scholarly journals The male bias of a generically-intended personal pronoun in language processing

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Theresa Redl ◽  
Stefan L. Frank ◽  
Peter de Swart ◽  
Helen de Hoop
Keyword(s):  
Language Processing ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Personal Pronoun ◽  
Personal Pronouns ◽  
Male Bias ◽  
Female Individual ◽  
Participant Gender ◽  
Online Processing ◽  
Gender Neutral ◽  
Reading Experiment

A self-paced reading experiment tested if a generically-used masculine personal pronoun leads to a male bias in online processing. We presented Dutch native speakers (N=95, 47 male) with generic statements featuring the masculine pronoun hij ‘he’ (e.g., Someone who always promises that he will really be on time, such as Ms/Mr Knoop, will sometimes be late anyway). We further presented participants with control items expressing the same meaning, but without the pronoun. Reading times were significantly higher when a female individual was given as an example (i.e., Ms Knoop in the example above) following the masculine generic pronoun hij ‘he’, but not in the control condition. This effect did not interact with participant gender. This shows that the generically-intended masculine personal pronoun leads to a male bias in online processing for male as well as female participants. Masculine personal pronouns are still commonly used for generic reference in many languages such as Dutch, but the results of this experiment refute the notion that a pronoun such as hij ‘he’ can be readily processed as gender-neutral.

Sensitivity to parasitic gaps inside subject islands in native and non-native sentence processing

2016 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 494-511 ◽  
Author(s):  
OLIVER BOXELL ◽  
CLAUDIA FELSER
Keyword(s):  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Online Reading ◽  
Time Data ◽  
Online Processing ◽  
Parasitic Gaps ◽  
Linguistic Representations ◽  
Island Constraints ◽  
Reading Experiment ◽  
Native Group

We report the results from an eye-movement monitoring study that investigated late German–English bilinguals’ sensitivity to parasitic gaps inside subject islands. The online reading experiment was complemented by an offline scalar judgement task. The results from the offline task confirmed that for both native and non-native speakers, subject island environments must normally be non-finite in order to host a parasitic gap. The analysis of the reading-time data showed that, while native speakers posited parasitic gaps in non-finite environments only, the non-native group initially overgenerated parasitic gaps, showing delayed sensitivity to island-inducing cues during online processing. Taken together, our findings show that non-native comprehenders are sensitive to exceptions to island constraints that are not attested in their native language and also rare in the L2 input. They need more time than native comprehenders to compute the linguistic representations over which the relevant restrictions are defined, however.

Genitive coordinations with personal pronouns

2011 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 363-385 ◽  
Author(s):  
JOHN PAYNE
Keyword(s):  
Single Unit ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
The Other ◽  
Personal Pronoun ◽  
Personal Pronouns ◽  
Web Based ◽  
British National Corpus ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Genitive Case ◽  
National Corpus

English genitive noun-phrase coordinations follow two patterns. The first is the single genitive, in which exponence of the genitive case occurs solely on the final coordinate, e.g. Mary and Jane's; and the second is the multiple genitive, in which exponence of the genitive case occurs on all coordinates, e.g. Mary's and Jane's. When either of the coordinates is a personal pronoun, difficult choices have to be made about the form of the pronoun. These difficulties arise especially with the single genitive, which is judged to be totally ungrammatical in coordinations like *my wife and I's or *my wife and my. On the other hand, the alternative use of the multiple genitive, my wife's and my, conflicts with a preference for the single genitive when the coordinates are felt to constitute a single unit. In this article, we first conduct a corpus-based analysis for genitive coordinations with personal pronouns, based on the British National Corpus. This, supplemented by some non-standard examples from web-based sources, gives some insight into the choices actually made by native speakers. We then provide a theoretical account of the syntactic problems that genitive coordinations with pronouns create. This account is shown to be compatible solely with an analysis of the English ’s genitive as an inflectional affix.

INTEGRATION OF VERBAL AND CONSTRUCTIONAL INFORMATION IN THE SECOND LANGUAGE PROCESSING OF ENGLISH DATIVE CONSTRUCTIONS

2020 ◽  
Vol 42 (4) ◽  
pp. 825-847 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hyunwoo Kim ◽  
Gyu-Ho Shin ◽  
Haerim Hwang
Keyword(s):  
Language Processing ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Structural Features ◽  
Association Strength ◽  
Second Language Processing ◽  
Online Processing ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Construction Integration ◽  
Reading Experiment ◽  
L1 English

AbstractThis study investigated the effects of construction types on Korean-L1 English-L2 learners’ verb–construction integration in online processing by presenting the ditransitive and prepositional dative constructions and manipulating the verb’s association strength within these constructions. Results of a self-paced reading experiment showed that the L2 group spent longer times in the verb–construction integration in the postverbal complement region when processing the ditransitive construction, which is less canonical and highly avoided in the learners’ L1, than when processing the prepositional dative construction, which is more canonical and shares similar structural features with the L1 counterpart. In the following spillover region, L2 learners showed faster reading times as proficiency increased when the verb was strongly associated with the prepositional dative construction. Our findings expand the scope of current models on L2 sentence processing by suggesting that construction types and L2 proficiency may affect the L2 integration of verbal and constructional information.

scholarly journals Tuning to Real-Life Language Statistics: Online Processing of Multiword Sequences in Native and Non-Native Speakers Across Language Registers

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elma Kerz ◽  
Daniel Wiechmann ◽  
Felicity Frinsel ◽  
Morten H. Christiansen
Keyword(s):  
Language Processing ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Large Body ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Learning Mechanisms ◽  
Online Processing ◽  
Real Language ◽  
Language Statistics ◽  
Language Input

A large body of research over the past two decades has demonstrated that children and adults are equipped with statistical learning mechanisms that facilitate their language processing and boost their acquisition. However, this research has been conducted primarily using artificial languages that are highly simplified relative to real language input. Here, we aimed to determine to what extent adult native and non-native speakers show sensitivity to real-life language statistics obtained from large-scale analyses of authentic language use. Through a within-subject design, we conducted a series of behavioral experiments geared towards assessing the sensitivity to two types of distributional statistics (frequency and entropy) during online processing of multiword sequences across four registers of English (spoken, fiction, news and academic language). Our results show that both native and non-native speakers are able to `tune to' multiple distributional statistics inherent in different types of real language input.

scholarly journals Does L2 Proficiency Impact L2-L1 Transfer While Reading L1 Collocations? Evidence From Behavioral and ERP Data

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Agnieszka Otwinowska ◽  
Marta Marecka ◽  
Alba Casado ◽  
Joanna Durlik ◽  
Jakub Szewczyk ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Language Processing ◽  
English Proficiency ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
L2 Proficiency ◽  
Brain Response ◽  
L1 Transfer ◽  
Online Processing ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
English Verb

Multi-word expressions (MWEs) are fixed, conventional phrases often used by native speakers of a given language (L1). The type of MWEs investigated in this study were collocations. For bilinguals who have intensive contact with the second language (L2), collocational patterns can be transferred from the L2 to the L1 as a result of cross-linguistic influence (CLI). For example, bilingual migrants can accept collocations from their L2 translated to their L1 as correct. In this study, we asked whether such CLI is possible in native speakers living in the L1 environment and whether it depends on their L2 English proficiency. To this end, we created three lists of expressions in Polish: (1) well-formed Polish verb-noun collocations (e.g., ma sens – ∗has sense), (2) collocational calques from English (loan translations), where the English verb was replaced by a Polish translation equivalent (e.g., ∗robi sens – makes sense), and, as a reference (3) absurd verb-noun expression, where the verb did not collocate with the noun (e.g., ∗zjada sens – ∗eats sense). We embedded the three types of collocations in sentences and presented them to L1 Polish participants of varying L2 English proficiency in two experiments. We investigated whether L2 calques would (1) be explicitly judged as non-native in the L1; (2) whether they would evoke differential brain response than native L1 Polish equivalents in the event-related potentials (ERPs). We also explored whether the sensitivity to CLI in calques depended on participants’ level of proficiency in L2 English. The results indicated that native speakers of Polish assessed the calques from English as less acceptable than the correct Polish collocations. Still, there was no difference in online processing of correct and calques collocations as measured by the ERPs. This suggests a dissociation between explicit offline judgments and indices of online language processing. Interestingly, English L2 proficiency did not modulate these effects. The results indicate that the influence of English on Polish is so pervasive that collocational calques from this language are likely to become accepted and used by Poles.

scholarly journals O PROCESSAMENTO DE ORAÇÕES RELATIVAS COM E SEM O PRONOME “THAT” POR BRASILEIROS APRENDIZES TARDIOS DE INGLÊS COMO L21

Organon ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 26 (51) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alyson Andrade Gonçalves ◽  
Márcio Martins Leitão
Keyword(s):  
Language Processing ◽  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Relative Pronoun ◽  
L1 Transfer ◽  
Shallow Structure Hypothesis ◽  
Reading Experiment ◽  
The One ◽  
Shallow Structure ◽  
Object Relative

The purpose of this study is to investigate the linguistic processingof L2 English by a group of Brazilian native speakers. In order to achievethis goal, we analyze the processing of unambiguous object relative clauseswhich contain contrasting structures in the two languages studied here, that is, that have two structure options in English (with or without the pronoun“that”) but only one in Portuguese (containing “that”). Thus, in an onlineself-paced reading experiment, we examined the extent to which Braziliannative speakers would show advantages in processing sentences containingthe relative pronoun “that”, once this structure resembles the one found inPortuguese. Results show that basic, intermediate and advanced learnersseem to process object relative clauses more quickly when they present “that”explicitly, which is taken as an indication of the presence of L1 transfer ef-fects in language processing. Such results are discussed within the predic-tions of the Shallow Structure Hypothesis (Felser et al. 2002).

scholarly journals Use of I in Essays by Japanese EFL Learners

2013 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 61 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sayo Natsukari
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Personal Pronoun ◽  
Personal Pronouns ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
American Students ◽  
Problematic Issue ◽  
Argumentative Essays ◽  
Japanese Learners ◽  
Almost All

A problematic issue in Japanese EFL learners’ academic writing is the overuse of the personal pronoun I. The use of personal pronouns is particularly important in academic writing because it determines the writer’s perspective and attitude toward the readership. This study investigates the extent to which Japanese EFL learners’ use of the first-person singular I in essays is different from the norms of native speakers. By using subcorpora in the International Corpus of Learner English and the Louvain Corpus of Native English Essays, the study compares the use of I in argumentative essays. The results indicate that Japanese EFL learners use I in a similar way to American students, but they overuse I in essays: Almost all essays by Japanese learners contain I and the number of I is excessive. The analysis also uncovers an excessive use of the phrase I think in their essays. 日本人英語学習者のアカデミックライティングにおける問題点のひとつとして主語のIの多用がある。本稿は、約20万語から成るICLE書き言葉コーパスを利用し、議論形式のアカデミックエッセーにおいて、日本人英語学習者の主語Iをどのように使用しているのか調査し、これをアメリカとイギリスの大学生が書いたアカデミックエッセーから構成されたLOCNESS書き言葉コーパスのデータと比較した。結果、日本人学生の人称代名詞のIの使用方法はアメリカ人学生のそれに類似していたが、全体的な過剰使用が確認された。特に、ほぼすべての学生がIを使用し、その量も過剰であった。I thinkというフレーズも母語話者の書き言葉に比べて過剰であった。本稿は、この過剰使用の問題点を議論する。

In support of multiword unit classifications: Corpus and human rating data validate phraseological classifications of three different multiword unit types

2013 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Georgie Columbus
Keyword(s):  
Language Processing ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Formulaic Language ◽  
Rating Data ◽  
Lexical Bundles ◽  
Online Processing ◽  
European Tradition ◽  
Multiword Units ◽  
The Continuum

AbstractMultiword units (MWUs) are word combinations which sit within the continuum of formulaic language. Many experimental studies have focused on the online processing of MWUs by native and non-native speakers, and the processing of idioms in particular. However, some studies use a mix of various MWU subtypes, while other studies have varying definitions for the same subtypes. For results from MWU studies to be useful to theories of language processing, storage and access, clearer classifications are needed for MWU subtypes. This study aims to empirically validate MWU categories as described by certain phraseologists in the European tradition. This will be done using MWUs from the British National Corpus, from across the continuum of frequent to infrequent occurrence and co-occurrence. Hence, in this paper I will describe the empirical findings that may validate the classifications for MWU categories of restricted collocations, idioms, and lexical bundles, using corpus-based measures and human ratings.

AN ANNOTATED TRANSLATION OF PERSONAL PRONOUNS IN THE NOVEL THE SINS OF FATHER

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 48-54
Author(s):  
Chintia Handayani
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Method ◽  
Sampling Technique ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Personal Pronoun ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Personal Pronouns ◽  
Purposive Sampling ◽  
Annotated Translation

This article is based on annotated translation. Annotated translation is a translation with commentary. The objective of this article is to find out strategies that was employed in translating in Personal Pronoun I and You in the novel The Sins of Father by Jeffry Archer. The research used qualitative method with retrospective and introspective as research approached. The syntactic strategies by Chesterman is employ as tools of analysis. The result shows that from 25 data, there are 5 primary data which are taken using purposive sampling technique. There are 3 word ‘I’ and 2 word ‘You’, which all the data has the same translation principle and strategies.

Personal Pronoun in Japanese Based on Gender (Structure and Semantic Study)

Jurnal KATA ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 93
Author(s):  
Syahrial Syahrial
Keyword(s):  
Personal Pronoun ◽  
Personal Pronouns ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
Gender Research

<p><em>This research analyzed the personal pronouns of Japanese from structure and semantics based on gender.  This research useddescriptive method. To discuss the personal pronoun, the theories used include the theory of Lyons (1997), Samsuri (1980), Djajasudarma (1993), Moeliono, et al. (1993), Alwi, et al. (1998), Quirck, et al. (1985), Keraf (1990), Bambang Kaswanti (1983). while For pronouns, used the theory of Oya (1992), Tomita (1993), Kindaichi (1993). The theory used for gender research was the theory of Tsujimura (1995). The results of this Research shows that the personal pronouns of Japanese are different between The speaker and the listener or addresser and addresseeboth male and female and as well as neutral. The conclusion of this study is that based on gender, personal pronoun in Japanese is different. The differences come between the greeters and the greeted or speaker and his/her partners on male and female basis</em></p>

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