Rethinking First Language–Second Language Similarities and Differences in English Proficiency: Insights From the ENglish Reading Online (ENRO) Project

This article presents the ENglish Reading Online (ENRO) project that offers data on English reading and listening comprehension from 7,338 university-level advanced learners and native speakers of English representing 19 countries. The database also includes estimates of reading rate and seven component skills of English, including vocabulary, spelling, and grammar, as well as rich demographic and language background data. We first demonstrate high reliability for ENRO tests and their convergent validity with existing meta-analyses.We then provide a bird’s-eye view of first (L1) and second (L2) language comparisons and examine the relative role of various predictors of reading and listening comprehension and reading speed. Across analyses, we found substantially more overlap than differences between L1 and L2 speakers, suggesting that English reading proficiency is best considered across a continuum of skill, ability, and experiences spanning L1 and L2 speakers alike. We end by providing pointers for how researchers can mine ENRO data for future studies.Este artículo se encuentra publicado en Language Learning, 73(1)

Text reading in English as a second language: Evidence from the Multilingual Eye-Movements Corpus

Research into second language (L2) reading is an exponentially growing field. Yet, it still has a relatively short supply of comparable, ecologically valid data from readers representing a variety of first languages (L1). This article addresses this need by presenting a new data resource called MECO L2 (Multilingual Eye Movements Corpus), a rich behavioral eye-tracking record of text reading in English as an L2 among 543 university student speakers of 12 different L1s.MECO L2 includes a test battery of component skills of reading and allows for a comparison of the participants’ reading performance in their L1 and L2. This data resource enables innovative large-scale cross-sample analyses of predictors of L2 reading fluency and comprehension. We first introduce the design and structure of the MECO L2 resource, along with reliability estimates and basic descriptive analyses. Then, we illustrate the utility of MECO L2 by quantifying contributions of four sources to variability in L2 reading proficiency proposed in prior literature: reading fluency and comprehension in L1, proficiency in L2 component skills of reading, extralinguistic factors, and the L1 of the readers. Major findings included (a) a fundamental contrast between the determinants of L2 reading fluency versus comprehension accuracy, and (b) high within-participant consistency in the real-time strategy of reading in L1 and L2.We conclude by reviewing the implications of these findings to theories of L2 acquisition and outline further directions in which the new data resourcemay support L2 reading research.Este artículo se encuentra publicado en Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 45(1), 3-37

Semantic errors in children’s narratives: The problem of reference

El objetivo de este trabajo es desarrollar un conjunto de categorías que nos permita describir los errores semánticos de la producción oral de narrativas en niños de 5 años. El enfoque teórico desde el cual se analizan los casos es la lingüística cognitiva funcional ya que se estudia la relación lenguaje – cognición en función de una actividad comunicativa, la lengua en un uso particular: narrar un estímulo visual dinámico. Este estudio se encuadra dentro del programa de investigación denominado ‘Gramática de interfaces’. El análisis es cualitativo y de alcance descriptivo; se les presentó a los niños dos estímulos visuales de un minuto y medio en dos ocasiones y luego se los invitó a que contaran oralmente lo que vieron en cada video. Las narrativas fueron grabadas, luego se transcribieron. En este trabajo en particular identificamos trece errores semánticos, los analizamos y los categorizamos. En un primer paso, contrastamos el significado del verbo utilizado por el niño con el segmento del estímulo potencialmente referido por esa expresión. Identificamos la información en el estímulo que no era referida por la expresión lingüística. Justificamos nuestra interpretación de la expresión como referencia fallida en la relevancia de la información omitida. El resultado son seis categorías que nos permiten empezar a clasificar problemas de la referencia en el discurso infantil.The aim of this paper is to develop a set of categories able to describe semantic slips of the tongue in oral production of narratives by five years old children. The analysis is framed within Cognitive Linguistics since it studies the relation between language and cognition in the context of a communicative situation, language in a particular context of use: the narration of a dynamic visual stimuli. In particular, this study is part of a research program called 'Interface Grammar'. We undertook a qualitative and descriptive analysis. Children were presented twice with two visual stimuli and asked to narrate them. The narratives were transcribed and analyzed. We identified thirteen semantic slips, which were described and classified. First, we contrasted the meaning of the verb used by the child with the segment of the stimuli intended to be referred to by the expression. We identified the information in the stimuli that was not covered by the verb meaning. Then, we justify our interpretation of the use of that expression as a 'failed reference' by the relevance of the omitted information. The result consists of six categories that allow us to start to classify reference problems in children's discourse.Fil: Seno, Vanesa Nancy. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza. Instituto de Ciencias Humanas, Sociales y Ambientales; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo; ArgentinaFil: Gattei, Carolina Andrea. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Física de Buenos Aires. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Física de Buenos Aires; Argentina. Universidad Torcuato Di Tella; ArgentinaFil: Paris, Luis Alberto. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza. Instituto de Ciencias Humanas, Sociales y Ambientales; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo; Argentin

When High-Capacity Readers Slow Down and Low-Capacity Readers Speed Up: Working Memory and Locality Effects

We examined the effects of argument-head distance in SVO and SOV languages (Spanish and German), while taking into account readers´ working memory capacity and controlling for expectation (Levy, 2008) and other factors. We predicted only locality effects, that is, a slowdown produced by increased dependency distance (Gibson, 2000; Lewis and Vasishth, 2005). Furthermore, we expected stronger locality effects for readers with low working memory capacity. Contrary to our predictions, low-capacity readers showed faster reading with increased distance, while high-capacity readers showed locality effects. We suggest that while the locality effects are compatible with memory-based explanations, the speedup of low-capacity readers can be explained by an increased probability of retrieval failure. We present a computational model based on ACT-R built under the previous assumptions, which is able to give a qualitative account for the present data and can be tested in future research. Our results suggest that in some cases, interpreting longer RTs as indexing increased processing difficulty and shorter RTs as facilitation may be too simplistic: The same increase in processing difficulty may lead to slowdowns in high-capacity readers and speedups in low-capacity ones. Ignoring individual level capacity differences when investigating locality effects may lead to misleading conclusions.Fil: Nicenboim, Bruno. Universitat Potsdam; AlemaniaFil: Logacev, Pavel. Universitat Potsdam; AlemaniaFil: Gattei, Carolina Andrea. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza. Instituto de Ciencias Humanas, Sociales y Ambientales; ArgentinaFil: Vasishth, Shravan. Universitat Potsdam; Alemani

O processamento de sentenças e a interface sintaxe-semântica: Contraste entre dois modelos psicolinguísticos

El presente trabajo describe los modelos psicolingüísticos relevantes para explicar cómo se lleva a cabo el enlace entre sintaxis y semántica durante el procesamiento de oraciones en tiempo real. La realización de dicho enlace permite a los hablantes interpretar ‘quién hace qué a quién’ de manera correcta. Se presentan dos modelos que tienen en cuenta las diferencias específicas de cada lengua, a la vez que proponen un mecanismo universal para la interpretación de cláusulas simples: el Extended Argument Dependency Model y el Linking and Checking Model. Estos modelos pretenden explicar cómo se llevarían a cabo estos procesos durante la comprensión incremental desde dos marcos teóricos de la lingüística formal: la Gramática del Rol y la Referencia y el Generativismo. Luego se expone cómo resolverían dichos modelos la interpretación de un evento cuyo enlace entre sintaxis y semántica es no canónico y se discute qué modelo tiene mayor poder explicativo. The current work describes the relevant psycholinguistic models that explain how the link between syntax and semantics is carried out during the processing of sentences in real time. The implementation of this link allows speakers to interpret ‘who does what to whom’ correctly. Two models are presented which take into account the specific differences of each language and at the same time they propose a universal mechanism for the interpretation of simple clauses: the Extended Argument Dependency Model and the Linking and Checking Model. These models try to explain how these processes would be carried out during the incremental comprehension from two theoretical frameworks of formal linguistics: the Role and Reference Grammar and Generativism. Then it is presented how these models would resolve the interpretation of an event whose link between syntax and semantics is non-canonical and it is discussed which model has a greater explanatory power. Este trabalho descreve os modelos psicolinguísticos relevantes para explicar como é levado a cabo o enlace entre sintaxe e semântica durante o processamento de sentenças em tempo real. A realização desse enlace permite aos falantes interpretarem ‘quem faz o quê a quem’ corretamente. São apresentados dois modelos, que levam em consideração as diferenças específicas de cada língua, e ao mesmo tempo propõem um mecanismo universal para a interpretação de cláusulas simples: o Extended Argument Dependency Model e o Linking and Checking Model. Estes modelos procuram explicar como esses processos poderiam ser levados a cabo durante a compreensão incremental a partir de dois marcos teóricos da linguística formal: a Gramática de Papel e Referência e o Gerativismo. Depois, se expõe como esses modelos resolveriam a interpretação de um evento cujo enlace entre sintaxe e semântica é não canônico e se discute o que modelo tem o maior poder explicativo.

The role of semantic argument structure in spanish verb-noun compound words: experimental evidence

Los compuestos verbo-nombre del español presentan la particularidad de carecer de un núcleo que aporte los rasgos morfológicos, de categoría o semántico-referenciales. El acceso al significado depende entonces de la relación que mantienen los constituyentes entre sí y no a partir de la identificación de un elemento nuclear, como ocurre en compuestos que poseen un lexema referencial (telaraña, bocacalle). Dentro del compuesto verbo-nombre, la relación semántica que se establece entre los constituyentes no es única. Si bien la estructura semántica prototípica responde al patrón agente-paciente (cortacésped), existen otras posibilidades argumentales, como las relaciones locativas (pasacalle). El estudio realizado tuvo como objetivo determinar hasta qué punto la estructura argumental proyectada por el verbo tiene una influencia en el procesamiento cognitivo de estas unidades. Primeramente, se llevó a cabo un juicio de aceptabilidad para asegurar que los estímulos se correspondieran con la realidad lingüística de los participantes del estudio experimental. A continuación, se administró una prueba de decisión léxica con compuestos que poseían distintos tipos de estructura argumental: (1) agente / paciente (algo que V a N, abrelatas), (2) agente / paciente menos prototípica (procesos metafóricos, chupasangre) y (3) locativos (lugar donde x hace V a N, guardamuebles). Los resultados muestran que los tiempos de decisión (respuesta) ante compuestos locativos fueron significativamente mayores que ante los prototípicos. Este resultado no puede ser explicado por diferencias en longitud o frecuencia de los compuestos o sus constituyentes, por lo que parecen apoyar la hipótesis de que la estructura argumental juega un rol central en el procesamiento de estas palabras.Research on the processing of compound words offersimportant insights on how the mental lexicon is organized. It is a current topic in psycholinguistics if compound words are represented and processed as unitary lexical units (full-listing models) or only as individual constituents analyzed via a combinatorial mechanism (full-parsing models). There is enough experimental evidence that both mechanisms are involved (dual-route models). Several characteristics of the stimuli, like length, morphological family size, frequency of compounds and their constituents are important factors to determine how they are processed. Compound words are meaningful units that contain smaller meaningful units. Therefore, in the domain of compounds’studies, several hypotheses have been proposed to explain how only one interpretation is achieved from two independent meanings. Models that describe the construction of lexical semantic features in compound words, like APPLE - Automatic Progressive Parsing and Lexical Excitation (Libben 1994,1998) or CARIN - Competition Among Relations in Nominals (Gagné, 2000), are based on the notion of a morphological head. According to these theories the recognition of the head would trigger an interpretation of the whole word. In noun-noun compounds (pez espada, ‘swordfish’, telaraña ‘spiderweb’), in which the head has the referential features, the identification of this head and the posterior clarification of the relationship with the non-head lexeme is the way to interpret the whole compound (pez‘fish’and tela ‘web’, respectively). However, not every compound has a head with the referential attributes inside. Verb-noun compounding is an extremely productive word-formation process in Romance languages. Spanish verb-noun compounds have the particularity of being exocentric: these constructions do not present a categorical, morphological or semantic head. Therefore, access to the meaning depends on the relationship between both of their constituent lexemes. For these units, the traditional distinction between semantically transparent and semantically opaque compounds is not suitable, because it doesn’t take under consideration the projection of the argument structure by the verbal constituent. The semantic relationship established between the lexemes within a compound is not unique. While the prototypical semantic structure respondsto the agent-patient pattern (cortacésped), there are other semantic possibilities, such as locative relationships (pasacalle). The present study addresses the issue of the comprehension of Spanish verb-noun compounds in order to provide evidence about the role of the argument structure projected by the first lexeme in the whole-word meaning. It is proposed that the argumentstructure of the verbal constituent has a cognitive influence on the processing and comprehension of these units. Firstly, an acceptability judgment test was administrated in order to identify a group of verbnoun compounds that were adequate for the Argentinean Spanish lexicon. Secondly, a lexical decision task was conducted with the stimuli selected as acceptable. Thirty native speakers (20 females), ranged in age from 19 to 34 years old, with at least 12 years of schooling, participated in the experiment. The lexical decision task included three types of compounds according to their argument structure: (1) Agent / patient (abrelatas), (2)Agent / patient with less prototypical features or metaphorical processes (chupasangre), and (3) locatives (guardamuebles). Stimuli were matched according to the whole-word and constituent frequency and length. For the statistical analysis, ANOVAs were calculated for error rates and response times (RTs) for each condition. Results show that reaction times (answers) to locative compounds were significantly higher than to agentpatient compounds. This contrast cannot be explain ed by differences in frequency or length, of the compounds or their constituents. Consequently, the present results seem to support the hypothesis that argument structure plays a central role in the processing of these words.Fil: Güemes, María Mercedes. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Gattei, Carolina Andrea. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Tabullo, Angel Javier. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza. Instituto de Ciencias Humanas, Sociales y Ambientales; ArgentinaFil: Wainselboim, Alejandro Javier. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza. Instituto de Ciencias Humanas, Sociales y Ambientales; Argentin

Diachronic change and variation in use

Previous studies have demonstrated that in spontaneous speech, Rioplatense Spanish speakers—in contrast to speakers of Peninsular Spanish—sometimes produce clitic-doubled accusative nominal objects. If this contrast between varieties reflects different grammatical systems, it would be expected to also affect the acceptability of clitic doubling across varieties.  We tested this hypothesis in a judgment study that compared the acceptability of dative and accusative clitic-doubled objects between Rioplatense and Peninsular Spanish speakers. Speakers of both varieties showed similar preferences with dative clitic doubling, consistent with previous work. By contrast, accusative clitic doubling was highly acceptable in Rioplatense Spanish, but not in Peninsular Spanish. Based on accounts of the diachronic development of clitic doubling, we argue that the Rioplatense speakers exhibit a diachronically advanced behavior compared to Peninsular Spanish speakers

Errores semánticos en narrativas de niños: el problema de la referencia

The aim of this paper is to develop a set of categories able to describe semantic slips of the tongue in oral production of narratives by five years old children. The analysis is framed within Cognitive Linguistics since it studies the relation between language and cognition in the context of a communicative situation, language in a particular context of use: the narration of a dynamic visual stimuli. In particular, this study is part of a research program called 'Interface Grammar'. We undertook a qualitative and descriptive analysis. Children were presented twice with two visual stimuli and asked to narrate them. The narratives were transcribed and analyzed. We identified thirteen semantic slips, which were described and classified. First, we contrasted the meaning of the verb used by the child with the segment of the stimuli intended to be referred to by the expression. We identified the information in the stimuli that was not covered by the verb meaning. Then, we justify our interpretation of the use of that expression as a 'failed reference' by the relevance of the omitted information. The result consists of six categories that allow us to start to classify reference problems in children's discourse.El objetivo de este trabajo es desarrollar un conjunto de categorías que nos permita describir los errores semánticos de la producción oral de narrativas en niños de 5 años. El enfoque teórico desde el cual se analizan los casos es la lingüística cognitiva funcional ya que se estudia la relación lenguaje – cognición en función de una actividad comunicativa, la lengua en un uso particular: narrar un estímulo visual dinámico. Este estudio se encuadra dentro del programa de investigación denominado ‘Gramática de interfaces’. El análisis es cualitativo y de alcance descriptivo; se les presentó a los niños dos estímulos visuales de un minuto y medio en dos ocasiones y luego se los invitó a que contaran oralmente lo que vieron en cada video. Las narrativas fueron grabadas, luego se transcribieron. En este trabajo en particular identificamos trece errores semánticos, los analizamos y los categorizamos. En un primer paso, contrastamos el significado del verbo utilizado por el niño con el segmento del estímulo potencialmente referido por esa expresión. Identificamos la información en el estímulo que no era referida por la expresión lingüística. Justificamos nuestra interpretación de la expresión como referencia fallida en la relevancia de la información omitida. El resultado son seis categorías que nos permiten empezar a clasificar problemas de la referencia en el discurso infantil

El rol de la jerarquía remática en la comprensión de oraciones con distinta configuración sintáctico-semántica

El procesamiento del lenguaje involucra fenómenos de índole enteramente distintaque, sin embargo, se integran necesariamente para constituir una unidad desentido. Propiedades fonológicas, sintácticas, semánticas y pragmáticas se acoplansistemáticamente para dar lugar a una oración, la unidad de comunicaciónhumana que es el punto de partida y centro de la gramática. Es precisamente elrol de la gramática dar lugar a esa integración que se centra alrededor de dos funciones.Caracterizadas muy sucintamente, una es estática y consiste en almacenarsímbolos y patrones o esquemas. La otra es dinámica y remite a integrar esainformación en una secuencia quizás enteramente inédita y, además, adecuadaa un contexto posiblemente único.Fil: Gattei, Carolina Andrea. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Física de Buenos Aires. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Física de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Paris, Luis Alberto. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza. Instituto de Ciencias Humanas, Sociales y Ambientales; ArgentinaFil: Shalóm, Diego Edgar. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Física de Buenos Aires. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Física de Buenos Aires; Argentin

Comprehension of relative clauses with psychological predicates in Spanish

En este trabajo se llevó a cabo un estudio de comprensión auditiva de oraciones relativas con predicados psicológicos (p. ej. gustar) y de actividad (p. ej. sonreír) en español de Argentina. Los resultados muestran que las relativas de sujeto con predicados de actividad fueron más fáciles de procesar que las de objeto. En cambio, las relativas de objeto con predicados psicológicos fueron más sencillas que las de sujeto. Estos resultados argumentan a favor de propuestas sobre el procesamiento de asimetrías sujeto-objeto dependientes de las configuraciones estructurales de las oraciones, como Minimidad Relativizada por Rasgos (Rizzi, 2004); y son consistentes con el hecho de que no todas las lenguas se comporten de la misma manera durante la comprensión de oraciones relativas.This study outlines an auditory comprehension task of relative clauses with Argentine Spanish psychological (e.g., gustar ‘to like’) and activity (e.g., sonreír ‘to smile’) predicates. Our results show that in the case of activity predicates, subject relative clauses were easier to comprehend than object relative ones. Contrastingly, in the case of psychological predicates, object relative clauses were easier than subject relative ones. This outcomes point to a structure-dependent account of the subject-object processing asymmetries, in line with the Featural Relativized Minimality theory (Rizzi, 2004), and are also consistent with the notion that not all languages exhibit the same pattern of subject-object asymmetry.Fil: Murujosa, Marisol. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Filosofía y Letras. Instituto de Lingüística; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Gattei, Carolina Andrea. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad Torcuato Di Tella. Escuela de Gobierno; Argentina. Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentina "Santa María de los Buenos Aires"; ArgentinaFil: Shalóm, Diego Edgar. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad Torcuato Di Tella; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Sevilla, Yamila Alejandra. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Filosofía y Letras. Instituto de Lingüística; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentin