On-line sentence processing in Swedish: cross-linguistic developmental comparisons with French

2011 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 28-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
MICHÈLE KAIL ◽  
MARIA KIHLSTEDT ◽  
PHILIPPE BONNET
Keyword(s):  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Linguistic Analysis ◽  
Competition Model ◽  
Adult Group ◽  
Cue Validity ◽  
Processing Abilities ◽  
On Line ◽  
Cost Factors

ABSTRACTThis study examined on-line processing of Swedish sentences in a grammaticality-judgement experiment within the framework of the Competition Model. Three age groups from 6 to 11 and an adult group were asked to detect grammatical violations as quickly as possible. Three factors concerning cue cost were studied: violation position (early vs. late), violation span (intraphrasal vs. interphrasal) and violation type (agreement vs. word order). Developmental results showed that children were always slower at detecting grammatical violations. Irrespective of age, participants were faster at judging sentences with late violations, especially in the younger groups. Intraphrasal violations were more rapidly detected than interphrasal ones, particularly in adults. Finally, agreement violations and word order ones did not differ. The hierarchy of cue cost factors indicated that violation span was the dominant one. A cross-linguistic analysis with French (Kail, 2004) underlines the developmental processing abilities and the interdependence between cue cost and cue validity.

On-line grammaticality judgments in French children and adults: a crosslinguistic perspective

2004 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 713-737 ◽  
Author(s):  
MICHELE KAIL
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Position Effect ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Age Group ◽  
Grammaticality Judgment ◽  
Grammaticality Judgments ◽  
On Line ◽  
Verbal Agreement ◽  
And Gender ◽  
New Processing

This study examined the on-line processing of French sentences in a grammaticality judgment experiment. Three age groups of French children (mean age: 6;8, 8;6 and 10;10 years) and a group of adults were asked to detect grammatical violations as quickly as possible. Three factors were studied: the violation type: agreement violations (number and gender) vs. word order violations; the violation position: early vs. late in the sentence; the target type of the violations: intra vs. interphrasal. An example of an early interphrasal verbal agreement violation follows: ‘Chaque semaine la voisine remplissent le frigo après avoir fait les courses au marché’ (Every week the neighbour fill the fridge after shopping at the market). The main developmental results were the following: not surprisingly, children were always slower than adults in the detection of grammatical violations. At each age level, morphological violations were more rapidly detected than word order violations. Each age group was faster at judging sentences with later occurring violations and the position effect was especially strong in the youngest groups. Finally, intraphrasal violations were more rapidly detected than interphrasal ones, this effect being observed only in the oldest groups (i.e. 10;10 years and adults). The results were compared to previous on-line data obtained in modern Greek (Kail & Diakogiorgi, 1998) showing strong similarities, even though Greek is a very rich morphological language. These results are discussed within the framework of the Competition Model, outlining the necessity to incorporate new processing constraints into the model.

L1 effects on the emergence of ESL sentence processing skills of Chinese and Korean ESL learners

2008 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-73 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Fender
Keyword(s):  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Relative Clause ◽  
English Sentence ◽  
Reading Task ◽  
Verb Phrase ◽  
Sentence Reading ◽  
On Line ◽  
Esl Learners ◽  
Chinese Esl Learners

This study examines the emergence of lower-level ESL sentence processing skills involved in integrating English words into predicate structures on-line. The aim of the present study is to examine how the L1 phrase structure and corresponding L1 word integration skills of ESL learners influence their corresponding ESL sentence processing skills in an on-line English sentence reading task. The study examined the English predicate and verb phrase processing skills of a group of Chinese ESL learners whose language has right-branching L1 verb phrase structures (head-complement word order) and a group of proficiency-matched Korean ESL learners whose native language only allows left-branching L1 verb phrase structures (i.e., complement-head word order). The Chinese ESL group (n = 20) was significantly faster than the Korean ESL group (n = 18) in reading and integrating direct object nouns into English predicate phrase structures, though there were no significant differences comprehending the sentences. In addition, the Chinese ESL group was significantly more accurate in reading and comprehending transitive sentences in which the direct objects had an embedded relative clause. The results suggest that L1 word integration skills influence and shape the emergence of on-line ESL word integration

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.

Processing delays

2018 ◽  
Vol 35 ◽  
pp. 65-78
Author(s):  
Loes Koring ◽  
Hans van de Koot
Keyword(s):  
Eye Tracking ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Time Course ◽  
Visual World ◽  
Visual World Paradigm ◽  
Exact Time ◽  
On Line

Abstract An eye-tracking experiment using the Visual World Paradigm (VWP) shows that in on-line sentence processing in English the argument of an unaccusative verb reactivates late after verb offset. In contrast to previous studies, this VWP experiment establishes the exact time course of this effect, which matches the time course previously found for Dutch, despite differences in word order between the two languages. Furthermore, it uncovers an early reactivation of the argument of unergative verbs that has previously gone unnoticed. Such an effect has previously been observed for Dutch, but not for English. Moreover, the effect seems to occur earlier in English than in Dutch. We suggest that this difference may be due to the more rigid word order of English, which provides the parser with more informative cues.

Processing strategies used by Basque-French bilingual and Basque monolingual children for the production of the subject-agent in Basque

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (4-5) ◽  
pp. 514-541 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isabelle Duguine ◽  
Barbara Köpke
Keyword(s):  
Longitudinal Study ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Language Production ◽  
Competition Model ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Cue Validity ◽  
Processing Strategies ◽  
Case Marker ◽  
Different Ages ◽  
The Subject

Abstract We sought to describe the strategies used by 2L1 and L2 Basque-French bilingual children and monolingual Basque children to express subject-agent function in a free elicitation context in Basque. Based on a three-year longitudinal study, the analysis focused on transitive constructions requiring a subject-agent noun marked for ergative case. The results showed that the children mastered production of the ergative case marker at different ages, and used different psycholinguistic strategies to refer to the subject-agent. The majority of the bilingual children favoured topological strategy (i.e., marking of the subject-agent in the first position through subject-verb-object word order). However, the children with L1 Basque seemed to engage more in morphological strategy, through the use of the nominal ergative suffix. These data allowed us to discuss variations in the performance of bilingual children in light of the cue cost and cue validity concepts elaborated by the Competition Model applied to language production.

Cross-linguistic lexical and syntactic co-activation in L2 sentence processing

2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 96-130 ◽  
Author(s):  
Holger Hopp
Keyword(s):  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Sentence Comprehension ◽  
Lexical Processing ◽  
First Language ◽  
Syntactic Processing ◽  
Lexical Activation ◽  
Co Activation ◽  
On Line ◽  
Embedded Clauses

Abstract This study investigates under which conditions the L1 syntax is activated in L2 on-line sentence comprehension. We study whether cross-linguistic syntactic activation of the L1 word order is affected by lexical activation of the first language (L1) by virtue of cognate words. In two eye-tracking experiments, German-English bilinguals and English natives read English sentences containing reduced relative clauses whose surface word order partially overlaps with German embedded clauses. The verbs used were either German-English cognates or matched control verbs. The results show lexical cognate facilitation and syntactic co-activation of L1 word order, with the latter being moderated by proficiency and cognate status. Critically, syntactic co-activation is found only with English control words. We argue that fleeting co-activation of the L1 syntax becomes measurable under higher demands of lexical processing, while cognate facilitation frees resources for inhibition of the L1 syntax and target-like syntactic processing.

An on-line study of sentence interpretation in native Croatian speakers

1994 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 237-261 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ivo Mimica ◽  
Michael Sullivan ◽  
Stan Smith
Keyword(s):  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Sentence Comprehension ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Competition Model ◽  
Choice Data ◽  
Gender Agreement ◽  
Response Latencies ◽  
Word Position ◽  
On Line ◽  
Object Assignment

ABSTRACTStudies of sentence comprehension in different languages have enhanced our understanding of how syntactic and semantic information are used in interpreting sentences. However, few studies have attempted to assess how such information affects sentence-processing speed. The present study explored effects of case inflections, gender agreement, noun animacy, and word position on decisions and reaction times for, agent-object assignment in Croatian, a case-marking language with a rich grammatical morphological system. In accordance with Bates and MacWhinney's Competition Model, results provided evidence that the various cues to agent-object relations converge and compete to affect not only agent-object decisions, but also the speed with which those decisions are made. However, several findings from the present study did not support predictions made by the Competition Model. For example, cue strength (i.e., the relative weights that listeners assign to cues) was not a good predictor of reaction time for agent-object assignment in the present study. In addition, reaction times were not always shortened by converging information or inhibited by competing information – both of which were predicted by the model. Rather, our results support the view that, in a given language, there may be constraints on the particular combinations of cues which may converge to facilitate, or compete to inhibit, agent-object assignment. The pattern of cue interactions, which was obtained for the response latencies of normal adults in the present study, is similar to that revealed by off-line choice data from a group of Croatian aphasics (Smith & Bates, 1987), another situation in which ceiling effects of the dominant case cue were removed; thus, these results may tap into a basic aspect of the human sentence processor.

Cue validity in Hebrew sentence comprehension

1988 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 129-155 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey L. Sokolov
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Sentence Comprehension ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Cue Validity ◽  
Study Word ◽  
Increased Sensitivity ◽  
Actual Strength ◽  
Older Subjects ◽  
Positive Correlations

ABSTRACTThis study investigated the degree to which cue validity, as estimated from textual analyses, predicts the actual strength of grammatical cues as they are used by speakers of Hebrew. An experiment was conducted to determine the differential strengths of the linguistic cues employed by Hebrew speakers when assigning the role of patient in sentences. Monolingual Hebrew-speaking subjects 4, 5, 7, and 9 years old, as well as adults, were tested using a sentence-picture verification task. Six cues were included in the study: word order, the accusative object marker, the reflexive noun phrase and three verbal derivations. By presenting subjects with sentences which set these cues in competition with one another, a measure of the strength of each cue was obtained. The results of a regression analysis revealed strong positive correlations between estimated cue validities and actual cue strengths for all but the youngest age groups. These results were interpreted as suggesting that cue validity is highly predictive of actual cue strengths. In addition, the strengths of the six cues varied as a function of the subject's age. Two additional factors were hypothesized to account for the performance of the older subjects: increased sensitivity to the reliability of cues and discourse-based constraints.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document