Where does fossilization collide?

In second-language acquisition, fossilization is the stable persistence of non-native forms in a learner's language that resist further change no matter how much more exposure, instruction, or correction the learner receives, like an accent or grammatical error that plateaus and sets. Selinker's Interlanguage introduced the term, borrowing the geological image, to describe features of a learner's developing system that stop progressing toward the target language. The referent is an arrested state in an individual's language learning, diagnosed by persistent errors that no longer improve, not the mineral preservation of an organism.[1]

Unit

Persistent non-target forms that no longer change with more input

Recovery means

The label marks forms that have stopped improving despite further exposure; some may still be destabilised by targeted intervention

Measured by

Identified by non-target forms that remain stable across time despite continued exposure and instruction

In paleontology, fossilization is the set of physical and chemical processes by which the remains or traces of a once-living organism are preserved in rock over geological time: burial, mineral replacement, and the many ways tissue is turned to stone or leaves an impression. Behrensmeyer's work on taphonomy studies the biases these processes introduce into the fossil record, since only some organisms and parts survive to be found. The referent is the preservation of biological remains across deep time, read from what the rock record retains and omits, unrelated to a language learner's stalled grammar beyond the shared image of becoming fixed.[2]

Unit

The preservation of organic remains or traces in the rock record

Recovery means

Not applicable

Measured by

Studied through taphonomy, which reconstructs how remains were buried, altered, and preserved, and what the record omits