scholarly journals The effect of givenness and referring expression on dative alternation in Norwegian: A reaction time study

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-36
Author(s):  
Marta Velnić ◽  
Merete Anderssen
Keyword(s):  
Reaction Time ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Judgment Task ◽  
Time Study ◽  
Double Object ◽  
Dative Alternation ◽  
Highly Sensitive ◽  
Contextual Dependency ◽  
Acceptability Judgment

Abstract This study investigates how givenness and pronominality affect the dative alternation in Norwegian. Previous studies have found givenness to influence the Double Object Dative (DOD) but not the Prepositional Dative (PD). Thirty-one Norwegian native speakers completed a speeded acceptability judgment task, in which given objects were expressed by definite DPs or pronouns, and either preceded or followed the new referent. DODs were found to be highly sensitive to givenness. Surprisingly, PDs also showed contextual dependency. Referring expressions affected the two structures differently: reaction times were faster with pronouns in DODs and slower in PDs. This suggests that the alternates have different processing biases, with the former preferring pronouns and the latter DPs. The results are further considered in relation to the notion of harmonic alignment, as PDs, in which the typically animate recipient is always the second object, and will thus consistently represent a suboptimal and non-harmonious order when givenness is adhered to.

scholarly journals Selective transfer in the acquisition of English double object constructions by Brazilian learners

2013 ◽  
Vol 57 (2) ◽  
pp. 519-544 ◽  
Author(s):  
Júlia Vidigal Zara ◽  
Fernando Luiz Pereira de Oliveira ◽  
Ricardo Augusto de Souza
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
First Language ◽  
Brazilian Portuguese ◽  
Judgment Task ◽  
Double Object ◽  
Advanced Level ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
Acceptability Judgment ◽  
Do So

The present study investigates the acquisition of the English double object constructions (GOLDBERG, 1995) by Brazilian learners. We hypothesize that, due to first language (L1) influences, the prepositional ditransitive construction (John gave a book to Mary) will be acquired earlier, while the ditransitive construction (John gave Mary a book) will be part of the learner's interlanguages (SELINKER, 1972) only at the advanced level of proficiency. We also hypothesize that learners may transfer (ODLIN, 1989) the placement of the object pronoun in pre-verbal position from their L1 to their interlanguage in early stages of acquisition (João me deu um livro / *John me gave a book). We test our hypotheses by comparing the performance of three groups of learners (beginning, intermediate, and advanced) and native speakers of English on an acceptability judgment task used as a measure of learnability and generalization. Results confirm the order of acquisition of the English double object constructions predicted for native speakers of Brazilian Portuguese. Moreover, results suggest that, although mother tongue influences may have taken place, they do not do so pervasively, but rather selectively, corroborating the proposal by Kellerman (1983).

scholarly journals Second Language Acquisition of the English Dative Alternation by Native Speakers of Arabic

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-88
Author(s):  
Anwar S. Aljadani
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Study ◽  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Double Object ◽  
Dative Alternation ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Semantic Properties

Abstract This paper reports on an experimental study that investigates the influence of the disparity between English and Arabic on second language acquisition, namely the phenomenon of the acquisition of the English dative alternation by Arab learners. The disallowance of certain Arabic verbs to occur in the double object dative structure causes difficulty for Arab learners to acquire English as far as the acquisition of the dative alternation is concerned. The experiment is devised to examine whether Arab learners are sensitive to syntactic and semantic properties associated with the English dative alternation. The experiment involved picture tasks with two structures: the prepositional dative structure and the double object dative structure. Overall, the results of the experiment show that the L2 learners failed to acquire the double object dative structure which does not exist in their L1. Based on these results, it is argued that L1 has an important effect on the acquisition of L2.

AGE OF ONSET, TYPE OF EXPOSURE, AND ULTIMATE ATTAINMENT OF L2 MORPHO-SYNTACTIC SENSITIVITY

2019 ◽  
Vol 42 (4) ◽  
pp. 801-823
Author(s):  
Eun-Kyoung Rosa Lee
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Age Of Onset ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Foreign Language Learning ◽  
Judgment Task ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Learning Context ◽  
Grammaticality Judgment ◽  
Third Person

AbstractThe present study examined whether early immersive L2 exposure in a foreign language learning context can yield long-term advantages in L2 morpho-syntactic sensitivity. Participants were 40 Korean university students with high English proficiency, who had either attended an English kindergarten or begun learning English in a classroom, and a control group of native English speakers. All participants performed a speeded aural grammaticality judgment task that included the following features: articles, subcategorization, plural -s, third-person -s. Results showed that the English-kindergarten group outperformed the late-classroom group in terms of accuracy for ungrammatical sentences, while the two groups did not differ significantly on grammatical sentences and in reaction time measures. The learners altogether scored higher in plural -s and third-person -s compared to articles. While the native speakers showed near-perfect accuracy and fast reaction times, the highly proficient learners were at near-chance level in detecting morpho-syntactic errors during online L2 aural processing.

Present/future tense variation in contemporary Italian

Revue Romane ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 1-40
Author(s):  
Mark R. Hoff
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Mixed Effects ◽  
Judgment Task ◽  
Forced Choice ◽  
Future Tense ◽  
Online Questionnaire ◽  
The Future ◽  
Present Tense ◽  
Adverbial Clauses ◽  
Acceptability Judgment

Abstract According to normative descriptions of Italian future-framed adverbial clauses, the future tense is the only option (Quando verrai [F], ti presterò il libro ‘When you come, I’ll lend you the book’). However, the present tense may also be used (Quando vieni [P], ti presto il libro). I demonstrate that choice and acceptance of the present in future-framed adverbials are conditioned by the speaker’s presumption of settledness; that is, in every future world compatible with the speaker’s beliefs the eventuality necessarily occurs. The data come from an online questionnaire consisting of a forced-choice and an acceptability judgment task completed by 429 native speakers of Italian, and were analyzed using mixed-effects regression. Results show that the present is chosen most and rated highest when the future eventuality is presumed settled ([+certain, +immediate, +temporally specific]). These findings demonstrate that speakers use the present to express confidence in the realization of future eventualities.

NS and NNS processing of idioms and nonidiom formulaic sequences: What can reaction times and think-alouds tell us?

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-26
Author(s):  
Hang Zheng ◽  
Melissa A. Bowles ◽  
Jerome L. Packard
Keyword(s):  
Processing Speed ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Nonnative Speakers ◽  
Formulaic Sequences ◽  
Psychological Reality ◽  
Think Alouds ◽  
Acceptability Judgment

Abstract Although researchers generally agree that native speakers (NSs) process formulaic sequences (FSs) holistically to some extent, findings about nonnative speakers (NNSs) are conflicting, potentially because not all FSs are psychologically equal or because in some studies NNSs may not have fully understood the FSs. We address these issues by investigating Chinese NSs and NNSs processing of idioms and matched nonidiom FSs in phrase acceptability judgment tasks with and without think-alouds (TAs). Reaction times show that NSs processed idioms faster than nonidioms regardless of length, but NNSs processed 3-character FSs faster than 4-character FSs regardless of type. TAs show NSs’ understanding of FSs has reached ceiling, but NNSs’ understanding was incomplete, with idioms being understood more poorly than nonidioms. Although we conclude that idioms and nonidioms have different mental statuses in NSs’ lexicons, it is inconclusive how they are represented by NNSs. TAs also show that NNSs employed various strategies to compensate for limited idiom knowledge, causing comparable processing speed for idioms and nonidioms. The findings highlight the importance of distinguishing subtypes of FSs and considering NNSs’ quality of understanding in discussions of the psychological reality of FSs.

Information structure in canonical and scrambled dative orders in L2 Korean

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (s1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kyae-Sung Park
Keyword(s):  
Information Structure ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Syntactic Complexity ◽  
Double Object ◽  
Indirect Object ◽  
Null Arguments ◽  
Dative Alternation ◽  
New Information ◽  
The Given ◽  
L1 English

AbstractThe Given-before-New Principle holds in adult speech: Given information tends to precede new information. For instance, in the English dative alternation, the given-theme – i.e., the direct object [DO] – tends to precede the new-recipient – i.e., the indirect object [IO] – in the prepositional dative (e.g., John gave the books to some children), while the given-recipient tends to precede the new-theme in the double object dative (e.g., John gave the children some books). Likewise, in Korean datives, the given-recipient tends to occur earlier in the canonical [IO–DO] order, while the given-theme tends to occur earlier in the scrambled [DO–IO] order. This study investigates whether L1-English adult L2ers of Korean, who have knowledge of the Given-before-New Principle in their L1, automatically adhere to it in their interlanguage. L2ers’ choices between canonical and scrambled dative orders were tested using novel oral contextualized preference tasks. The native speakers of Korean overwhelmingly complied with the Given-before-New Principle. However, the intermediate-to-advanced L2ers exhibited a strong bias for the (default) canonical [IO–DO] order, which apparently overrode the Given-before-New Principle. The findings of analyses by group and by individual are discussed in terms of frequency, syntactic complexity, processing, and null arguments.

Moving and Nonmoving Visual Stimuli: A Reaction Time Study

1969 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin A. Fairbank
Keyword(s):  
Reaction Time ◽  
Visual Stimuli ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Apparent Movement ◽  
Time Study ◽  
Real Movement ◽  
Reaction Time Study ◽  
Msec Duration

Various considerations suggest that the perception of movement may be mediated at either of two levels, retinal or central, depending on characteristics of the stimulus. Under such a scheme the mediation of apparent movement should be central. One experiment implies that apparent movement may be coded as movement at the retinal level. These considerations permit predictions concerning reaction times. Present data show no difference in reaction time to real movement, stroboscopic movement, and simple flashes, all of 50 msec. duration.

Cross-linguistic influence in the second language processing of Korean morphological and syntactic causative constructions

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sun Hee Park ◽  
Hyunwoo Kim
Keyword(s):  
Language Processing ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Judgment Task ◽  
Target Structure ◽  
Second Language Processing ◽  
Causative Constructions ◽  
Japanese Speakers ◽  
Syntactic Information ◽  
Acceptability Judgment

Abstract This study investigated the effects of cross-linguistic influence in Japanese speakers’ integration of morphological and syntactic information during the processing of Korean transitive causative constructions. We examined whether Japanese speakers would process two types of Korean causative constructions as efficiently as native speakers: (a) when one target structure was instantiated differently from learners’ L1 correspondents and (b) when the other type was unique to the L2. Although the learners showed native-like performance during an acceptability judgment task, they had difficulties with the integration of morphological and syntactic information during a self-paced reading task when the target construction gave rise to cross-linguistic competitions with the L1 correspondent, but not when the target construction was unique to the L1. Our findings support the claim that cross-linguistic cue competitions are a major source of difficulties in L2 sentence processing.

scholarly journals MORPHOLOGICAL AND SYNTACTIC TRANSFER IN CHILD L2 ACQUISITION OF THE ENGLISH DATIVE ALTERNATION

2002 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 579-616 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melinda Whong-Barr ◽  
Bonnie D. Schwartz
Keyword(s):  
Judgment Task ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
Double Object ◽  
Korean Children ◽  
Grammaticality Judgment ◽  
Dative Alternation ◽  
L1 Influence ◽  
Accusative Constructions ◽  
L1 Acquisition ◽  
L1 English

This experimental study compares the acquisition of the English to- and for-dative alternation by L1 English, L1 Japanese, and L1 Korean children. It is well known that there are restrictions on the verbs that can enter into the dative alternation—for example, you can show the results to someone and show someone the results; and you can demonstrate the results to someone but you cannot *demonstrate someone the results. L1 children sometimes overextend the double-object variant to verbs that disallow it. One question we investigate is whether L2 children, like L1 children, overextend the double-object variant. A second question we probe is whether L2 children, like L2 adults, transfer properties of the L1 grammar. Japanese disallows all double-accusative constructions. Korean disallows them with analogues of to-dative verbs; but with analogues of for-dative verbs, Korean productively allows them—more broadly, in fact, than English—if the benefactive verbal morpheme cwu- is added. Results from an oral grammaticality judgment task show (a) that all groups allow illicit to-dative double-object forms and (b) that the Japanese—but not the Koreans—allow illicit for-dative double-object forms. This bifurcation, we argue, stems from the fact that Korean (but not Japanese) has an overt morphological licensor for double objects. We thus find evidence of both (a) overgeneralization, like in L1 acquisition, and (b) L1 influence, like in adult L2 acquisition, in this case from the (syntactic) argument-changing properties of overt morphology.

scholarly journals How speakers select synthetic and analytic forms of English comparatives: An experimental study

2017 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Naomi Enzinna
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Study ◽  
Reaction Time ◽  
Inhibitory Effect ◽  
Judgment Task ◽  
Forced Choice ◽  
Token Frequency ◽  
Acceptability Judgment

This research examines the influence of prosodic shape, token frequency, and recency on comparative form preferences in English. To examine this, participants completed an unprimed and a primed forced-choice acceptability-judgment task. While the unprimed study’s results show that comparative form selection is largely influenced by an adjective’s prosodic shape and token frequency, the primed study shows that recency also plays a role in comparative form selection. More specifically, when primed with a synthetic comparative, participants were less likely to choose the comparative form that the adjective typically occurs in. These results are paralleled by the reaction time results, suggesting that recency of a synthetic comparative may cause either a facilitatory or inhibitory effect when selecting a comparative form.

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