Cover not available

Article published In: Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism
Vol. 10:5 (2020) ► pp.623–656

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
authorization required

When actions and looks don’t line up

The contribution of referential and prosodic information in the processing of PP ambiguities in child-L2 speakers of English

 | University of Texas at El Paso
 | University of Pennsylvania
 | Pennsylvania State University
 | Pennsylvania State University
Published online: 17 December 2018
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/lab.18001.con
Abstract
In two eye tracking experiments, we investigate how adult child-L2 speakers of English resolve prepositional phrase (PP) attachment ambiguity in their dominant language (English), and whether they use prosodic information to aid in the process of garden-path recovery. The findings showed an increased processing cost associated with the revision of temporary ambiguous sentences for the child-L2 adults relative to the native English speakers. When prosody was informative, the child-L2 adults were able to use prosodic information to guide the interpretation of their later acquired, dominant language. However, they performed revision significantly less successfully than the native speakers. Although processing was similar for the native English speakers and the adult child-L2 speakers of English, when it comes to sensitivity to prosodic information and referential context, the two groups differed with regards to reanalysis both in the presence and absence of salient prosodic and referential information.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Syntactic processing in adult child-L2 speakers and other bilingual populations
    • 1.2The structure under investigation
  • 2.Experiment 1
    • 2.1Participants
    • 2.2Materials and design
    • 2.3Procedure
    • 2.4Predictions and results
      • Eye-tracking data
      • Actions data
      • Eye-tracking results
      • Actions results
    • Interim discussion
  • 3.Experiment 2
    • 3.1Participants
    • 3.2Materials and procedure
    • 3.3Results
      • Eye-tracking results
      • Off-line actions
    • Interim discussion
  • 4.Comparison between Experiment 1 and Experiment 2
  • General discussion
  • Notes
  • References
References (48)
References
Altmann, G., & Steedman, M. (1988). Interaction with context during human sentence processing. Cognition, 301, 191–238. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bates, D. M., & Sarkar, D. (2007). lme4: Linear mixed-effects models using S4 classes, R package version 0.99875–6.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Benmamoun, E., Montrul, S., & Polinsky, M. (2013). Heritage languages and their speakers: Opportunities and challenges for linguistics. Theoretical Linguistics, 391, 129–181. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bice, K., & Kroll, J. F. (2015). Native language change during early stages of second language learning. NeuroReport, 261, 966–971. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brito, A. M., & Raposo, E. B. P. (2013). Complementos, modificadores e adjuntos no sintagma nominal. In Raposo, E. B. P. et al. (eds.), Gramática do Português I e II. Lisboa: Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, pp. 1045–1113.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chondrogianni, V., & Marinis, T. (2012). Production and processing asymmetries in the acquisition of tense morphology by sequential bilingual children. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 151, 5–21. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cuetos, F., & Mitchell, D. C. (1988). Cross-linguistic differences in parsing: Restrictions on the use of the Late Closure strategy in Spanish. Cognition, 301, 73–105. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dekydtspotter, L., Donaldson, B., Edmonds, A. C., Fultz, A., & Petrush, R. A. (2008). Syntax and prosodic computations in the resolution of relative clause attachment ambiguity by English-French learners. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 301, 453–480. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dijkstra, T., & van Heuven, W. J. B. (2002). The architecture of the bilingual word recognition system: From identification to decision. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 51, 3–10. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Donnelly, S., & Verkuilen, J. (2017). Empirical logic analysis is not logistic regression. Journal of Memory and Language, 941, 28–42. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dussias, P. E. (2003). Syntactic ambiguity resolution in L2 learners: Some effects of bilinguality on L1 and L2 processing strategies. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 251, 529–557. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dussias, P. E., & Sagarra, N. (2007). The effect of exposure on syntactic parsing in Spanish-English bilinguals. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 101, 101–116. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fine, A. B., Jaeger, T. F., Farmer, T. A., & Qian, T. (2013). Rapid expectation adaptation during syntactic comprehension. PloS One, 81, e77661. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Frazier, L., & Clifton Jr., C. (1996). Construal. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gollan, T. H., Slattery, T. J., Goldenberg, D., Van Assche, E., Duyck, W., & Rayner, K. (2011). Frequency drives lexical access in reading but not in speaking: The Frequency-Lag Hypothesis. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 1401, 86–209.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Grosjean, F. (1998). Studying bilinguals: Methodological and conceptual issues. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 11, 131–149. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Harley, B., Howard, J., & Hart, D. (1995). Second language processing at different ages: Do younger learners pay more attention to prosodic cues to sentence structure? Language Learning, 451, 43–71. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Henry, N., DiMidio, J., & Jackson, C. N. (2017). The role of prosody and explicit instruction in Processing Instruction. Modern Language Journal. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kroll, J. F., & Bialystok, E. (2013). Understanding the consequences of bilingualism for language processing and cognition. Journal of Cognitive Psychology. 251, 497–514. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kroll, J. F., & Dussias, P. E. (2017). The benefits of multilingualism to the personal and professional development of residents of the US. Foreign Language Annals, 248–259. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kroll, J. F., Dussias, P. E., Bogulski, C. A., & Valdés Kroff, J. R. (2012). Juggling two languages in one mind: What bilinguals tell us about language processing and its consequences for cognition. In B. Ross (Ed.), The Psychology of Learning and Motivation, Volume 561, (pp. 229–273). Academic Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kupisch, T., D. Barton, T. Lein, J. Schröder, I. Stangen & A. Stöhr. (2014). Acquisition outcomes across domain in adult heritage speakers of French. Journal of French Language Studies, 24(3), 347–376. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lein, T., Kupisch, T., & van de Weijer, J. (2016). Voice onset time and global foreign accent in German-French simultaneous bilinguals during adulthood. International Journal of Bilingualism, 201, 732–749. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Linck, J. A., Kroll, J. F., & Sunderman, G. (2009). Losing access to the native language while immersed in a second language: Evidence for the role of inhibition in second-language learning. Psychological Science, 201, 1507–1515. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Marian, V., Blumenfeld, H. K., & Kaushanskaya, M. (2007). The language experience and proficiency questionnaire (LEAP-Q): Assessing language profiles in bilinguals and multilinguals. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 501, 940–967. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Marian, V., & Spivey, M. (2003). Competing activation in bilingual language processing: Within- and between-language competition. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 61, 97–115. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Montrul, S. (2008a). Second language acquisition welcomes the heritage language learner: opportunities of a new field. Second Language Research, 241, 487–506. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2015). The Acquisition of Heritage Languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Novick, J. M., Trueswell, J. C. & Thompson-Schill, S. (2005). Cognitive control and parsing: Re-examining the role of Broca’s area in sentence comprehension. Cognitive, Affective, and Behavioral Neuroscience, 5(3), 263–28. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
O’Grady, W., Lee, M., & Choo, M. (2001). The acquisition of relative clauses by heritage and non-heritage learners of Korean as a second language: A comparative study. Journal of Korean Language Education, 121, 283–94.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pan, H.-Y., S. Schimke & C. Felser. (2015). Referential context effects in non-native relative clause ambiguity resolution. International Journal of Bilingualism, 19(3), 298–313. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pascual y Cabo, D., & Rothman, J. (2012). The (Il) logical problem of heritage speaker bilingualism and incomplete acquisition. Applied linguistics, 331, 450–455. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Polinski, M. (2011). Reanalysis in adult heritage language: A case for attrition. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 331, 305–328. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Polinsky, M., & Kagan, O. (2007). Heritage languages: In the ‘wild’ and in the classroom. Language and Linguistics Compass, 11, 368–95. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pozzan, L., & Trueswell, J. C. (2016). Second language processing and revision of garden-path sentences: a visual word study. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 191, 636–643. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rigau, G. (1999). La estructura del sintagma nominal: Los modificadores del nombre. In I. Bosque & V. Demonte (eds.), Gramatica descriptiva de la lengua espanola, (pp. 311–362). Madrid: Espasa.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rothman, J. (2009). Understanding the Nature and Outcomes of Early Bilingualism: Romance Languages as Heritage Languages International Journal of Bilingualism, 131, 145–155. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Snedeker, J., & Trueswell, J. C. (2004). The developing constraints on parsing decisions: The role of lexical-biases and referential scenes in child and adult sentence processing, Cognitive Psychology, 491, 238–299. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Snedeker, J., & Yuan, S. (2008). The role of prosodic and lexical constraints in parsing in young children (and adults). Journal of Memory and Language, 581, 574–608. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sorace, A. (2011). Pinning down the concept of ‘interface’ in bilingualism. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism, 11, 1–33. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schwartz, B. D. (2004). On child L2 development of syntax and morphology. Lingue e Linguaggio, 31, 97–132.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Trueswell, J., Sekerina, I., Hill, N. & Logrip, M. (1999). The kindergarden-path effect: Studying on-line sentence processing in young children. Cognition, 731, 89–134. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Unsworth, S. (2007). Child L2, adult L2, child L1: Differences and similarities. A study on the acquisition of direct object scrambling in Dutch. Language Acquisition, 141, 215–217. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Valdés, G. (2005). Bilingualism, heritage learners, and SLA research: Opportunities lost or seized? Modern Language Journal, 891, 410–426. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Weber, A., & Cutler, A. (2004). Lexical competition in non-native spoken-word recognition. Journal of Memory and Language, 501, 1–25. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Woodard, K., Pozzan, L., & Trueswell, J. (2016). Taking your own path: Individual differences in Executive Function and Language Processing Skills in Child Learners. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 1411, 187–209. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zeidan, C., Nakamura, M., & Rossi, E. (2016). Sentence comprehension of ambiguous sentences in younger and older adults. Poster presented at the Undergraduate Conference, CalPoly University, Pomona.
Cited by (2)

Cited by two other publications

Calhoun, Sasha, Paul Warren & Mengzhu Yan
2023. Cross-language influences in the processing of L2 prosody. In Cross-language Influences in Bilingual Processing and Second Language Acquisition [Bilingual Processing and Acquisition, 16], ► pp. 47 ff. DOI logo
Kukona, Anuenue, Olivia Gaziano, Marie-Josee Bisson & Adrian Jordan
2022. Vocabulary knowledge predicts individual differences in the integration of visual and linguistic constraints. Language, Cognition and Neuroscience 37:6 ► pp. 750 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 24 november 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue