Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism - Online First

This article reports on an empirical study investigating the second language (L2) acquisition of the Chinese perfective markers le and guo and their aspectual/temporal features by English-speaking learners, under the framework of the Feature Reassembly Hypothesis (Lardiere, 2008, 2009). English lacks dedicated perfective markers, whereas Chinese is rich in aspect marking but has no morphologically realised tense. This study provides a feature-based account of the Chinese perfective markers le and guo and their English corresponding forms (the simple past tense -ed and the present perfect). An acceptability judgment task, a multiple-choice task, and an online sentence completeness judgment task were conducted on 65 L2 learners of three proficiency levels and 25 Chinese natives. Our findings are largely compatible with the predictions of the FRH. It is found that a complex mapping between the L1 tense and L2 aspect markers can lead to persistent learning challenges. Le is more difficult to acquire than guo as the acquisition of le involves a more intricate feature reassembly process. L2 learners must disentangle and reconfigure aspectual and temporal features in the L2 feature sets, while also distinguishing between different aspect markers in L2 Chinese.

Cho (2022) investigated the computation of conversational implicatures (CIs) in two English determiners, the and that. Although both can be used to indicate uniqueness, only that carries an implication of contrast, which distinguishes between two nouns from the same category. It was found that L1-Korean L2-English speakers did not compute this implication due to functional overlap between the English determiners and the Korean demonstrative ku ‘that.’ Replicating Cho (2022), the present study examined the role of learning contexts in the computation of the implication of contrast by L1-Thai EFL (English as a Foreign Language) and ESL (English as a Second Language) speakers. Since CIs lie at the semantics–pragmatics interface and positive effects of naturalistic exposure in pragmatic development have been reported, L1-Thai ESL learners were predicted to benefit from naturalistic exposure L2 English, overriding L1 transfer, and to show sensitivity to the implication. EFL learners, by contrast, would show non-targetlike performance due to L1 transfer. Results from an acceptability judgment task revealed that, unlike L1-English speakers, both L1-Thai EFL and ESL learners did not compute the implication of contrast, corroborating the original study and revealing no significant effect of naturalistic exposure on the computation of CIs.

We investigate the influence of the prosodic structure of German as first language (L1) on the application of the spirantization rule in Spanish as a second language (L2). According to the Prosodic Hierarchy, the prosodic domains in which phonological rules apply may vary according to whether the language has a grouping tendency or not. While Spanish spirantization (where /b d g/ are produced as [β ð ɣ] after continuant sounds) applies across the Intonational Phrase (IP), German restricts grouping processes to smaller domains, the largest of them being the phonological word (pword). We hypothesized that L1 German learners of Spanish apply spirantization progressively, starting from the pword. Twenty-six participants were recorded reading two texts with instances of /b d g/ within foot, pword, and IP. Results support that L1 German learners of Spanish spirantize mainly within feet, and less so within pwords and IPs; furthermore, consonants /b — d/ are more likely to be spirantized than /g/ across all contexts by more proficient learners. We conclude that the starting point of spirantization is not the largest one licensed by the learner’s L1, but that there is an L1-independent path where learners start from the smallest domain in the hierarchy.

Variability at the group and individual level can inform understanding in second language research. For example, examining by-group and individual differences can play an important role in teasing apart competing theoretical accounts of first and second language processing. In this paper, I review existing research examining variability in second language sentence processing. Focusing on relative clause attachment, filler-gap dependency resolution and subject-verb agreement, I examine these three phenomena as case studies for how examining variability can inform key debates in second language processing research. I review variability at the group and individual level in both cognitive and linguistic abilities, language experience and proficiency, and in the linguistic environment. I also discuss methodological issues in generalizing findings across studies and in using psycholinguistic tasks to examine individual variation in language processing, which pose important challenges that need to be addressed if the field is to move towards an individual differences perspective of second language processing. Although the review focuses on three linguistic phenomena in second language sentence processing, the issues discussed are relevant to the examination of variability in bi-/multilingual language acquisition and processing more broadly.

Subject pronoun expression (SPE) has been extensively investigated in studies of language contact, with studies finding higher rates of SPE in consistent null subject languages that are in contact with non-null subject languages. Recent studies have explored the role of structural priming in these processes of language change by analyzing different language pairs and societal contexts. We contribute to this line of research by examining the role of structural priming on the SPE rates of three groups of Spanish–English bilinguals: a group of 40 heritage speakers of Spanish living in the U.S., a group of 35 first-generation immigrants from Spanish-speaking countries also living in the U.S., and a group of 60 monolingually-raised speakers of Spanish living in a Spanish-speaking country. Participants completed two production experiments (one with a within-language priming treatment and one with a cross-linguistic priming treatment) as well as a task to control for language dominance. Results showed that SPE rates were significantly higher in the within-language condition than in the cross-linguistic condition. However, the effect did not extend to a post-test task in either experiment. Between-group differences were only found in the within-language condition, with heritage speakers producing the highest SPE rates. Language dominance was not significant.

Research investigating the psycholinguistic foundations of contact-induced grammatical language change suggests that new structures may enter a language through cross-linguistic priming in bilinguals. However, this assumes that priming effects can emerge even for structures which are ungrammatical in the target language. In the present study, we test this assumption by investigating cross-linguistic ungrammatical priming for analytic comparatives between Turkish and German. In a self-paced reading experiment, Turkish–German bilinguals read German target sentences with grammatically incorrect analytic comparatives (e.g., *mehr interessant). These were preceded by a Turkish prime sentence which included a Turkish analytic comparative (daha konforlu) or an otherwise identical indicative control prime (konforlu). The results showed significantly faster reading times for ungrammatical German comparatives following Turkish comparative primes than following indicative primes. In an additional grammaticality-judgement task, Turkish–German bilinguals rated sentences with ungrammatical German analytic comparatives as significantly more acceptable than monolingually-raised German participants. These results suggest that cross-linguistic priming can even occur for ungrammatical structures. We conclude that cross-linguistic ungrammatical priming constitutes a candidate for a mechanism driving contact-induced language change in bilingual individuals.

Bilingualism has sometimes been associated with cognitive boosts, particularly in working memory (WM). However, it remains unclear whether such benefits extend to the comprehension of syntactically complex structures. We investigated this through a gamified character-selection task assessing comprehension of subject-relative clauses and object-relative clauses among monolingual (n = 31) and bilingual (n = 28) French-speaking children, as well as monolingual (n = 45) and bilingual (n = 43) German-speaking children aged 3 to 12. We examined whether comprehension correlated with verbal WM, measured through a nonword repetition task, and interference resolution ability, assessed through a Simon task and an analysis of comprehension errors. The results indicated no bilingual advantage: object-relative clauses were more difficult than subject-relative clauses across all groups and languages. While interference-related errors — misinterpreting object-relative clauses as subject-relative clauses more frequently than vice versa — surfaced in all groups, verbal WM correlated with object-relative comprehension only in French. These findings are discussed in relation to current theories of bilingualism and WM in language comprehension.

This paper explores the concept of multiple grammars (MGs) and their implications for linguistic theory, language acquisition, and bilingual language knowledge. Drawing on evidence from phenomena such as scope interactions, verb raising, and agreement patterns, I argue that seemingly identical surface structures can be undergirded by different grammatical analyses that may compete within speaker populations. I then propose a typology of MG distributions, including shared MGs, competing MGs, and partial MGs, each with distinct consequences for acquisition and use. Contrary to expectations of simplification, bilingualism can sometimes lead to an expansion of grammatical analyses and does not always lead to the elimination of MGs. The paper discusses methods for predicting environments conducive to MGs, considering factors such as structural ambiguity and silent elements. The examination of MGs compels us to explore how learners navigate underdetermined input, especially in bilingual contexts, and to examine the interplay between gradient acceptability judgments and categorical grammatical distinctions. The study of MGs offers valuable insights into language variation, change, and the nature of linguistic competence.