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The article investigates non-native sentence processing and examines the existing scholarly approaches to L2 processing with a population of L3 learners of English, whose native language is Russian. In a self-paced reading experiment, native speakers of Russian and English, as well as (low) intermediate L3 learners of English, read ambiguous relati...
Context in source publication
Similar publications
Personal pronouns can potentially be resolved in logical syntax by means of variable binding (VB) or at the discourse-representational level through coreference assignment (CR). Previous research suggests that real-time reference resolution is guided more strongly by discourse-level cues in a non-native language (L2) than in a native language (L1)....
Citations
... The effect of a perception verb on RC resolution was studied by Grillo and Costa (2014) in Romance languages. Its effect on English monolinguals was investigated by Grillo et al. (2015) and on L2 and L3 speakers by Sokolova and Slabakova (2019). The scholars argued that a perception verb as in (7) and a non-perception verb as in (8) Alongside the RC (7a), a perception verb in (7b) can trigger a projection for an eventive complement in the form of a complementizer phrase (CP). ...
... Grillo and Costa (2014) claim that an eventive complement is easier for the parser than a restrictive RC. Relying on the reported effect of a perception verb in monolingual (Grillo et al., 2015) and multilingual speakers of English and Russian (Sokolova & Slabakova, 2019), we expect an eventive complement (7b) to be a preferred structural anticipation for the upcoming sentence. Right after the matrix verb saw is processed, a structure for (7b) is generated in both Russian and English. ...
Aims and objectives
The study investigates human sentence processing and argues that information from multiple sources is considered equally in native and non-native languages. Non-syntactic information does not overrule the parsing decisions prompted by syntactic cues.
Methodology
The experiment used ambiguous relative clauses (RC) in a self-paced reading task with 20 native and 45 non-native adult speakers of English and Russian. The software Linger recorded participants’ answers to comprehension questions and the time they spent reading each word.
Data and analysis
Mixed linear analysis performed in R checked for the effect of a matrix verb, RC length, social conventions, the native language and the language of testing on RC processing and interpretation.
Findings
Both native and non-native speakers followed social conventions in deciding on the interpretation of the RC. However, this information never overruled the attachment decision prompted by the matrix predicate or by the length of the RC which entails certain sentence prosody.
Originality
The study is innovative in investigating the extent to which each factor affected RC processing. It shows that social conventions enhance processing when they conspire with the structural parse prompted by linguistic cues. When they do not, syntactic information governs sentence parsing in both L1 and L2.
Significance/implications
The study provides evidence that sentence processing uses linguistic structure as a first parsing hypothesis, which can then be adjusted to incorporate the incoming information from multiple sources.
Limitations
The findings need further support from testing L2 learners of Russian in various socio-cultural contexts.
To date, the field of L3 acquisition research has had a heavy focus on the initial state of the L3 grammar. While this initial state research is critical to understanding L3 acquisition as a whole, in order for an explanatory understanding of language acquisition in the multilingual mind, the field needs to expand its scope beyond this area of focus. This volume brings together L3 acquisition and multilingualism researchers in order to discuss the state of the field and introduce new ideas related to the development of post-initial L3 knowledge, and the relationship among languages in the multilingual mind. It includes contributions related to syntactic, phonological, and lexical development beyond the L3 initial state. The purpose of this volume is to expand the current academic discussions within this field, by emphasizing the role of the developmental process in an L3 context, with the hope of inspiring further research in this domain.
