The effects of discourse processing with regard to syntactic and semantic cues: A competition model study

2004 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 587-601 ◽  
Author(s):  
I-RU SU
Keyword(s):  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Context Effects ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Competition Model ◽  
English Sentence ◽  
Discourse Context ◽  
Semantic Cues ◽  
Model Study ◽  
Intended Interpretation ◽  
Chinese And English

Based on Bates and MacWhinney's competition model, the present study aims to examine the effects of discourse context on sentence interpretation. In my previous study it was found that both Chinese and English monolinguals paid less attention to context than to intrasentential cues that have been identified as the determinants for Chinese and English sentence processing. The conclusions obtained in that study have to be considered tentative because the contextual sentences were short and might not have been sufficiently biasing toward the intended interpretation. Hence, the present study was undertaken to further examine the context effects by elaborating the contents of the contextual sentences. The results show that English native speakers rely on discourse context in interpreting their native language to a greater extent than the previous research has suggested and that Chinese native speakers make use of context information to a greater degree than do their English counterparts.

Context effects on sentence processing: A study based on the Competition Model

2001 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 167-189 ◽  
Author(s):  
I-RU SU
Keyword(s):  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Context Effects ◽  
Competition Model ◽  
English Sentence ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Main Effect ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
L1 And L2 ◽  
Chinese And English

Based on the Competition Model, the present study investigated how adult monolinguals and bilinguals incorporate the context cue in assigning the agent role vis-à-vis intrasentential cues (animacy and word order). The subjects were L1 and L2 speakers of Chinese and English. The results show that both Chinese and English monolingual controls paid less attention to context than to intrasentential cues that have been identified as determinants for Chinese and English sentence processing. Nevertheless, context was found to play a bigger role in Chinese than in English. As for L2 learners, the main effect of context was significant in all groups of learners of Chinese and English. However, the Chinese EFL learners relied on context to a greater extent than did the English CFL learners when processing their respective L2.

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.

Forward and backward transfer of sentence processing cues in English and Mandarin Chinese: A call for approximate replication of Liu, Bates, and Li (1992) and Su (2001)

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Stephen Skalicky ◽  
Victoria Chen
Keyword(s):  
Mandarin Chinese ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Competition Model ◽  
Functional Explanation ◽  
L2 Proficiency ◽  
Bilingual Speakers ◽  
Processing Strategies ◽  
Forward Transfer ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Chinese And English

Abstract The Competition Model has served as a functional explanation of cross-linguistic influence and transfer for more than 30 years. A large number of studies have used the Competition Model to frame investigations of sentence processing strategies in different types of bilingual and multilingual speakers. Among the different bilingual speakers investigated, Mandarin Chinese and English bilinguals represent a clear testing ground for the claims of the Competition Model. This is because of purportedly stark contrasts in sentence processing strategies between the two languages. Previous studies investigating sentence processing strategies of English L2 and Mandarin L2 bilinguals suggests forward transfer of L1 cues to the L2, moderated by L2 proficiency. In this paper, we argue for replication of two of these studies, namely Liu, Bates, and Li (1992) and Su (2001). These studies continue to be cited today as evidence of differences between English and Mandarin sentence processing strategies which is in turn taken as support for the predictions of the Competition Model. However, both studies presented methodological limitations in terms of measures of proficiency, participant and stimuli selection, and the statistical analysis. We suggest approximate replication of both of these studies and provide suggestions for how such replications might be conducted.

Transfer of sentence processing strategies: A comparison of L2 learners of Chinese and English

2001 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-112 ◽  
Author(s):  
I-RU SU
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Developmental Change ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Processing Level ◽  
Processing Strategies ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Chinese And English

A sentence interpretation experiment based on Bates and MacWhinney's Competition Model was administered to L2 learners of English and Chinese at three different stages of learning. The main purposes of the research were (a) to examine how transfer patterns at the sentence processing level change as a function of proficiency and (b) to investigate whether or how transfer patterns found in Chinese EFL learners (i.e., native speakers of a semantics-based language learning a syntax-centered target language) differ from those found in English CFL learners (i.e., native speakers of a syntax-based language acquiring a semantics-centered one). The results show that transfer patterns do vary as a function of proficiency, and that Chinese EFL learners and English CFL learners display somewhat different patterns of developmental change in sentence processing transfer.

Continuity and shallow structures in language processing

2006 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 107-126 ◽  
Author(s):  
HARALD CLAHSEN ◽  
CLAUDIA FELSER
Keyword(s):  
Language Processing ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
First Language ◽  
Nonnative Speakers ◽  
Semantic Cues ◽  
Target Article ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Shallow Structure Hypothesis ◽  
Core Idea

The core idea that we argued for in the target article was that grammatical processing in a second language (L2) is fundamentally different from grammatical processing in one's native (first) language (L1). Our major source of evidence for this claim comes from experimental psycholinguistic studies investigating morphological and syntactic processing in child and adult native speakers, and nonnative speakers who acquired their L2 after childhood and for whom their L1 is the dominant language. With respect to child L1 processing, we argued for acontinuity of parsing hypothesisclaiming that the child's structural parser is basically the same as that of mature speakers and does not change over time. Adult L2 learners, in contrast, were seen to underuse syntactic information during sentence processing and to rely more on lexical–semantic cues to interpretation. To account for the observed L1/L2 differences in processing, we proposed the shallow structure hypothesis (SSH) according to which the representations adult L2 learners compute during processing contain less syntactic detail than those of child and adult native speakers.

scholarly journals Deeper than shallow: Evidence for structure-based parsing biases in second-language sentence processing

2011 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 419-456 ◽  
Author(s):  
JEFFREY WITZEL ◽  
NAOKO WITZEL ◽  
JANET NICOL
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Sentence Comprehension ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Sentence Type ◽  
First Language ◽  
English Sentence ◽  
Reading Patterns ◽  
Structural Configurations ◽  
High Level

ABSTRACTThis study examines the reading patterns of native speakers (NSs) and high-level (Chinese) nonnative speakers (NNSs) on three English sentence types involving temporarily ambiguous structural configurations. The reading patterns on each sentence type indicate that both NSs and NNSs were biased toward specific structural interpretations. These results are interpreted as evidence that both first-language and second-language (L2) sentence comprehension is guided (at least in part) by structure-based parsing strategies and, thus as counterevidence to the claim that NNSs are largely limited to rudimentary (or “shallow”) syntactic computation during online L2 sentence processing.

The influence of increasing discourse context on L1 and L2 spoken language processing

2016 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 121-136 ◽  
Author(s):  
TATIANA KOHLSTEDT ◽  
NIVEDITA MANI
Keyword(s):  
Language Processing ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Contextual Information ◽  
Spoken Language ◽  
Discourse Context ◽  
Semantic Cues ◽  
Spoken Language Processing ◽  
Unknown Words ◽  
Language Context ◽  
L1 And L2

Using the visual world paradigm, we compared first, L1 and L2 speakers’ anticipation of upcoming information in a discourse and second, L1 and L2 speakers’ ability to infer the meaning of unknown words in a discourse based on the semantic cues provided in spoken language context. It was found that native speakers were able to use the given contextual cues, throughout the discourse, to anticipate upcoming linguistic input and fixate targets consistent with the input thus far, while L2 speakers showed weaker effects of discourse context on target fixations. However, both native speakers and L2 learners alike were able to use contextual information to infer the meaning of unknown words embedded in the discourse and fixate images associated with the inferred meanings of these words, especially given adequate contextual information. We suggest that these results reflect similarly successful integration of the preceding semantic information and the construction of integrated mental representations of the described scenarios in L1 and L2.

Grammatical processing in language learners

2006 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
HARALD CLAHSEN ◽  
CLAUDIA FELSER
Keyword(s):  
Real Time ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Working Memory Capacity ◽  
Lexical Retrieval ◽  
Continuity Hypothesis ◽  
Semantic Cues ◽  
L2 Learners

The ability to process the linguistic input in real time is crucial for successfully acquiring a language, and yet little is known about how language learners comprehend or produce language in real time. Against this background, we have conducted a detailed study of grammatical processing in language learners using experimental psycholinguistic techniques and comparing different populations (mature native speakers, child first language [L1] and adult second language [L2] learners) as well as different domains of language (morphology and syntax). This article presents an overview of the results from this project and of other previous studies, with the aim of explaining how grammatical processing in language learners differs from that of mature native speakers. For child L1 processing, we will argue for a continuity hypothesis claiming that the child's parsing mechanism is basically the same as that of mature speakers and does not change over time. Instead, empirical differences between child and mature speaker's processing can be explained by other factors such as the child's limited working memory capacity and by less efficient lexical retrieval. In nonnative (adult L2) language processing, some striking differences to native speakers were observed in the domain of sentence processing. Adult learners are guided by lexical–semantic cues during parsing in the same way as native speakers, but less so by syntactic information. We suggest that the observed L1/L2 differences can be explained by assuming that the syntactic representations adult L2 learners compute during comprehension are shallower and less detailed than those of native speakers.

scholarly journals How subject animacy constrains motion event descriptions

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 163-201
Author(s):  
Sarah Berthaud ◽  
Stanislava Antonijević
Keyword(s):  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Sentence Production ◽  
Gradual Change ◽  
Semantic Cues ◽  
Cue Weighting ◽  
Proficiency Levels ◽  
Motion Event ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
L1 English

Abstract Research has indicated that during sentence processing, French native speakers predominantly rely upon lexico-semantic cues (i.e., animacy) while native speakers of English rely upon syntactic cues (i.e., word order). The present study examined sentence production in L1 French/L2 English and L1 English/L2 French sequential bilinguals. Participants used animate and inanimate entities as sentence subjects while describing motion events represented by static pictures. To test a gradual change in animacy cue weighting in second-language sequential bilinguals with different proficiency levels were included. Sentence production of sequential bilinguals was compared against that of simultaneous bilinguals. The results indicated an overall preference for the use of animate subjects for both languages at all proficiency levels. The effect of animacy was stronger for English L2 than French L2 while it did not differ between languages in simultaneous bilinguals. Evidence for potential change in the animacy-cue weighting was only observed for English L2.

Grammaticality judgment of Chinese and English sentences by native speakers of alphasyllabary: A reaction time study

2012 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 428-445 ◽  
Author(s):  
Che Kan Leong ◽  
Linda T.H. Tsung ◽  
Shek Kam Tse ◽  
Mark Shui Kee Shum ◽  
Wing Wah Ki
Keyword(s):  
Reaction Time ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Grammaticality Judgment ◽  
Pakistani Origin ◽  
On Line ◽  
Chinese Sentence Processing ◽  
Learning School ◽  
Chinese And English

A group of 118 sixteen-year-old students of ethnic Indian and Pakistani origin, learning school Chinese, judged on-line the grammaticality of 18 pairs of sentences in Chinese and English. We hypothesized: (a) The students might not perform worse in simple Chinese sentence processing as compared with equivalent English sentences. (b) There would be an overall school effect as proxy for learning experience. (c) Grammatically correct sentences would be processed more efficiently than anomalous ones. MANCOVA (age as covariate) and efficiency indices, by taking into account both accuracy and reaction time, support the hypotheses. The results are discussed in learning form and meaning of school Chinese.

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