The Effects of Animacy and Complexity on the Morphosyntactic Acquisition of English Genitives by Jordanian Arabic Speakers

This study investigates the effects of semantic and structural factors on the second language acquisition of English genitive constructions by Jordanian Arabic speakers. The study used two tasks: an Acceptability Judgement Task (AJT) and an Elicited Production Task (EPT). In both tasks, possessors varied in animacy (animate vs. inanimate) and complexity (simple vs. complex possessors). A control group of native English speakers showed a strong preference for the ?s-genitive in animate contexts and the of-genitive in inanimate ones, with only mild effects of structural complexity. The L2 group showed the same overall preferences, but their responses were more gradient and showed stronger sensitivity to possessor complexity. In the AJT, ratings for the ?s-genitive dropped notably in Animate?Complex contexts, whereas in the EPT, the L2 group produced the of-genitive at high rates across all conditions. Proficiency had a selective effect: more advanced learners were more target-like mainly in the complex-possessor contexts where English and Jordanian Arabic differ most. These findings support the Feature Reassembly Hypothesis, suggesting that semantic cues are acquired earlier and more robustly than the structural mechanisms underlying the English ?s-genitive. The difference between judgement and production shows that learners may recognise the target forms before they can produce them easily.