。在这两项生产任务中，所有参与者都产生了创新的转喻。此外，研究结果表明，在 L2 中，接触例子极大地增加了转喻的产生，而时间压力则减少了它。结果表明，参与者可以在 L2 中理解和产生新颖的转喻，并可能在明确性与生产成本之间进行权衡。