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Constraints on L2 learners’ processing of wh-dependencies

Evidence from eye movements
  • Ian Cunnings , Claire Batterham , Claudia Felser and Harald Clahsen
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Research in Second Language Processing and Parsing
This chapter is in the book Research in Second Language Processing and Parsing

Abstract

Using the eye-movement monitoring technique, the present study examined whether wh-dependency formation is sensitive to island constraints in second language (L2) sentence comprehension, and whether the presence of an intervening relative clause island has any effects on learners’ ability to ultimately resolve long wh-dependencies. Participants included proficient learners of L2 English from typologically different language backgrounds (German, Chinese), as well as a group of native English-speaking controls. Our results indicate that both the learners and the native speakers were sensitive to relative clause islands during processing, irrespective of typological differences between the learners’ L1s, but that the learners had more difficulty than native speakers linking distant wh-fillers to their lexical subcategorizers during processing. We provide a unified processing-based account for our findings.

Abstract

Using the eye-movement monitoring technique, the present study examined whether wh-dependency formation is sensitive to island constraints in second language (L2) sentence comprehension, and whether the presence of an intervening relative clause island has any effects on learners’ ability to ultimately resolve long wh-dependencies. Participants included proficient learners of L2 English from typologically different language backgrounds (German, Chinese), as well as a group of native English-speaking controls. Our results indicate that both the learners and the native speakers were sensitive to relative clause islands during processing, irrespective of typological differences between the learners’ L1s, but that the learners had more difficulty than native speakers linking distant wh-fillers to their lexical subcategorizers during processing. We provide a unified processing-based account for our findings.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Preface vii
  4. Part I. Introduction
  5. Second language processing and parsing 3
  6. Part II. Relative clauses and wh -movement
  7. Relative clause attachment preferences of Turkish L2 speakers of English 27
  8. Evidence of syntactic constraints in the processing of wh -movement 65
  9. Constraints on L2 learners’ processing of wh-dependencies 87
  10. Part III. Gender and number
  11. The effects of linear distance and working memory on the processing of gender agreement in Spanish 113
  12. Feature assembly in early stages of L2 acquisition 135
  13. Part IV. Subjects and objects
  14. Second language processing in Japanese scrambled sentences 159
  15. Second language gap processing of Japanese scrambling under a Simpler Syntax account 177
  16. The processing of subject-object ambiguities by English and Dutch L2 learners of German 207
  17. Connections between processing, production and placement 231
  18. Part V. Phonology and lexicon
  19. The exploitation of fine phonetic detail in the processing of L2 French 259
  20. Translation ambiguity 281
  21. Part VI. Prosody and context
  22. Reading aloud in two languages 297
  23. Near-nativelike processing of contrastive focus in L2 French 321
  24. Author index 345
  25. Subject index 349
https://doi.org/10.1075/lald.53.04cun

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Preface vii
  4. Part I. Introduction
  5. Second language processing and parsing 3
  6. Part II. Relative clauses and wh -movement
  7. Relative clause attachment preferences of Turkish L2 speakers of English 27
  8. Evidence of syntactic constraints in the processing of wh -movement 65
  9. Constraints on L2 learners’ processing of wh-dependencies 87
  10. Part III. Gender and number
  11. The effects of linear distance and working memory on the processing of gender agreement in Spanish 113
  12. Feature assembly in early stages of L2 acquisition 135
  13. Part IV. Subjects and objects
  14. Second language processing in Japanese scrambled sentences 159
  15. Second language gap processing of Japanese scrambling under a Simpler Syntax account 177
  16. The processing of subject-object ambiguities by English and Dutch L2 learners of German 207
  17. Connections between processing, production and placement 231
  18. Part V. Phonology and lexicon
  19. The exploitation of fine phonetic detail in the processing of L2 French 259
  20. Translation ambiguity 281
  21. Part VI. Prosody and context
  22. Reading aloud in two languages 297
  23. Near-nativelike processing of contrastive focus in L2 French 321
  24. Author index 345
  25. Subject index 349
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