Online Processing of Wh-Dependencies in English by Native Speakers of Spanish

This study investigated if, Spanish-speaking learners of English are capable of processing wh-dependencies incrementally and observing the grammatical constraints that regulate wh-extraction in English, similar to native speakers. The study included two self-paced reading experiments run in a word-by-word non-cumulative moving window paradigm (Just et al., 1982). Experiment 1 tested if second language (L2) learners process wh-dependencies incrementally by looking at wh-extraction from positions licensed by the grammar. Experiment 2 focused on testing if learners respect syntactic constraints that forbid wh-extraction from positions not licensed by the grammar, to be specific, extraction out of relative clause islands. The data collected in both experiments were subject to a residual reading times analysis. The results of the two experiments suggest that Spanish-speaking learners of English process wh-dependencies incrementally and that they abide by grammatical constraints in the course of online processing which prevent them from extracting a wh-element outside of a relative clause island. At the theoretical level, our findings suggest that the claim of the Shallow Structures Hypothesis (Clahsen & Felser, 2006 a,b) that adult second language learners are `shallow processors' who do not have access to abstract syntax during parsing is too strong

An fMRI study on the processing of long-distance wh-movement in a second language

Recent behavioural evidence from second language (L2) learners has suggested native-like processing of syntactic structures, such as long-distance wh-dependencies in L2. The underlying processes are still largely debated, while the available neuroimaging evidence has been restricted to native (L1) processing. Here we test highly proficient L2-learners of English in an fMRI experiment incorporating a sentence reading task with long-distance wh-dependencies, including abstract syntactic categories (empty traces of wh-movement). Our results suggest that long-distance wh-dependencies impose increased working memory (WM) demands, compared to control sentences of equal length, demonstrated as increased activation of the superior and middle temporal gyri bilaterally. Additionally, our results suggest abstract syntactic processing by the most immersed L2 learners, manifested as comparable left temporal activity for sentences with wh-traces and sentences with no wh-movement. These findings are discussed against current theoretical proposals about L2 syntactic processing

Facilitating the task for second language processing research: A comparison of two testing paradigms

This study considers the effects of experimental task demands in research on second language sentence processing. Advanced learners and native speakers of French were presented with the same experimental sentences in two different tasks designed to probe for evidence of trace reactivation during processing: cross-modal priming (Nicol & Swinney, 1989) and probe classification during reading (Dekydtspotter, Miller, Schaefer, Chang, & Kim, 2010). Although the second language learners produced nontargetlike results on the cross-modal priming task, the probe classification during reading task revealed results suggestive of trace reactivation, which point to detailed structural representations during online sentence processing. The implications for current theories of second language sentence processing and for future research in this domain are discussed

Preverbal Prediction in the Comprehension of Filler-gap Dependencies by Japanese Learners of English

This study investigates whether Japanese learners of English form filler-gap dependencies in advance of a verb, predicting an upcoming verb’s information in English, using a self-paced reading experiment. The results demonstrate that Japanese learners of English, at least those who have experienced sufficient exposure to English in English-speaking countries, postulate a gap at the complement position of a verb before the actual verb is encountered and predict a verb that takes a complement while reading English relative clauses. This finding provides evidence that Japanese learners’ comprehension of filler-gap dependencies in English is predictive and is driven by the thematic motivation for early confirmation of the thematic role of the filler. This study also demonstrates that the predictive process in non-native language comprehension of filler-gap dependencies depends on the nature of exposure to a target language.言語

Syntactic Competence and Processing: Constraints on Long-distance A-bar Dependencies in Bilinguals.

This dissertation investigates the syntactic competence and processing of A-bar dependencies by Sinhala native speakers in their L2 English. The specific focus is on wh-dependencies (wh-questions and relative clauses) and topicalization, given that these phenomena are syntactically distinct across the two languages. Presenting novel results from a series of psycholinguistic experiments, the study reevaluates the predictive and explanatory power of two recent hypotheses in generative SLA —the Feature Interpretability Hypothesis (FIH) and the Shallow Structure Hypothesis (SSH)— which concern the kind of ultimate attainment possible in post-childhood L2 acquisition, regarding syntactic competence and real-time processing. The first part of the dissertation is a re-evaluation of the FIH, in particular the claim that post-childhood L2 learners fail to develop native-like underlying mental representations for the target language syntax because their access to UG is restricted in the domain of uninterpretable syntactic features. Two experiments (Grammaticality Judgment and Truth-value Judgment tasks) were conducted with thirty-eight Sinhala L1/English L2 speakers and a control group of thirty-one English monolinguals. Our results are consistent with the hypothesis that highly proficient L2 speakers are capable of acquiring native-like syntactic competence even in those domains where L2 acquisition involves the mastery of a new uninterpretable feature. The fact that these L2ers have been able to overcome a poverty of the stimulus problem, imposed by both their L1 syntax and L2 input, implies that full access to UG is available in post-childhood L2 acquisition, against the predictions of the FIH. The second part of the dissertation re-evaluates a tenet of the Shallow Structure Hypothesis that in real-time processing of the target language, L2 speakers fail to build full-fledged syntactic representations, but instead over-rely on non-syntactic information (lexical semantics and contextual cues), unlike native speakers of a target language. Our results from two Self-paced Reading experiments with thirty-six bilinguals and thirty-nine monolinguals support the conclusion that advanced L2 learners are capable of building complex native-like syntactic representations during their real-time comprehension of the target language. Thus, the study concludes that neither the FIH nor the SSH can be maintained in the experimental L2 acquisition domain investigated in this dissertation.PhDLinguisticsUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/116655/1/sujeewa_1.pd

Processing of wh-movement by second language learners

This study examined whether, similar to native speakers of English, native Korean learners of English are able to process sentences with wh-dependencies incrementally, using grammatical constraints on wh-islands. Participants completed two self-paced reading experiments using a moving window self-paced reading paradigm (Just, Carpenter & Wooley, 1982). Experiment 1 examined whether the parser processes sentences incrementally and Experiment 2 examined whether the parser accurately avoids positing gaps at illicit positions within relative clause islands despite the presence of a gap licensing verb. The results showed that Korean learners of English show evidence of incremental parsing in the form of filled gap effects, similar to the patterns shown by native speakers (Stowe 1986, Canales 2012). Also similar to native speakers, Korean learners of English avoid positing gaps in positions prohibited by syntactic islands. Thus, our findings suggest that L2 learners are able to use the same syntactic information in their on-line processing as is used by native speakers, contra the claims of the Shallow Structure Hypothesis (Clahsen & Felser, 2006 a,b). Furthermore, our study provides evidence that L2 learners have access to such abstract syntactic information even when their native language does not instantiate wh-movement or island constraints as in English

Processing wh-dependencies in a second language: A cross-modal priming study

This study investigates the real-time processing of wh-dependencies by advanced Greek-speaking learners of English using a cross-modal picture priming task. Participants were asked to respond to different types of picture target presented either at structurally defined gap positions, or at pre-gap control positions, while listening to sentences containing indirect-object relative clauses. Our results indicate that the learners processed the experimental sentences differently from both adult native speakers of English and monolingual English-speaking children. Contrary to what has been found for native speakers, the learners' response pattern was not influenced by individual working memory differences. Adult second language learners differed from native speakers with a relatively high reading or listening span in that they did not show any evidence of structurally based antecedent reactivation at the point of the indirect object gap. They also differed from low-span native speakers, however, in that they showed evidence of maintained antecedent activation during the processing of the experimental sentences. Whereas the localized priming effect observed in the high-span controls is indicative of trace-based antecedent reactivation in native sentence processing, the results from the Greek-speaking learners support the hypothesis that the mental representations built during non-native language processing lack abstract linguistic structure such as movement traces

Reanalysis processes in native and non-native language comprehension

Temporarily ambiguous sentences (e.g., When Mary dressed the baby laughed happily.) are known to cause comprehension difficulties, as initially assigned interpretations (Mary dressed the baby) need to be revised but are not always fully discarded from memory. The similarities and differences between native (L1) and non-native (L2) sentence processing have been widely debated, and many studies have examined L1 and L2 ambiguity resolution. How L2 speakers deal with misinterpretation is however less known. Further, while studies have looked at ambiguous sentences, how reanalysis occurs in both L1 and L2 speakers in sentences containing filler-dependencies (e.g., It was the book which the boy read the article about.) is not known. This thesis reports three studies investigating these issues in L1 and L2 processing, using offline, eyetracking while reading and structural priming tasks. The results showed that L2 participants performed syntactic reanalysis like L1 participants during the processing of garden-path sentences, with both groups showing evidence of lingering misinterpretation. Lingering misinterpretation was also found in filler-gap sentences, but there were some L1/L2 differences in certain fillergap constructions such that reanalysis may be less complete for L2 than L1 speakers during online reading, depending on the nature of disambiguating cues and/or reanalysis difficulty. In general, the lingering misinterpretation observed in temporarily ambiguous and filler-gap sentences in both L1and L2 readers results at least partly from failures to discard initially assigned misinterpretations