A hallmark of word naming in deep orthographies, effects of spelling-sound regularity and consistency are considered to reach stability in adulthood. We investigated whether these effects were modulated by second language (L2) proficiency in native English and native Spanish speakers. Participants named English, Spanish and language-ambiguous words, but only the English words were used in the analysis. Participants in each group named English words with irregular-inconsistent mappings (e.g., PINT) more slowly and less accurately than words with regular-consistent mappings (e.g., GATE). Higher English proficiency reduced the magnitude of the regularity-consistency effect in both groups. Critically, native English speakers revealed a U-shaped relationship between L2-Spanish proficiency and the regularity-consistency effect on naming latencies. The current findings add to a growing body of literature that considers the boundaries within which L2 proficiency can influence native language (L1) performance. Results suggest that L2 proficiency may destabilize a fundamental aspect of L1 literacy, the computation of phonology from text, which is known as a highly stable psycholinguistic effect. This suggests that the language system is dynamic, remaining plastic in early adulthood.
{"title":"Proficiency in a second language influences processing of print-to-sound mappings","authors":"M. R. Botezatu, Maya Misra, J. Kroll","doi":"10.1075/lab.21063.bot","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/lab.21063.bot","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 A hallmark of word naming in deep orthographies, effects of spelling-sound regularity and consistency are\u0000 considered to reach stability in adulthood. We investigated whether these effects were modulated by second language (L2)\u0000 proficiency in native English and native Spanish speakers. Participants named English, Spanish and language-ambiguous words, but\u0000 only the English words were used in the analysis. Participants in each group named English words with irregular-inconsistent\u0000 mappings (e.g., PINT) more slowly and less accurately than words with regular-consistent mappings (e.g., GATE). Higher English\u0000 proficiency reduced the magnitude of the regularity-consistency effect in both groups. Critically, native English speakers\u0000 revealed a U-shaped relationship between L2-Spanish proficiency and the regularity-consistency effect on naming latencies. The\u0000 current findings add to a growing body of literature that considers the boundaries within which L2 proficiency can influence\u0000 native language (L1) performance. Results suggest that L2 proficiency may destabilize a fundamental aspect of L1 literacy, the\u0000 computation of phonology from text, which is known as a highly stable psycholinguistic effect. This suggests that the language\u0000 system is dynamic, remaining plastic in early adulthood.","PeriodicalId":48664,"journal":{"name":"Linguistic Approaches To Bilingualism","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2022-09-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44961164","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Amy Bustin, Antje Muntendam, Gretchen L. Sunderman
While the Minimalist Program argues that Spanish-English code-switches between pronominal subjects and finite verbs are ungrammatical (Van Gelderen & MacSwan, 2008), the MLF/4-M models (Myers-Scotton, 1993; Myers-Scotton & Jake, 2000) predict their grammaticality when overt pronouns are obligatory in both languages (e.g., contrastive focus). In this study, we test the contrary predictions of these models using a code-switching production task. Thirty-eight Spanish-English bilinguals (31 female; Age: 18–23 years) completed a concurrent memory-loaded repetition task where visual primes forced broad or contrastive focus interpretations. We also examined the effects of switch direction, code-switching frequency, and language dominance. The results showed that code-switches between a Spanish overt pronoun and an English inflected verb were more accurately produced in the contrastive focus than the broad focus condition, lending support for the MLF/4-M models. No effect of code-switching frequency was found. Finally, higher Spanish dominance resulted in more accurate production of these code-switches.
{"title":"Subject pronouns in Spanish-English code-switching","authors":"Amy Bustin, Antje Muntendam, Gretchen L. Sunderman","doi":"10.1075/lab.21058.bus","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/lab.21058.bus","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000While the Minimalist Program argues that Spanish-English code-switches between pronominal subjects and finite verbs are ungrammatical (Van Gelderen & MacSwan, 2008), the MLF/4-M models (Myers-Scotton, 1993; Myers-Scotton & Jake, 2000) predict their grammaticality when overt pronouns are obligatory in both languages (e.g., contrastive focus). In this study, we test the contrary predictions of these models using a code-switching production task. Thirty-eight Spanish-English bilinguals (31 female; Age: 18–23 years) completed a concurrent memory-loaded repetition task where visual primes forced broad or contrastive focus interpretations. We also examined the effects of switch direction, code-switching frequency, and language dominance. The results showed that code-switches between a Spanish overt pronoun and an English inflected verb were more accurately produced in the contrastive focus than the broad focus condition, lending support for the MLF/4-M models. No effect of code-switching frequency was found. Finally, higher Spanish dominance resulted in more accurate production of these code-switches.","PeriodicalId":48664,"journal":{"name":"Linguistic Approaches To Bilingualism","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2022-09-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44078018","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Storytelling in bilingual children","authors":"Natalia Gagarina, U. Bohnacker","doi":"10.1075/lab.00035.int","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/lab.00035.int","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":48664,"journal":{"name":"Linguistic Approaches To Bilingualism","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2022-08-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42525628","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
When second language learners are faced with acquiring a grammar that is a subset of their native language grammar, direct positive evidence is unavailable. We question whether learners can instead use indirect positive evidence: evidence drawn from errors in the learner’s L1 made by native speakers of the learner’s L2. We examine if naïve English-speaking learners of Mandarin can determine from plural omission errors in Mandarin speakers’ English productions that Mandarin marks plural in a subset of conditions under which English does. Participants were exposed to indirect positive evidence via an English-medium dialogue where a native Mandarin-speaking interlocutor produced all contextually plural nouns as singulars. Subsequently, participants learnt 12 Mandarin-like nouns in singular contexts, after which their word learning was tested using both singular and plural pictures as prompts. Forty percent of participants correctly deduced that strings to which they had assigned singular interpretations were also appropriate in plural contexts. Follow-up questions revealed that they noticed the errors in the dialogue and used these to inform their understanding of plural marking in Mandarin. This result suggests that indirect positive evidence may be an effective tool for real language learners to acquire a grammar that is a subset of their native grammar.
{"title":"Naïve English-speaking learners’ use of indirect positive evidence","authors":"Ying Li, H. Goad","doi":"10.1075/lab.21024.li","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/lab.21024.li","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 When second language learners are faced with acquiring a grammar that is a subset of their native language\u0000 grammar, direct positive evidence is unavailable. We question whether learners can instead use indirect positive evidence:\u0000 evidence drawn from errors in the learner’s L1 made by native speakers of the learner’s L2. We examine if naïve English-speaking\u0000 learners of Mandarin can determine from plural omission errors in Mandarin speakers’ English productions that Mandarin marks\u0000 plural in a subset of conditions under which English does. Participants were exposed to indirect positive evidence via an\u0000 English-medium dialogue where a native Mandarin-speaking interlocutor produced all contextually plural nouns as singulars.\u0000 Subsequently, participants learnt 12 Mandarin-like nouns in singular contexts, after which their word learning was tested using\u0000 both singular and plural pictures as prompts. Forty percent of participants correctly deduced that strings to which they had\u0000 assigned singular interpretations were also appropriate in plural contexts. Follow-up questions revealed that they noticed the\u0000 errors in the dialogue and used these to inform their understanding of plural marking in Mandarin. This result suggests that\u0000 indirect positive evidence may be an effective tool for real language learners to acquire a grammar that is a subset of their\u0000 native grammar.","PeriodicalId":48664,"journal":{"name":"Linguistic Approaches To Bilingualism","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2022-07-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42764380","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Although the question of whether and how bilingualism affects executive functions has been extensively debated, less attention has been paid to the cognitive abilities of speakers of different varieties of the same language, in linguistic situations such as bidialectalism and diglossia. Similarly to the bilingual situation, in bidialectalism and diglossia speakers have two language varieties that are active at the same time. However, these situations have been argued to potentially provide varied, and possibly fewer, opportunities for mixing or switching between the varieties, which may in turn lead to different cognitive outcomes than those reported in bilingualism. Here we review the available evidence on the effects of bidialectalism and diglossia on cognition, and evaluate it in relation to theories of the effects of bilingualism on cognition. We conclude that investigations of bilingualism, bidialectalism and diglossia must take into account the conversational context and, in particular, the opportunities for language switching that this affords.
{"title":"The effects of using two varieties of one language on cognition","authors":"Najla Alrwaita, C. Houston-Price, C. Pliatsikas","doi":"10.1075/lab.21044.alr","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/lab.21044.alr","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Although the question of whether and how bilingualism affects executive functions has been extensively debated,\u0000 less attention has been paid to the cognitive abilities of speakers of different varieties of the same language, in linguistic\u0000 situations such as bidialectalism and diglossia. Similarly to the bilingual situation, in bidialectalism and diglossia speakers\u0000 have two language varieties that are active at the same time. However, these situations have been argued to potentially provide\u0000 varied, and possibly fewer, opportunities for mixing or switching between the varieties, which may in turn lead to different\u0000 cognitive outcomes than those reported in bilingualism. Here we review the available evidence on the effects of bidialectalism and\u0000 diglossia on cognition, and evaluate it in relation to theories of the effects of bilingualism on cognition. We conclude that\u0000 investigations of bilingualism, bidialectalism and diglossia must take into account the conversational context and, in particular,\u0000 the opportunities for language switching that this affords.","PeriodicalId":48664,"journal":{"name":"Linguistic Approaches To Bilingualism","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2022-07-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43950354","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This study sets out to investigate second language (L2) speakers’ derivation of pragmatic inferences and tolerance of violations of informativeness in two types of inferences, i.e., ad hoc implicatures and contrastive inference. The results of a graded judgment task revealed that pragmatic tolerance is inference-specific: L2 speakers were overly tolerant of underinformative statements in ad hoc implicatures than in contrastive inference. In addition, L2 speakers were found to be more relaxed with overinformativeness than underinformativeness in contrastive inference. The fact that L2 speakers tend to be redundant (overinformative) than ambiguous (underinformative) is further discussed with the Pragmatic Principles Violation Hypothesis (Lozano, 2016). This study hopes to contribute to a more find-grained understanding of L2 speakers’ abilities of deriving pragmatic inferences.
{"title":"L2 tolerance of pragmatic violations of informativeness","authors":"Shuo Feng","doi":"10.1075/lab.21064.fen","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/lab.21064.fen","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 This study sets out to investigate second language (L2) speakers’ derivation of pragmatic inferences and tolerance\u0000 of violations of informativeness in two types of inferences, i.e., ad hoc implicatures and contrastive inference. The results of a\u0000 graded judgment task revealed that pragmatic tolerance is inference-specific: L2 speakers were overly tolerant of underinformative\u0000 statements in ad hoc implicatures than in contrastive inference. In addition, L2 speakers were found to be more relaxed with\u0000 overinformativeness than underinformativeness in contrastive inference. The fact that L2 speakers tend to be redundant\u0000 (overinformative) than ambiguous (underinformative) is further discussed with the Pragmatic Principles Violation Hypothesis (Lozano, 2016). This study hopes to contribute to a more find-grained understanding of L2\u0000 speakers’ abilities of deriving pragmatic inferences.","PeriodicalId":48664,"journal":{"name":"Linguistic Approaches To Bilingualism","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2022-06-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44454945","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
S. Fichman, J. Walters, Sharon Armon-Lotem, Carmit Altman
The study explores the effect of language dominance on microstructure, macrostructure, and Internal State Terms (ISTs) in narratives of Russian-Hebrew bilingual children and examines within-language and cross-language associations between narrative elements in two dominance groups. Narratives were collected from 38 Russian-Hebrew bilingual children aged 5;5–6;7 using the LITMUS-MAIN retelling procedures. The children were divided into L1-dominant (N = 19) and L2-dominant (N = 19) bilinguals based on performance on proficiency tests in L1/Russian and L2/Hebrew. The narratives were coded for microstructure measures: number of different words (NDW), total number of tokens (TNT), number of C-units (CUs), and Mean Length of C-unit (MLCU); and for macrostructure measures: Story Structure and Story Complexity. Ratios of IST tokens and types were calculated per C-unit. Children produced significantly higher NDW, TNT, and MLCU in L2/Hebrew than in L1/Russian. Scores on macrostructure measures and ratios of total ISTs were similar across languages. L1-dominant bilinguals demonstrated similarity between L1 and L2 for microstructure and IST types, whereas L2-dominant bilinguals produced more IST types in L2/Hebrew and had relatively few significant cross-language correlations. Findings for language dominance and cross-language differences are discussed for those narrative features which emerged as sensitive to these effects.
{"title":"The impact of language dominance on Russian-Hebrew bilingual children’s narrative production","authors":"S. Fichman, J. Walters, Sharon Armon-Lotem, Carmit Altman","doi":"10.1075/lab.20036.sve","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/lab.20036.sve","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000The study explores the effect of language dominance on microstructure, macrostructure, and Internal State Terms (ISTs) in narratives of Russian-Hebrew bilingual children and examines within-language and cross-language associations between narrative elements in two dominance groups. Narratives were collected from 38 Russian-Hebrew bilingual children aged 5;5–6;7 using the LITMUS-MAIN retelling procedures. The children were divided into L1-dominant (N = 19) and L2-dominant (N = 19) bilinguals based on performance on proficiency tests in L1/Russian and L2/Hebrew. The narratives were coded for microstructure measures: number of different words (NDW), total number of tokens (TNT), number of C-units (CUs), and Mean Length of C-unit (MLCU); and for macrostructure measures: Story Structure and Story Complexity. Ratios of IST tokens and types were calculated per C-unit. Children produced significantly higher NDW, TNT, and MLCU in L2/Hebrew than in L1/Russian. Scores on macrostructure measures and ratios of total ISTs were similar across languages. L1-dominant bilinguals demonstrated similarity between L1 and L2 for microstructure and IST types, whereas L2-dominant bilinguals produced more IST types in L2/Hebrew and had relatively few significant cross-language correlations. Findings for language dominance and cross-language differences are discussed for those narrative features which emerged as sensitive to these effects.","PeriodicalId":48664,"journal":{"name":"Linguistic Approaches To Bilingualism","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2022-05-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45390340","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Naturalistic production research has reported that, unlike monolingual peers, children acquiring Spanish as a heritage language omit Differential Object Marking (DOM) with animate objects since the earliest stages of language development. However, the previous studies investigating longitudinal monolingual and bilingual corpora cannot be compared to each other given their different treatment of language-internal variation in DOM use along the animacy scale. Whereas monolingual results excluded contexts predicted to be variable, bilingual results combined them with categorical contexts increasing the rate of “errors” in the bilingual group. This study reexamines naturalistic production by monolingual and early bilingual children as well as by their caregivers using a common methodology that distinguishes categorical from variable DOM contexts. The results indicate that longitudinal corpora covering child heritage speakers’ development up to age three do not show evidence of greater omission of DOM compared to monolingual children once variability along the animacy scale is accounted for. By contrast, young monolingual and bilingual children’s use of Spanish DOM seems target-like based on their input.
{"title":"Variation versus deviation","authors":"Pablo E. Requena","doi":"10.1075/lab.21001.req","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/lab.21001.req","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Naturalistic production research has reported that, unlike monolingual peers, children acquiring Spanish as a\u0000 heritage language omit Differential Object Marking (DOM) with animate objects since the earliest stages of language development.\u0000 However, the previous studies investigating longitudinal monolingual and bilingual corpora cannot be compared to each other given\u0000 their different treatment of language-internal variation in DOM use along the animacy scale. Whereas monolingual results excluded\u0000 contexts predicted to be variable, bilingual results combined them with categorical contexts increasing the rate of “errors” in\u0000 the bilingual group. This study reexamines naturalistic production by monolingual and early bilingual children as well as by their\u0000 caregivers using a common methodology that distinguishes categorical from variable DOM contexts. The results indicate that\u0000 longitudinal corpora covering child heritage speakers’ development up to age three do not show evidence of greater omission of DOM\u0000 compared to monolingual children once variability along the animacy scale is accounted for. By contrast, young monolingual and\u0000 bilingual children’s use of Spanish DOM seems target-like based on their input.","PeriodicalId":48664,"journal":{"name":"Linguistic Approaches To Bilingualism","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2022-05-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49306718","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
How does complex syntax develop in heritage language children? This study investigates child Turkish heritage speakers’ comprehension and production of relative clauses (RCs) in Turkish and in English. RCs vary on their syntactic functions (subject, object) and show asymmetric patterns of acquisition and processing, which have been explained by linear distance, structural distance and input factors. Thirty-two child Turkish HS (ages 6–15) and 48 monolingual Turkish children (ages 3–15) completed a picture-sentence matching (comprehension) task and a sentence repetition (production) task in Turkish. The Turkish HS were tested on the RC comprehension and production tasks in English as well. The results indicated that the child HS showed (i) better performance in English than in Turkish with increasing age, (ii) better comprehension than production of Turkish RCs, (iii) replacement of complex RCs with simple juxtaposition in Turkish, and (iv) a subject advantage in comprehension. We take these findings to suggest that Turkish RCs do not fully develop in child HS of Turkish in the U.S., although the strength of this explanation must be corroborated by a study of child and adult HS. Overall, the findings are most compatible with the structural distance account and other factors that may affect production.
{"title":"Relative clauses in child heritage speakers of Turkish in the United States","authors":"Aylin Coşkun Kunduz, S. Montrul","doi":"10.1075/lab.21027.cos","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/lab.21027.cos","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 How does complex syntax develop in heritage language children? This study investigates child Turkish heritage\u0000 speakers’ comprehension and production of relative clauses (RCs) in Turkish and in English. RCs vary on their syntactic functions\u0000 (subject, object) and show asymmetric patterns of acquisition and processing, which have been explained by linear distance,\u0000 structural distance and input factors. Thirty-two child Turkish HS (ages 6–15) and 48 monolingual Turkish children (ages 3–15)\u0000 completed a picture-sentence matching (comprehension) task and a sentence repetition (production) task in Turkish. The Turkish HS\u0000 were tested on the RC comprehension and production tasks in English as well. The results indicated that the child HS showed (i) better\u0000 performance in English than in Turkish with increasing age, (ii) better comprehension than production of Turkish RCs, (iii)\u0000 replacement of complex RCs with simple juxtaposition in Turkish, and (iv) a subject advantage in comprehension. We take these findings\u0000 to suggest that Turkish RCs do not fully develop in child HS of Turkish in the U.S., although the strength of this explanation\u0000 must be corroborated by a study of child and adult HS. Overall, the findings are most compatible with the structural distance\u0000 account and other factors that may affect production.","PeriodicalId":48664,"journal":{"name":"Linguistic Approaches To Bilingualism","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2022-03-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47137116","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This paper investigates how late L2 learners resolve filler-gap dependencies (FGD) in real-time and how proficiency and working memory (WM) modulate their brain responses in an event-related potential (ERP) experiment. A group of intermediate to highly proficient Mandarin Chinese learners of English listened to sentences such as “The zebra that the hippo kissed *the camel on the nose ran far away,” in which the extra noun phrase “the camel” created a ‘filled-gap’ effect. The results show that although L2 behavioral responses are comparable to native speakers and are positively correlated with proficiency and WM span, the brain responses to the filled gap are qualitatively different. Importantly, L2 processing patterns did not become more nativelike with higher proficiency levels or greater WM capacity. Specifically, while the native speakers exhibited a P600 typically observed for syntactic violations and repair, the L2 group produced a prefrontal-central positivity. Similar ERPs have previously been reported to reflect domain-general attentional and non-structural-based processes, suggesting that the L2 group has a reduced sensitivity to structural requirements for gap positing in the online resolution of FGDs. Our findings are discussed in light of various proposals accounting for L1-L2 processing differences, including the Shallow Structure Hypothesis.
{"title":"L2 processing of filled gaps","authors":"Z. Dong, Chao Han, A. Hestvik, G. Hermon","doi":"10.1075/lab.20058.don","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/lab.20058.don","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000This paper investigates how late L2 learners resolve filler-gap dependencies (FGD) in real-time and how proficiency and working memory (WM) modulate their brain responses in an event-related potential (ERP) experiment. A group of intermediate to highly proficient Mandarin Chinese learners of English listened to sentences such as “The zebra that the hippo kissed *the camel on the nose ran far away,” in which the extra noun phrase “the camel” created a ‘filled-gap’ effect. The results show that although L2 behavioral responses are comparable to native speakers and are positively correlated with proficiency and WM span, the brain responses to the filled gap are qualitatively different. Importantly, L2 processing patterns did not become more nativelike with higher proficiency levels or greater WM capacity. Specifically, while the native speakers exhibited a P600 typically observed for syntactic violations and repair, the L2 group produced a prefrontal-central positivity. Similar ERPs have previously been reported to reflect domain-general attentional and non-structural-based processes, suggesting that the L2 group has a reduced sensitivity to structural requirements for gap positing in the online resolution of FGDs. Our findings are discussed in light of various proposals accounting for L1-L2 processing differences, including the Shallow Structure Hypothesis.","PeriodicalId":48664,"journal":{"name":"Linguistic Approaches To Bilingualism","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2022-03-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45496780","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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