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Chapter 7
HUNGARIAN-ENGLISH LEXICAL CONTRASTS
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As described in Chapter 2, modern trends in second language acquisition
research follow a multifactor approach, claiming that errors and learning dif¬
ficulty are due to several interacting factors. These factors include some non¬
linguistic ones (e.g., learner variability, level of proficiency, order and method
oflearning and teaching) and some linguistic ones, such as universal principles
of acquisition, inherent difficulty and L1 influence due to L1/L2 contrasts.
In the case of vocabulary acquisition inherent difficulties may be traced
back to such features as cognitive complexity of the concept denoted by a
lexical item, part of speech, regularity of suffixes and inflections, morpholog¬
ical transparency, concreteness, pronounceability, word length, register and
idiomaticity/transparency. The influence of L1 may affect various aspects of
word knowledge and may be manifested in positive and negative transfer,
avoidance, willingness to use or avoid L1-based strategies, ease or difficulty of
learning and recall under stressful conditions.
This chapter will focus on lexical contrasts between L1 Hungarian and L2
English and the influence of these contrasts on the acquisition of various as¬
pects of lexical knowledge by Hungarian learners of English. Before identify¬
ing the contrasts, however, it is necessary to look at the units that can be
compared and the bases of the comparisons.
7.1 WORDS
The units stored in and retrieved from the mental lexicon (ML) include single
and compound words, idioms and other multiword units. Words and idioms
(including phrasal verbs) are often referred to as lexical units or lexical items,
defined as “a word or several words that have a meaning that is not expressed
by any of its separate parts". In this chapter we shall use the term word to
refer to single and compound words, lexical item to refer to words, idioms and
phrasal verbs, and multiword unit to refer to idioms, phrasal verbs, colloca¬
tions, sayings, proverbs and so on. Multiword units may also be referred to as
phraseological units. As seen from the above, idioms and phrasal verbs are
44 https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/lexical-unit. Last accessed
02.12.2020.
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