Epistemic reasoning in pragmatic inferencing by non-native speakers: The case of scalar implicatures

Second language Research ◽

10.1177/02676583211069735 ◽

2022 ◽

pp. 026765832110697

Author(s):

Jun Zhang ◽

Yan Wu

Keyword(s):

Sentence Processing ◽

Native Speakers ◽

Scalar Implicature ◽

Existential Quantifier ◽

Scalar Implicatures ◽

Reading Task ◽

Knowledge State ◽

Growing Body ◽

L2 Learners

Scalar implicatures involve inferring the use of a less informative term (e.g. some) to mean the negation of a more informative term (e.g. not all). A growing body of recent research on the derivation of scalar implicatures by adult second language (L2) learners shows that while they are successful in acquiring the knowledge of scalar implicatures, a property at the semantics–pragmatics interface, it remains controversial as to which mechanism, default or non-default, could account for L2 learners’ derivation of scalar implicatures. The present study used an online self-paced reading task to address this issue by examining the role of the speaker’s knowledge state in the interpretation of the existential quantifier some by Chinese-speaking learners of English in incremental sentence processing. Results showed that both L2 and native participants demonstrated comparable online sensitivity to the speaker’s knowledge state. Critically, when the scalar implicature was computed in situations where the speaker was more likely to know whether the statement with the stronger alternative was true, it gave rise to measurable reading latency, indicative of increased processing costs. We conclude by arguing that our findings are compatible with the context-driven models within the Gricean tradition.

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Prediction and integration in native and second-language processing of elliptical structures

Bilingualism Language and Cognition ◽

10.1017/s1366728914000844 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 19 (1) ◽

pp. 1-18 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

EDITH KAAN ◽

JOSEPH KIRKHAM ◽

FRANK WIJNEN

Keyword(s):

Language Processing ◽

Sentence Processing ◽

Native Speakers ◽

Event Related Potentials ◽

Syntactic Analysis ◽

Second Language Processing ◽

L2 Learners ◽

Frontal Negativity ◽

Related Potentials

According to recent views of L2-sentence processing, L2-speakers do not predict upcoming information to the same extent as do native speakers. To investigate L2-speakers’ predictive use and integration of syntactic information across clauses, we recorded event-related potentials (ERPs) from advanced L2-learners and native speakers while they read sentences in which the syntactic context did or did not allow noun-ellipsis (Lau, E., Stroud, C., Plesch, S., & Phillips, C. (2006). The role of structural prediction in rapid syntactic analysis. Brain and Language, 98, 74–88.) Both native and L2-speakers were sensitive to the context when integrating words after the potential ellipsis-site. However, native, but not L2-speakers, anticipated the ellipsis, as suggested by an ERP difference between elliptical and non-elliptical contexts preceding the potential ellipsis-site. In addition, L2-learners displayed a late frontal negativity for ungrammaticalities, suggesting differences in repair strategies or resources compared with native speakers.

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Testing the Cognitive Processing Model of Chinese Scalar Implicatures

JOURNAL OF ADVANCES IN LINGUISTICS ◽

10.24297/jal.v6i3.4675 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 6 (3) ◽

pp. 1074-1087

Author(s):

Si Liu ◽

Chunmei Wang

Keyword(s):

Cognitive Processing ◽

Native Speakers ◽

Chinese Language ◽

Research Field ◽

Scalar Implicature ◽

Experimental Paradigm ◽

Scalar Implicatures ◽

Two Factors ◽

The Cost

This paper reports our experimental study of the cognitive processing of scalar implicature in the Chinese language. Our experiments tested the two processing models: the Default model proposed by the neo-Gricean theorists and the Context-Driven model supported by the post-Gricean, which has long been debated in the pragmatic research field. Our Experiment 1 investigated whether scalar implicature might be generated in neutral contexts (neither enabling nor canceling the processing of scalar implicature). By manipulating the scalar trigger yixie (some) in sentence-initial and sentence-final conditions, the reading times on the target phrase qiyude/qitade (the rest/the others) showed facilitation in the sentence-initial. In Experiment 2, a picture-sentence verification of under-informative utterance was performed in order to test the cost of generating scalar implicature. The results showed the significant effects of the two factors (Quantifiers <all, some> and Picture-Match/NoMatch). The yes/no responses showed that native speakers of Chinese were sensitive to scalar implicature. However, the role of context in processing scalar implicature was not supported. Experiment 3 was designed to test the processing of scalar implicature in Upper-Bound (enabling the processing) and Lower-Bound (canceling the processing) contexts. The result of this online experiment was slightly in favor of the Context-Driven model. The findings of the three experiments were significantly in agreement with neither the CM nor the DM. We presumed that the processing of scalar implicature might be accounted for with an alternative model. This was the first study to use this experimental paradigm in the Chinese language, whose findings were expected to highlight a need for further studies in order to investigate the meaning processing models with various languages and cultures.

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L2 Chinese: Grammatical development and processing

Second language Research ◽

10.1177/0267658315597737 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 32 (1) ◽

pp. 123-141 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Ziyin Mai

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Sentence Processing ◽

Native Speakers ◽

Review Article ◽

Fine Grained ◽

Grammatical Development ◽

L2 Chinese ◽

L2 Learners ◽

Research Findings

Two recent books (Jiang, 2014, Advances in Chinese as a second language; Wang, 2013, Grammatical development of Chinese among non-native speakers) provide new resources for exploring the role of processing in acquiring Chinese as a second language (L2). This review article summarizes, assesses and compares some of the findings in these books with reference to current interests in L2 sentence processing and other research findings in L2 Chinese. It is shown that there have been serious attempts to link acquisition and processing of L2 Chinese, and that Chinese offers rich materials to study how L2 learners develop sensitivity to semantic and discourse conditions on L2 structures and acquire new grammatical features associated with them through parsing the input. However, to reach this goal, a more fine-grained approach to L2 Chinese structures and their processability needs to be taken.

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Study abroad and the SLA of variable structures: A look at the present perfect, the copula contrast, and the present progressive in Mexico and Spain

Probus ◽

10.1515/probus-2015-0004 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 27 (2) ◽

Cited By ~ 15

Author(s):

Matthew Kanwit ◽

Kimberly L. Geeslin ◽

Stephen Fafulas

Keyword(s):

Study Abroad ◽

Language Learning ◽

Native Speakers ◽

L2 Acquisition ◽

Present Perfect ◽

Immersion Programs ◽

Growing Body ◽

English Speaking ◽

Grammatical Structures

AbstractThe present study connects research on the L2 acquisition of variable structures to the ever-growing body of research on the role of study abroad in the language learning process. The data come from a group of 46 English-speaking learners of Spanish who participated in immersion programs in two distinct locations, Valencia, Spain and San Luis Potosí, Mexico. Simultaneously, we tested a group of native speakers from each region to create an appropriate target model for each learner group. Learners completed a written contextualized questionnaire at the beginning and end of their seven-week stay abroad. Our instrument examines three variable grammatical structures: (1) the copulas

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L1–L2 asymmetry in animacy effects in the processing of Japanese relative clause

Journal of Japanese Linguistics ◽

10.1515/jjl-2015-0102 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 31 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Sanako Mitsugi ◽

Yasuhiro Shirai

Keyword(s):

Constraint Satisfaction ◽

Semantic Information ◽

Native Speakers ◽

L2 Processing ◽

L2 Learners ◽

First Languages ◽

The Subject ◽

English Group ◽

Processing Difficulty

AbstractUsing self-paced reading, this study investigated the role of head animacy in the processing of Japanese relative clauses (RCs). Second language (L2) learners whose first languages (L1) are English and Korean, and Japanese native speakers participated. The results showed that for native speakers, inanimate heads diminished the processing difficulty associated with object RCs. However, head animacy did not have an effect on L2 processing. The Korean group showed the subject-object asymmetry but no effect of head animacy. The English group did not demonstrate the effect of RC type or head animacy. The overall pattern of these results suggests that L2 learners of Japanese are not guided by syntactic and lexical-semantic information in the same way as Japanese native speakers. These findings are interpreted within the constraint-satisfaction models (MacDonald et al., 1994) and are further discussed in the light of the research concerning the transfer of L1 processing routines.

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PARSING STRATEGIES IN L1 AND L2 SENTENCE PROCESSING

Studies in Second Language Acquisition ◽

10.1017/s0272263103000214 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 25 (4) ◽

pp. 501-528 ◽

Cited By ~ 121

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.

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Cross-linguistic differences and their impact on L2 sentence processing

Bilingualism Language and Cognition ◽

10.1017/s1366728908003908 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 12 (1) ◽

pp. 65-82 ◽

Cited By ~ 41

Author(s):

CARRIE N. JACKSON ◽

PAOLA E. DUSSIAS

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Sentence Processing ◽

Native Speakers ◽

Native Language ◽

Relevant Research ◽

Reading Task ◽

Linguistic Differences ◽

Case Marking ◽

Processing Strategies ◽

Morphosyntactic Feature

Using a self-paced reading task, the present study investigates how highly proficient second language (L2) speakers of German with English as their native language process unambiguous wh-subject-extractions and wh-object-extractions in German. Previous monolingual research has shown that English and German exhibit different processing preferences for the type of wh-question under investigation, due in part to the robust case-marking system in German – a morphosyntactic feature that is largely absent in English (e.g., Juffs and Harrington, 1995; Fanselow, Kliegl and Schlesewsky 1999; Meng and Bader, 2000; Juffs, 2005). The results revealed that the L2 German speakers utilized case-marking information and exhibited a subject-preference similar to German native speakers. These findings are discussed in light of relevant research regarding the ability of L2 speakers to adopt native-like processing strategies in their L2.

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

Applied Psycholinguistics ◽

10.1017/s0142716401001059 ◽

2001 ◽

Vol 22 (1) ◽

pp. 83-112 ◽

Cited By ~ 41

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.

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Acquisition of scalar implicatures

Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism ◽

10.1075/lab.18010.sna ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 8 (2) ◽

pp. 163-192 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Neal Snape ◽

Hironobu Hosoi

Keyword(s):

Native Speakers ◽

Native English Speakers ◽

English Speakers ◽

Scalar Implicatures ◽

L2 Acquisition ◽

L2 Proficiency ◽

Proficiency Levels ◽

Semantics And Pragmatics ◽

L2 Learners ◽

Research Questions

Abstract Our study investigates the second language (L2) acquisition of scalar implicatures some and all. We set out to answer two research questions based on three theoretical accounts, the lexical, pragmatic and syntactic accounts. In an experiment we include English and Japanese native speakers, and intermediate and advanced Japanese L2 learners of English. We used quantifiers some and all in ‘Yes/No’ questions in a context with sets of toy fruits, where pragmatic answers are expected, e.g., a ‘No’ response to the question ‘Are some of the strawberries in the red circle?’ (when a set of 14/14 strawberries are placed inside a red circle). Our individual results indicate that L2 learners are generally more pragmatic in their responses than native English speakers. But, there are neither significant differences between groups nor significant differences between L2 proficiency levels. We consider the implications of our findings for the acquisition of L2 semantics and pragmatics.

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