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- Volume 12, Issue 5, 2022
Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism - Volume 12, Issue 5, 2022
Volume 12, Issue 5, 2022
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Shared syntactic representations in bilinguals
Author(s): Yoonsang Song and Ryan K. Y. Laipp.: 571–597 (27)More LessAbstractThe current study explores the nature of constituent-structure-independent structural priming across the two languages of bilinguals. Specifically, this study tests whether such cross-linguistic priming involves the priming of functional-level syntactic representations shared between the languages, which can be distinguished from the priming of mainly non-syntactic information (e.g., information structure, thematic-role order). Critical prime sentences consisted of Cantonese actives in the Object-Subject-Verb (OSV) order and passives where the patient was grammatically topicalized with the same topic particle. Target responses were produced in English actives or passives. The results show that robust priming from Cantonese Topic-Passives to English passives occurred, but no cross-linguistic priming was observed for Cantonese Topic-OSV active primes. The Topic-OSV active and Topic-Passive constructions share information structure, and are formed in different constituent structures from English actives and passives. Therefore, the robust cross-linguistic passive priming by Topic-Passive primes should in large part be ascribed to functional-level syntactic representations of passive constructions shared by Cantonese and English.
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Mapping different L1 dialects to L2 words
Author(s): Christine Sheapp.: 598–627 (30)More LessAbstractWe ask how dialect experience affects the perception of modified L2 words by speakers of different L1 dialects. Colombian Spanish speakers from Barranquilla (s-aspirating dialect) and Bogota (non-s-aspirating dialect) carried out cross-dialect phonological priming experiments in Spanish and L2 English. For Spanish, primes and targets were counterbalanced across dialect features. For English, half the primes and targets exhibited the /s/-aspiration of the Barranquilla dialect. Results showed an interaction between trial type and group for the s-aspirated forms. The Barranquilla group showed a significant priming effect in Spanish and also for the nonword /s/-aspirated forms in English. Further analysis revealed that the priming effect for English /s/-aspirated forms was attenuated in Barranquilla listeners with greater English proficiency. These results show that second language listeners transfer abstract native language dialect knowledge to L2 input even when this knowledge is not directly part of the L2 input, providing evidence for the transfer of abstract, socially-indexed knowledge to the processing of L2.
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How to mix
Author(s): Rena Torres Cacoullos, Nathalie Dion, Dora LaCasse and Shana Poplackpp.: 628–656 (29)More LessAbstractThe widespread occurrence of nouns in one language with a determiner in the other, often referred to as mixed NPs, has generated much theorizing and debate. Since both a syntactic account based on abstract features of the determiner and an account highlighting the notion of a Matrix language yield largely the same predictions, we assess how the tenets of each play out in speaker choices. The data derive from a massive corpus of spontaneous nominal mixes, produced by bilinguals in New Mexico, where bidirectional code-switching is the norm. Bilinguals’ choices concern (1) NP status (mixed vs. unmixed); (2) mixing type (limited-item vs. multi-word); and (3) language of the noun (here, English vs. Spanish). Results show that the community preference is for mixed NPs, independent of their theoretical felicity as dictated by determiner language properties. As to mixing type, these NPs are mostly constituted of lone nouns, such that the language of the determiner and any associated verb is perforce that of the surrounding discourse. Finally, the overwhelming choice is for English lone nouns incorporated into Spanish, and hence for a Spanish determiner. The language of the determiner thus proceeds, not from abstract linguistic properties, but instead from straightforward adherence to bilingual speech community conventions.
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Prosodic transfer across constructions and domains in L2 inflectional morphology
Author(s): Gavin Austin, Heejin Chang, Nayoung Kim and Eoin Dalypp.: 657–686 (30)More LessAbstractSecond language (L2) learners are known to have difficulty producing inflection in obligatory contexts reliably. According to the Prosodic Transfer Hypothesis (PTH), the prosodic organisation of L2 inflection is constrained by the inventory of representations available in the L1. At the same time, this hypothesis does not explicitly limit how freely prosodic representations can be transferred, so that transfer across constructions within the same domain (e.g., verbal domain: L1 tense → L2 agreement) and across domains (e.g., verbal domain: L1 tense → nominal domain: L2 plurals) are both possible in principle. The goal of this study was to determine if the current formulation of the PTH is valid, or must be reined in to exclude transfer across domains in particular. Forty-four Korean learners of English did a spoken sentence-construction task in which they had to produce subject-verb agreement and regular plural inflection. Bayesian hierarchical regression was used to analyse the results. By examining asymmetries in the suppliance of short- vs. long-stemmed inflection, we show that there are no grounds for attaching any stipulations to the PTH along the above lines, as prosodic representations are transferrable not only across constructions but also across domains.
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Cross-linguistic influence in the second language processing of Korean morphological and syntactic causative constructions
Author(s): Sun Hee Park and Hyunwoo Kimpp.: 687–713 (27)More LessAbstractThis study investigated the effects of cross-linguistic influence in Japanese speakers’ integration of morphological and syntactic information during the processing of Korean transitive causative constructions. We examined whether Japanese speakers would process two types of Korean causative constructions as efficiently as native speakers: (a) when one target structure was instantiated differently from learners’ L1 correspondents and (b) when the other type was unique to the L2. Although the learners showed native-like performance during an acceptability judgment task, they had difficulties with the integration of morphological and syntactic information during a self-paced reading task when the target construction gave rise to cross-linguistic competitions with the L1 correspondent, but not when the target construction was unique to the L1. Our findings support the claim that cross-linguistic cue competitions are a major source of difficulties in L2 sentence processing.
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