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

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.

scholarly journals An ERP Study on Attraction Effects in Advanced L2 Learners

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jing Bian ◽  
Hui Zhang ◽  
Chongfei Sun
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Quantitative Difference ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
N400 Effect ◽  
L2 Processing ◽  
Asymmetrical Pattern ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Attraction Effects

In English, the rule of agreement is quite simple: verbs must agree with their subject head nouns in terms of number features. Despite this simplicity, agreement processing is always interrupted when the subject phrase of the sentence “The key to the cabinets is on the table,” contains two nouns with a mismatch in number features commonly known as attraction effects. This study used event-related potentials (ERPs) to examine whether late advanced second language (L2) learners can acquire native-like sensitivity of attraction effects. The results revealed that L2 learners showed ERP patterns qualitatively similar to native English speakers: ungrammatical verbs following singular attractors elicited a P600 effect relative to their grammatical counterparts, whereas this positivity was replaced by an N400 effect when plural attractors intervened between the subject head nouns and the verbs. Of particular interest, given that, compared to native speakers, the amplitude of the P600 effect elicited by L2 learners was smaller, there was a quantitative difference between native speakers and L2 learners. We proposed that these two ERP components represented the two processing routes of agreement: the P600 effect indexed a full, combinatorial process, which parsed morphosyntactic features between agreement controllers and targets, whereas the N400 effect indexed a shallow, heuristic process, which evaluated lexical associations between agreeing elements. Moreover, similar to native speakers, advanced L2 learners showed an asymmetrical pattern of attraction effects, in that plural attractors were interfered with ungrammaticality at disagreeing verbs, but they did not cause any difficulties in processing grammatical sentences at agreeing verbs. The overall results suggested that compared to native processing, L2 processing of complex agreement with attractor interference was shallower and therefore late advanced L2 learners could not achieve native-like attraction effects.

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

2014 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-18 ◽  
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.

Acquiring phenomena at the syntax/semantics interface in L2 Spanish

2007 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 67-88 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pedro Guijarro-Fuentes ◽  
Theodoros Marinis
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
Advanced Learners ◽  
Proficiency Levels ◽  
Verb Semantics ◽  
Syntactic Features ◽  
Interface Phenomena ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
The Subject

Recent second language (L2) acquisition research has proposed that purely syntactic features are easier to acquire and less vulnerable than ones involving the interfaces (Sorace, 2004; Serratrice et al. 2004). The present paper addresses this issue by investigating the acquisition of the Spanish personal preposition a in English L2 learners of Spanish. The distribution of a in direct object NPs relates to the specificity/definiteness of the NP, the animacy/agentivity of the subject, and verb semantics (Torrego 1998; Zagona 2002). 33 English L2 learners of Spanish of different proficiency levels, and 14 Spanish controls participated in an acceptability judgement task. The results showed significant differences between native speakers and L2 learners of all proficiency levels, who performed at chance, and support the claim that L2 learners have difficulties acquiring structures involving the syntax/semantics interface. However, the advanced learners showed sensitivity to the least complex condition providing evidence that interface phenomena may be acquirable.

scholarly journals Morphologically complex words in L1 and L2 processing: Evidence from masked priming experiments in English

2008 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 245-260 ◽  
Author(s):  
RENITA SILVA ◽  
HARALD CLAHSEN
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Masked Priming ◽  
Past Tense ◽  
Priming Effects ◽  
L2 Processing ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Word Forms ◽  
Complex Words ◽  
L1 And L2 ◽  
Striking Contrast

This paper reports results from masked priming experiments investigating regular past-tense forms and deadjectival nominalizations with -ness and -ity in adult native (L1) speakers of English and in different groups of advanced adult second language (L2) learners of English. While the L1 group showed efficient priming for both inflected and derived word forms, the L2 learners demonstrated repetition-priming effects (like the L1 group), but no priming for inflected and reduced priming for derived word forms. We argue that this striking contrast between L1 and L2 processing supports the view that adult L2 learners rely more on lexical storage and less on combinatorial processing of morphologically complex words than native speakers.

Semantics and morphosyntax in predictive L2 sentence processing

2015 ◽  
Vol 53 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Holger Hopp
Keyword(s):  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Sentence Comprehension ◽  
Semantic Information ◽  
Lower Sensitivity ◽  
Lexical Semantic ◽  
L2 Processing ◽  
Verb Semantics ◽  
Anticipatory Processing ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
L1 English

AbstractIn the context of current approaches to anticipation in native and non-native sentence processing, this paper investigates whether late second-language (L2) learners integrate morphosyntax, i.e. case marking, and verb semantics to generate anticipations in L2 sentence comprehension. In a visual-world eye-tracking experiment with 45 L1 English L2 learners of German and 12 German natives, German natives are found to integrate morphosyntactic and lexical-semantic information in anticipatory processing, while L2 learners only rely on lexical-semantic information for prediction. Moreover, there is no indication that increasing proficiency leads to the involvement of morphosyntax in predictive L2 processing. We discuss reasons for the lower sensitivity to morphosyntax in anticipatory L2 sentence processing.

Perspective discursive et influence translinguistique

2012 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 173-201 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandra Benazzo ◽  
Cecilia Andorno ◽  
Grazia Interlandi ◽  
Cédric Patin
Keyword(s):  
Information Structure ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Romance Languages ◽  
Information Unit ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Discourse Organization ◽  
Grammatical Structures ◽  
Selection Of

This paper aims to study perspective-taking in L2 discourse at the level of utterance information structure. Many studies have shown how principles of discourse organization partly reflect lexico-grammatical structures available in a given language, and how difficult it is to reorganize L1 discursive habits when acquiring an L2 in adulthood. In this study we compare how L2 learners of Romance languages (French, Italian), with either a Romance or a Germanic language as an L1, organize the information structure of utterances relating contrasting events. Native speakers of Germanic and Romance languages show systematic differences in the selection of the information unit — referential entities or predicate polarity — on which the contrast is highlighted (Dimroth et al. 2010) ; moreover, they differ in the lexical, prosodic and morpho-syntactic means used to achieve this goal. Our data show that L2 learners can adopt the target language perspective in the selection of the information unit to contrast, when the input offers clear evidence for it. However, their choice of linguistic means reveals both the influence of the L1 and the role of more general acquisitional principles, which are still active at the advanced level.

The role of acoustic cues in the development of (non-)target-like second-language prosodic representations

2010 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-114
Author(s):  
Annie Tremblay ◽  
Nathan Owens
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Native English Speakers ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Acoustic Cues ◽  
Canadian French ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Primary Word ◽  
Heavy Syllable ◽  
Stress Patterns

AbstractThis study investigates the acquisition of English (primary) word stress by native speakers of Canadian French, with focus on the trochaic foot and the alignment of its head with heavy syllables. L2 learners and native English speakers produced disyllabic and trisyllabic nonsense nouns. The participants with consistent stress patterns were grouped according to their prosodic grammar, and their productions were analyzed acoustically. The results indicate that the L2 learners who failed to align the head of the trochaic foot with the heavy syllable realized stress with higher pitch. Conversely, the L2 learners who aligned the head of the trochaic foot with the heavy syllable realized non-initial stress by lengthening the syllable. Surprisingly, the native speakers produced higher pitch on the initial syllable irrespective of stress, and they used length to realize stress oh the heavy syllable. These findings suggest that L2 learners may have reached different prosodic grammars as a result of attending to distinct acoustic cues to English stress.

The Effects of Context and Content on Immediate Processing in Reading

1978 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 609-636 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. C. Mitchell ◽  
D. W. Green
Keyword(s):  
Visual Display ◽  
Reading Rate ◽  
Local Processing ◽  
Speed Up ◽  
On Line ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Processing Difficulty

Four experiments were conducted to examine the processes by which fluent readers comprehend prose. In each study the material was presented a few words at a time on an on-line visual display and the subject pressed a button to move on from one display to the next. The inter-reponse time was used as an index of local processing difficulty. The results of Experiment I indicated that readers pause considerably at the ends of clauses and sentences, and that they show no tendency to speed up across sentences. This pattern of results questions the role of prediction in reading. In Experiments II and III immediate processing was found to be unaffected by two types of syntactically-predictive clue and the effect of a third (semantic) clue was equivocal. Experiment IV replicated the results of Experiment I and showed, in addition, that pausing at the ends of clauses and sentences is a function of the difficulty of the content of the text. More detailed analyses showed that reading rate is modulated by the frequency of the words and by the number of characters in the display. Taken together the results suggest that reading rate is largely determined by the speed with which a reader can access the meanings of words and construct a representation of the text rather than by the speed with which they can formulate and test successive predictions about it.

Syntactic features and reanalysis in near-native processing

2006 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 369-397 ◽  
Author(s):  
Holger Hopp
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
First Language ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Response Latencies ◽  
Advanced Learners ◽  
Reading Accuracy ◽  
L2 Processing ◽  
Ultimate Attainment ◽  
L1 English

In order to investigate second language (L2) processing at ultimate attainment, 20 first language (L1) English and 20 L1 Dutch advanced to near-native speakers of German as well as 20 native Germans were tested in two experiments on subject-object ambiguities in German. The results from a self-paced reading task and a speeded acceptability judgement task show that the lower-proficient advanced learners in this study display the same processing preferences as natives in reading accuracy yet fail to demonstrate differential response latencies associated with native syntactic reanalysis. By contrast, near-native speakers of either L1 converge on incremental native reanalysis patterns. Together, the findings highlight the role of proficiency for processing the target language since it is only at near-native levels of proficiency that non-natives converge on native-like parsing. The results support the view that endstate non-native processing and native processing are qualitatively identical.

scholarly journals LEXICAL NOMINATION AS A REFLECTION OF CULTURAL AND HISTORICAL EXPERIENCE IN OLD ENGLISH SEAFARING

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 16-20
Author(s):  
Natalia Atnabayeva ◽  
Vladimir Baltachev ◽  
Yekaterina Troynikova ◽  
Lilia Khasanova
Keyword(s):  
Middle English ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Word Formation ◽  
Language Representation ◽  
Mode Of Operation ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Degree Of Participation ◽  
Content Design

The theory that nominative processes extended through centuries to systematic formations of special terminological meanings of professional Old and Middle English marine terminological vocabulary had already been explained in different ways based on an evidential linguistic material. There is no doubt of the historical and philosophical approaches employed to describe the ancient language representation of the native speakers’ world, as well as of the role and degree of their participation in the formation of nominations inclusive of those of ancient seafaring vehicles. Having been referenced repeatedly, both conceptually and through documents, they had confirmed their right to exist.  In several topical articles, terminological units have already been represented by a synonymous series of proper nominations for the seafaring vessels (boats/ships) of various types by respective lexically-organized terms according to their word-formation, structural and content design in the Old and the Middle English. Despite the apparent decline of interest towards the subject of historical nominations in general, and the history of the English Marine language in particular,thereare unsettled challenges in the field. Specifically, more clarity is required regarding the incentives, degree of participation and the role of extralinguistic (human) factor in the history of a vessel-name formation, as well as in the mode of operation of the nominative apparatus for the above marine terms with respect to the of intralinguistic (language) factors involved.

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