Grammatical Gender Processing in French as a First and a Second Language

The present thesis investigates grammatical gender processing in French as a first and second language. It focuses mainly on whether non-native speakers can achieve native-like representation and processing of gender, and whether the native language (L1) influences the acquisition of the second language (L2). Theoretical linguistic models have made two contrasting assumptions concerning the ability of late bilinguals to acquire grammatical gender in their L2. While some models propose that gr..

Moral judgements in a foreign language: Expressing emotions and justifying decisions

Aim: Previous evidence suggests that language influences bilinguals’ moral judgements. One explanation for this phenomenon is that using a second language (L2) attenuates emotional arousal, thus leading to more rational decisions. This study examined whether bilinguals’ moral arguments and emotional vocabulary are influenced by the language – first language (L1) or L2 – in which a moral dilemma is presented. / Methodology and data analysis: A mixed-methods design was employed. We analysed the emotional vocabulary used by 204 Spanish-English bilinguals when making moral judgements and expressing their emotions in response to a highly emotional moral dilemma, as well as the type of arguments they employed to justify their moral decisions in L1 and L2. / Findings: The participants were more emotional in their L1, as reflected in the arguments they used to justify their decisions. This finding was supported by a significantly lower number of emotional words in their L2. Moreover, the effect of language on moral judgements was mediated by the participants’ emotions. / Originality: This study is the first to qualitatively examine the types of arguments underlying bilinguals’ moral decision-making in their L1 and in their L2. Moreover, the analysis of verbal emotional expressions in relation to moral decisions adds to the findings of previous research that was based almost exclusively on forced-choice measures and further supports the hypothesis that the reduction of emotional arousal in an L2 modulates individuals’ moral judgements. / Implications: The results have implications for L2 teaching and pedagogy. The L2 curriculum should include instruction in emotional vocabulary and should engage learners in discussions that require argumentation and critical thinking about strong emotional content. This may assist bilinguals not only to express their internal affective states more efficiently, but also to experience the intensity of L2 emotionally charged words in a similar way as they do in their L1

Le traitement du genre grammatical en français Langue première et seconde

The present thesis investigates grammatical gender processing in French as a first and second language. It focuses mainly on whether non-native speakers can achieve native-like representation and processing of gender, and whether the native language (L1) influences the acquisition of the second language (L2). Theoretical linguistic models have made two contrasting assumptions concerning the ability of late bilinguals to acquire grammatical gender in their L2. While some models propose that grammatical features, such as gender, are no longer available for L2 acquisition if they are not present in L1 (Hawkins & Chan, 1997), others assume that these features are still available via the universal grammar if required in the L2 (Schwartz & Sprouse, 1996; White, 1989, 2003). These assumptions, however, are supported only by off-line studies and do not provide a comprehensive account for gender representation and processing. The present thesis uses online techniques to address these questions both in language comprehension and language production. The first chapters are devoted to comprehension processes and examined French native speakers, English-French and German-French bilinguals’ performance during the processing of correct and syntactically anomalous sentences, using ERPs and eye-movements to record behaviour. We concluded that, like native speakers, English-French bilinguals are sensitive to gender agreement violations. Thus, we argue that late bilinguals are able to acquire the gender system of their L2 even if this grammatical feature is not present in their L1. On the other hand, the performance of the German speakers we tested suggests that the presence of a competing gender system in the native language may hamper gender acquisition in L2. The influence of the native language may vary, however, according to both proficiency and how gender systems map across languages, as suggest the results we obtained with Spanish bilinguals tested in language production. In a second series of experiments, we examined determiner selection in French to further investigate gender representation and processing, but in language production. Using a picture-word interference paradigm, we compared the production of simple and complex noun phrases (NP) in French native speakers, English-French and Spanish-French bilinguals. From our results, we argue that gender representation is similar in L1 and L2, but that gender processing is less incremental in non-native speakers in that they do not compute agreement between the noun and other elements of the NP as automatically as native speakers do. The absence of interference between the two gender systems of the Spanish-French bilinguals we tested suggests that the gender systems of the two languages may be autonomous in highly proficient bilinguals. Our results suggest that highly proficient bilinguals can reach native-like representation and processing of gender in their L2 and that such is not constrained by either the age of onset of learning or the grammar of the learners L

Short exposure to a foreign accent impacts subsequent cognitive processes

Although speaking a foreign language is undoubtedly an asset, foreign-accented speakers are usually perceived negatively. It is unknown, however, to what extent this bias impacts cognitive processes. Here, we used ERPs and pupillometry to investigate whether the negative bias generated by a short exposure to a foreign accent influences the overall perception of a speaker, even when the person is not speaking. We compared responses to written sentence comprehension, memory and visual perception, associated with native speakers (high and low social status) and a foreign-accented speaker (high social status). The foreign-accented speaker consistently fell in-between the high-status native speaker and the low-status native speaker. This is the first physiological demonstration that short exposure to a foreign accent impacts subsequent cognitive processes, and that foreign-accented speakers seem to be considered less reliable than native speakers, even with equally high social status. Awareness of this bias is essential to avoid discriminations in our multilingual society

Discourse comprehension in L2: Making sense of what is not explicitly said

Using ERPs, we tested whether L2 speakers can integrate multiple sources of information (e.g., semantic, pragmatic information) during discourse comprehension. We presented native speakers and L2 speakers with three-sentence scenarios in which the final sentence was highly causally related, intermediately related, or causally unrelated to its context; its interpretation therefore required simple or complex inferences. Native speakers revealed a gradual N400-like effect, larger in the causally unrelated condition than in the highly related condition, and falling in-between in the intermediately related condition, replicating previous results. In the crucial intermediately related condition, L2 speakers behaved like native speakers, however, showing extra processing in a later time-window. Overall, the results show that, when reading, L2 speakers are able to process information from the local context and prior information (e.g., world knowledge) to build global coherence, suggesting that they process different sources of information to make inferences online during discourse comprehension, like native speakers.This work was supported by grants from the Spanish Government (PSI2011-23033, CONSOLIDER-INGENIO2010 CSD2007-00048, ECO2011-25295, and ECO2010-09555-E), from the Catalan Government (SGR 2009-1521) and from the Grup de Recerca en Neurociència Cognitiva (GRNC) - 2014SGR1210. It has also received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement no. 613465

Catching Element Formation In The Act

Gamma-ray astronomy explores the most energetic photons in nature to address some of the most pressing puzzles in contemporary astrophysics. It encompasses a wide range of objects and phenomena: stars, supernovae, novae, neutron stars, stellar-mass black holes, nucleosynthesis, the interstellar medium, cosmic rays and relativistic-particle acceleration, and the evolution of galaxies. MeV gamma-rays provide a unique probe of nuclear processes in astronomy, directly measuring radioactive decay, nuclear de-excitation, and positron annihilation. The substantial information carried by gamma-ray photons allows us to see deeper into these objects, the bulk of the power is often emitted at gamma-ray energies, and radioactivity provides a natural physical clock that adds unique information. New science will be driven by time-domain population studies at gamma-ray energies. This science is enabled by next-generation gamma-ray instruments with one to two orders of magnitude better sensitivity, larger sky coverage, and faster cadence than all previous gamma-ray instruments. This transformative capability permits: (a) the accurate identification of the gamma-ray emitting objects and correlations with observations taken at other wavelengths and with other messengers; (b) construction of new gamma-ray maps of the Milky Way and other nearby galaxies where extended regions are distinguished from point sources; and (c) considerable serendipitous science of scarce events -- nearby neutron star mergers, for example. Advances in technology push the performance of new gamma-ray instruments to address a wide set of astrophysical questions.Comment: 14 pages including 3 figure

Catching Element Formation In The Act

Gamma-ray astronomy explores the most energetic photons in nature to address some of the most pressing puzzles in contemporary astrophysics. It encompasses a wide range of objects and phenomena: stars, supernovae, novae, neutron stars, stellar-mass black holes, nucleosynthesis, the interstellar medium, cosmic rays and relativistic-particle acceleration, and the evolution of galaxies. MeV gamma-rays provide a unique probe of nuclear processes in astronomy, directly measuring radioactive decay, nuclear de-excitation, and positron annihilation. The substantial information carried by gamma-ray photons allows us to see deeper into these objects, the bulk of the power is often emitted at gamma-ray energies, and radioactivity provides a natural physical clock that adds unique information. New science will be driven by time-domain population studies at gamma-ray energies. This science is enabled by next-generation gamma-ray instruments with one to two orders of magnitude better sensitivity, larger sky coverage, and faster cadence than all previous gamma-ray instruments. This transformative capability permits: (a) the accurate identification of the gamma-ray emitting objects and correlations with observations taken at other wavelengths and with other messengers; (b) construction of new gamma-ray maps of the Milky Way and other nearby galaxies where extended regions are distinguished from point sources; and (c) considerable serendipitous science of scarce events -- nearby neutron star mergers, for example. Advances in technology push the performance of new gamma-ray instruments to address a wide set of astrophysical questions

Catching element formation in the act

Gamma-ray astronomy explores the most energetic photons in nature to address some of the most pressing puzzles in contemporary astrophysics. It encompasses a wide range of objects and phenomena: stars, supernovae, novae, neutron stars, stellar-mass black holes, nucleosynthesis, the interstellar medium, cosmic rays and relativistic-particle acceleration, and the evolution of galaxies. MeV gamma-rays provide a unique probe of nuclear processes in astronomy, directly measuring radioactive decay, nuclear de-excitation, and positron annihilation. The substantial information carried by gamma-ray photons allows us to see deeper into these objects, the bulk of the power is often emitted at gamma-ray energies, and radioactivity provides a natural physical clock that adds unique information. New science will be driven by time-domain population studies at gamma-ray energies. This science is enabled by next-generation gamma-ray instruments with one to two orders of magnitude better sensitivity, larger sky coverage, and faster cadence than all previous gamma-ray instruments. This transformative capability permits: (a) the accurate identification of the gamma-ray emitting objects and correlations with observations taken at other wavelengths and with other messengers; (b) construction of new gamma-ray maps of the Milky Way and other nearby galaxies where extended regions are distinguished from point sources; and (c) considerable serendipitous science of scarce events -- nearby neutron star mergers, for example. Advances in technology push the performance of new gamma-ray instruments to address a wide set of astrophysical questions

Are foreign-accented speakers that ‘incredible’? The impact of the speaker's indexical properties on sentence processing

This study investigated the impact of the speaker's identity generated by the voice on sentence processing. We examined the relation between ERP components associated with the processing of the voice (N100 and P200) from voice onset and those associated with sentence processing (N400 and late positivity) from critical word onset. We presented Dutch native speakers with sentences containing true (and known) information, unknown (but true) information or information violating world knowledge and had them perform a truth evaluation task. Sentences were spoken either in a native or a foreign accent. Truth evaluation judgments were not different for statements spoken by the native-accented and the foreign-accented speakers. Reduced N100 and P200 were observed in response to the foreign speaker's voice compared to the native speaker's. While statements containing unknown information or world knowledge violations generated a larger N400 than true statements in the native condition, they were not significantly different in the foreign condition, suggesting shallower processing of foreign-accented speech. The N100 was a significant predictor for the N400 in that the reduced N100 observed for the foreign speaker compared to the native speaker was related to a smaller N400 effect. These finding suggest that the impression of the speaker that listeners rapidly form from the voice affects semantic processing, which confirms that speaker's identity and language comprehension cannot be dissociated