L2 Comprehension of the Arabic Perfective: Semantically - or Morphologically-driven?

Purpose. No research to date has investigated the effect of lexical aspect and/or the morphological structures of verbs on the comprehension of Arabic perfective markings by learners of Arabic as a second language (ASL). The purpose of this study is to fill this gap by exploring the extent to which learners' use of the perfective aligns with the Aspect Hypothesis (AH) assumptions. Methods. All participants completed a fifteen-item biographical questionnaire to elicit personal background information, such as age, nationality, mother tongue, and level of study at the Arabic Language Unit (ALU). A grammaticality judgment task was also used to examine the learners' comprehension of the perfective markers across the aspectual classes. Results. Findings showed that the learners' comprehension of the perfective marking was not determined by the semantic properties of the verbs, as its use was inconsistent with the assumptions of AH. It was found that perfective activities were significantly the most likely verbs to be appropriately perceived by learners at all levels. Telics (achievements and accomplishments) were the next most likely verbs to be accurately realized, while perfective states were the least likely verbs to be accurately identified. Conclusions. I conclude that the effect of the morphological structures of the verbs and their input frequency on learners' comprehension of the Arabic perfective was greater than the effect of their semantic properties, as the learners' use of the Arabic perfective was not congruent with the AH. However, the potential influence of the morphological shapes of the verbs and their input frequency needs further investigation, as this study is the first to explore L2 comprehension of the Arabic perfective.