Ambiguity resolution in sentence processing: the role of lexical and contextual information

2006 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-138 ◽  
Author(s):  
DESPINA PAPADOPOULOU ◽  
HARALD CLAHSEN
Keyword(s):  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Ambiguity Resolution ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Contextual Information ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Sentence Completion ◽  
Context Information ◽  
On Line ◽  
Thematic Information ◽  
Reading Experiment

This study investigates how the parser employs thematic and contextual information in resolving temporary ambiguities during sentence processing. We report results from a sentence-completion task and from a self-paced reading experiment with native speakers of Greek examining two constructions under different referential context conditions: relative clauses (RCs) preceded by complex noun phrases with genitives, [NP1+NP2Gen], and RCs preceded by complex noun phrases containing prepositional phrases, [NP1+PP[P NP2]]. We found different attachment preferences for these two constructions, a high (NP1) preference for RCs with genitive antecedents and a low (NP2) preference for RCs with PP antecedents. Moreover, referential context information was found to modulate RC attachment differently in the two experimental tasks. We interpret these findings from the perspective of modular theories of sentence processing and argue that on-line ambiguity resolution relies primarily on grammatical and lexical-thematic information, and makes use of referential context information only as a secondary resource.

scholarly journals L3 Sentence Processing: Language-Specific or Phenomenon-Sensitive?

Languages ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 54
Author(s):  
Sokolova ◽  
Slabakova
Keyword(s):  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Semantic Cues ◽  
Lexical Semantic ◽  
L2 Processing ◽  
Processing Strategies ◽  
Reading Experiment ◽  
Linguistic Decision Making ◽  
Matrix Verb ◽  
Processing Language

The article investigates non-native sentence processing and examines the existing scholarly approaches to L2 processing with a population of L3 learners of English, whose native language is Russian. In a self-paced reading experiment, native speakers of Russian and English, as well as (low) intermediate L3 learners of English, read ambiguous relative clauses (RC) and decided on their attachment interpretation: high attachment (HA) or low attachment (LA). In the two-by-two design, linguistic decision-making was prompted by lexical semantic cues vs. a structural change caused by a certain type of matrix verb. The results show that whenever a matrix verb caused a change of syntactic modification, which entailed HA, both native and non-native speakers abandoned the default English-like LA and chose HA. Lexical semantic cues did not have any significant effect in RC attachment resolution. The study provides experimental evidence in favor of the similarity of native and non-native processing strategies. Both native speakers and L3 learners of English apply structural processing strategies and show similar sensitivity to a linguistic prompt that shapes RC resolution. Native and non-native processing is found to be prediction-based; structure building is performed in a top-down manner.

Native and Nonnative Speakers' Processing of a Miniature Version of Japanese as Revealed by ERPs

2005 ◽  
Vol 17 (8) ◽  
pp. 1229-1244 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jutta L. Mueller ◽  
Anja Hahne ◽  
Yugo Fujii ◽  
Angela D. Friederici
Keyword(s):  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
Behavioral Skills ◽  
Word Category ◽  
L2 Processing ◽  
Proficiency Level ◽  
Before And After ◽  
On Line

Several event-related potential (ERP) studies in second language (L2) processing have revealed a differential vulnerability of syntax-related ERP effects in contrast to purely semantic ERP effects. However, it is still debated to what extent a potential critical period for L2 acquisition, as opposed to the attained proficiency level in the L2, contributes to the pattern of results reported in previous ERP studies. We studied L2 processing within the model of a miniature version of a natural language, namely Japanese, specifically constructed to assure high proficiency of the learners. In an auditory ERP experiment, we investigated sentence processing of the “Mini-Japanese” in Japanese native speakers and German volunteers before and after training. By making use of three different types of violation, namely, word category, case, and classifier violations, native and nonnative ERP patterns were compared. The three types of violation elicited three characteristic ERP patterns in Japanese native speakers. The word category violation elicited an anteriorly focused, broadly distributed early negativity followed by a P600, whereas the case violation evoked a P600 which was preceded by an N400. The classifier violation led solely to a late left distributed negativity with an anterior focus. Although the P600 was similar for Japanese natives and learners, the N400 and the anterior negativities were not present in the learner group. The differences across groups suggest deviant neural processes in on-line syntactic and thematic processing in the L2 learners despite high behavioral skills.

Sensitivity to parasitic gaps inside subject islands in native and non-native sentence processing

2016 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 494-511 ◽  
Author(s):  
OLIVER BOXELL ◽  
CLAUDIA FELSER
Keyword(s):  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Online Reading ◽  
Time Data ◽  
Online Processing ◽  
Parasitic Gaps ◽  
Linguistic Representations ◽  
Island Constraints ◽  
Reading Experiment ◽  
Native Group

We report the results from an eye-movement monitoring study that investigated late German–English bilinguals’ sensitivity to parasitic gaps inside subject islands. The online reading experiment was complemented by an offline scalar judgement task. The results from the offline task confirmed that for both native and non-native speakers, subject island environments must normally be non-finite in order to host a parasitic gap. The analysis of the reading-time data showed that, while native speakers posited parasitic gaps in non-finite environments only, the non-native group initially overgenerated parasitic gaps, showing delayed sensitivity to island-inducing cues during online processing. Taken together, our findings show that non-native comprehenders are sensitive to exceptions to island constraints that are not attested in their native language and also rare in the L2 input. They need more time than native comprehenders to compute the linguistic representations over which the relevant restrictions are defined, however.

PARSING STRATEGIES IN L1 AND L2 SENTENCE PROCESSING

2003 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 501-528 ◽  
Author(s):  
Despina Papadopoulou ◽  
Harald Clahsen
Keyword(s):  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Relative Clause ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Native Languages ◽  
Advanced Learners ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
On Line ◽  
L1 And L2 ◽  
Lexical Cues

To contribute to a better understanding of second language (L2) sentence processing, the present study examines how L2 learners parse temporarily ambiguous sentences containing relative clauses. Results are reported from both off-line and on-line experiments with three groups of advanced learners of Greek whose native languages (L1s) were Spanish, German, or Russian as well as from corresponding experiments with a control group of adult native speakers of Greek. We found that, despite their nativelike mastery of the construction under investigation, the L2 learners showed relative-clause attachment preferences that were different from those of the native speakers. Moreover, the L2 learners did not exhibit L1-based preferences in their L2 Greek, as might be expected if they were directly influenced by L1 attachment preferences. We suggest that L2 learners integrate information relevant for parsing differently from native speakers, with the L2 learners relying more on lexical cues than the native speakers and less on purely structurally based parsing strategies.

The on-line processing of binding principles in second language acquisition: Evidence from eye tracking

2014 ◽  
Vol 36 (6) ◽  
pp. 1317-1374 ◽  
Author(s):  
EUNAH KIM ◽  
SILVINA MONTRUL ◽  
JAMES YOON
Keyword(s):  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Eye Tracking ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Binding Theory ◽  
Visual World Paradigm ◽  
Syntactic Information ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
On Line ◽  
Syntactic Binding

ABSTRACTThis study examined how adult L2 learners make use of grammatical and extragrammatical information to interpret reflexives and pronouns. Forty adult English native speakers and 32 intermediate–advanced Korean L2 learners participated in a visual world paradigm eye-tracking experiment. We investigated the interpretation of reflexives (himself) and pronouns (him) in contexts where there is a potential coargument antecedent and in the context of picture noun phrases (a picture of him/himself), where the distribution of reflexives and pronouns can overlap. The results indicated that the learners interpreted reflexives in a nativelike fashion in both contexts, whereas they interpreted pronouns differently from native speakers, even when learners had advanced English proficiency. Adopting the binding theory as developed in the reflexivity/primitives of binding framework (Reinhart & Reuland, 1993; Reuland, 2001, 2011), we interpret these results to mean that while adult L2 learners are able to apply syntactic binding principles to assign an interpretation to anaphoric expressions, they have difficulty in integrating syntactic information with contextual and discourse information.

Japanese EFL learners’ sentence processing of conceptual plurality: An analysis focusing on reciprocal verbs

2018 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
YU TAMURA ◽  
JUNYA FUKUTA ◽  
YOSHITO NISHIMURA ◽  
YUI HARADA ◽  
KAZUHISA HARA ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Sentence Comprehension ◽  
First Language ◽  
Sentence Completion ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Japanese Learners Of English ◽  
Transitive Verbs ◽  
Reading Experiment ◽  
Japanese Learners

ABSTRACTThis study aimed to investigate how Japanese learners of English as a foreign language, whose first language does not have obligatory morphological number marking, process conceptual plurality. The targeted structure was reciprocal verbs, which require conceptual plurality to interpret their meanings correctly. The results of a sentence completion task confirmed that participants could use reciprocal verbs reciprocally in English. In a self-paced reading experiment, participants read sentences with reciprocal verbs and those with optionally transitive verbs (e.g., while the king and the queen kissed/left the baby read the book in the bed). There was no reading time delay for reciprocal verbs but a delay for optionally transitive verbs. Therefore, the participants succeeded in processing second language conceptual plurality in the online sentence comprehension task.

The shallow structure hypothesis of second language sentence processing: What is restricted and why?

2006 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-52
Author(s):  
Margaret Gillon Dowens ◽  
Manuel Carreiras
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Processing Speed ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
First Language ◽  
Direct Form ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Shallow Structure Hypothesis ◽  
On Line ◽  
Shallow Structure

Clahsen and Felser (CF) analyze the performance of monolingual children and adult second language (L2) learners in off-line and on-line tasks and compare their performance with that of adult monolinguals. They conclude that child first language (L1) processing is basically the same as adult L1 processing (the contiguity assumption), with differences in performance being due to cognitive developmental limitations. They argue that differences in L2 performance, however, are more qualitative and not explained by shortage of working memory (WM) resources, differences in processing speed, transfer of L1 processing routines, or incomplete acquisition of the target grammar. They propose a shallow structure hypothesis (SSH) to explain the differences reported in sentence processing. According to this, the syntactic representations computed by L2 learners during comprehension are shallower and less detailed than those computed by native speakers and involve more direct form-function mappings.

The timing of lexical and syntactic processes in second language sentence comprehension

2015 ◽  
Vol 37 (5) ◽  
pp. 1253-1280 ◽  
Author(s):  
HOLGER HOPP
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Sentence Comprehension ◽  
Lexical Processing ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
First Language ◽  
Syntactic Processing ◽  
Complex Object ◽  
Reading Experiment ◽  
Processing Differences

ABSTRACTThis paper investigates how lexical processing difficulty affects second language (L2) syntactic processing. In a self-paced reading experiment with 36 monolingual and 62 first language German speakers of English, we test how differences in lexical frequency moderate structural processing differences between subject and object clefts. For the L2 group, the results show linear relations between verb frequency and the location of the reading difficulty resulting from the structurally more complex object clefts. Native speakers evince comparable effects only in lower word frequency ranges. The findings indicate that greater demands on lexical processing may cause non-native-like syntactic processing in that they attenuate and delay effects of structure building in L2 sentence processing. We discuss implications for current models of L2 sentence processing.

Cross-linguistic variations in L2 morphological awareness

2000 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 297-320 ◽  
Author(s):  
KEIKO KODA
Keyword(s):  
Structural Analysis ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Contextual Information ◽  
Morphological Awareness ◽  
Context Information ◽  
Structural Sensitivity ◽  
External Context ◽  
Chinese Learners ◽  
Korean Learners ◽  
Chinese And English

This study investigated the effects of L1 processing experience on L2 morphological awareness. Preliminary cross-linguistic comparisons indicated that morphological awareness in two typologically distinct languages, Chinese and English, differs in several major ways. Based on the comparisons, three specific hypotheses were formulated: compared with learners with a typologically similar L1 background, Chinese learners of English as an L2 would be less sensitive to intraword structural salience, less efficient in structural analysis, and more adept at integrating word-internal (morphological) and word-external (context) information. These hypotheses were tested empirically with two groups of adult L2 learners of English with contrasting L1 backgrounds (Chinese and Korean). The data demonstrated that virtually no difference existed between the two ESL groups in their intraword structural sensitivity, and that, although Chinese learners were notably slower than Korean learners in performing intraword structural analysis, they were far more efficient in integrating morphological and contextual information during sentence processing. Viewed collectively, these findings seem to suggest that L1 processing experience influences the development of L2 morphological awareness in specific and predictable ways.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document