Cover not available
Part of
Prediction in Second Language Processing and Learning
Edited by Edith Kaan and Theres Grüter
[Bilingual Processing and Acquisition 12] 2021
► pp. 69–90

Chapter 4
Influence of syntactic complexity on second language prediction

| The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
| The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
| The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
| The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

This study investigated the influence of syntactic complexity on prediction in second language (L2) processing. In a visual world eye-tracking experiment, we compared L2 listeners’ prediction while processing simple (e.g., The dancer will open/ get the present) vs. complex sentences (e.g., I know the friend of the dancer that will open/ get the present). Prediction was measured by comparing fixations to targets (e.g., present) between semantically biasing (e.g., open) vs. neutral verb (e.g., get) conditions. Results showed that L2 speakers generated predictions while processing complex as well as simple sentences. However, the prediction effect during complex sentence processing emerged somewhat later. These findings suggest that L2 prediction is influenced by syntactic complexity which can increase cognitive load during sentence processing.

Article outline
  • Introduction
  • Prediction in comprehension
  • Prediction in L2 comprehension
  • Variation in prediction and mediating factors
  • The current study
  • Method
    • Participants
    • Materials
    • Procedure
  • Results
    • Behavioral task accuracy
    • Eye-tracking data analysis
  • Discussion
  • References
Published online: 22 September 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/bpa.12.04chu
References
Altmann, G. T. M., & Kamide, Y.
(1999) Incremental interpretation at verbs: Restricting the domain of subsequent reference. Cognition, 73(3), 247–264. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Altmann, G. T. M., & Mirković, J.
(2009) Incrementality and prediction in human sentence processing. Cognitive Science, 33(4), 583–609. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Arai, M., & Keller, F.
(2013) The use of verb-specific information for prediction in sentence processing. Language and Cognitive Processes, 28(4), 525–560. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Baayen, R. H., Davidson, D. J., & Bates, D. M.
(2008) Mixed-effects modeling with crossed random effects for subjects and items. Journal of Memory and Language, 59(4), 390–412. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bates, D., Mächler, M., Bolker, B. M., & Walker, S. C.
(2015) Fitting linear mixed-effects models using lme4. Journal of Statistical Software, 67(1), 1–48. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Borovsky, A., Elman, J. L., & Fernald, A.
(2012) Knowing a lot for one’s age: Vocabulary skill and not age is associated with anticipatory incremental sentence interpretation in children and adults. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 112(4), 417–436. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Brouwer, S., Özkan, D., & Küntay, A. C.
(2017) Semantic prediction in monolingual and bilingual children. In E. Blom, L. Cornips, & J. Schaeffer (Eds.). Cross-linguistic influence in bilingualism (pp. 49–74). John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Chambers, C. G., & Cooke, H.
(2009) Lexical competition during second-language listening: Sentence context, but not proficiency, constrains interference from the native lexicon. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning Memory and Cognition, 35(4). 1029–1040. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Chang, F., Dell, G. S., & Bock, K.
(2006) Becoming syntactic. Psychological Review, 113(2), 234–272. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Chang, F., Janciauskas, M., & Fitz, H.
(2012) Language adaptation and learning: Getting explicit about implicit learning. Linguistics and Language Compass, 6(5), 259–278. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Chow, W. Y., Lau, E., Wang, S., & Phillips, C.
(2018) Wait a second! delayed impact of argument roles on on-line verb prediction. Language, Cognition and Neuroscience, 33(7), 803–828. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Chun, E., & Kaan, E.
(2019) L2 prediction during complex sentence processing. Journal of Cultural Cognitive Science, 3(2), 203–216. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Clark, A.
(2013) Whatever next? Predictive brains, situated agents, and the future of cognitive science. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 36(3), 181–204. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
DeLong, K. A., Urbach, T. P., & Kutas, M.
(2005) Probabilistic word pre-activation during language comprehension inferred from electrical brain activity. Nature Neuroscience, 8(8), 1117–1121. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dijkgraaf, A., Hartsuiker, R. J., & Duyck, W.
(2017) Predicting upcoming information in native-language and non-native-language auditory word recognition. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 20(5), 917–930. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2019) Prediction and integration of semantics during L2 and L1 listening. Language, Cognition and Neuroscience, 34(7), 881–900. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dussias, P. E., & Piñar, P.
(2010) Effects of reading span and plausibility in the reanalysis of wh-gaps by Chinese-English second language speakers. Second Language Research, 26(4), 443–472. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dussias, P. E., Valdés Kroff, J. R., Guzzardo Tamargo, R. E., & Gerfen, C.
(2013) When gender and looking go hand in hand. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 35(2), 353–387. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ellis, E. M., Borovsky, A., Elman, J. L., & Evans, J. L.
(2015) Novel word learning: An eye-tracking study. Are 18-month-old late talkers really different from their typical peers? Journal of Communication Disorders, 58, 143–157. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Erdocia, K., & Laka, I.
(2018) Negative transfer effects on L2 word order processing. Frontiers in Psychology, 9, 337. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Federmeier, K. D.
(2007) Thinking ahead: The role and roots of prediction in language comprehension. Psychophysiology, 44(4), 491–505. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Federmeier, K. D., McLennan, D. B., de Ochoa, E., & Kutas, M.
(2002) The impact of semantic memory organization and sentence context information on spoken language processing by younger and older adults: An ERP study. Psychophysiology, 39(2), 133–146. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Foucart, A., Martin, C. D., Moreno, E. M., & Costa, A.
(2014) Can bilinguals see it coming? Word anticipation in L2 sentence reading. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning Memory and Cognition, 40(5), 1461–1469. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gibson, E., Desmet, T., Grodner, D., Watson, D. & Ko, K.
(2005) Reading relative clauses in English. Cognitive Linguistics, 16, 313–354. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Grüter, T., Lew-Williams, C., & Fernald, A.
(2012) Grammatical gender in L2: A production or a real-time processing problem? Second Language Research, 28(2), 191–215. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Grüter, T., Rohde, H., & Schafer, A. J.
(2014) The role of discourse-level expectations in non-native speakers’ referential choices. In W. Orman & M. J. Valleau (Eds.), Proceedings of the Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development. (Vol. 1, pp. 179–191). Cascadilla Press.Google Scholar
Huettig, F., & Guerra, E.
(2019) Effects of speech rate, preview time of visual context, and participant instructions reveal strong limits on prediction in language processing. Brain Research, 1706, 196–208. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Huettig, F., & Janse, E.
(2016) Individual differences in working memory and processing speed predict anticipatory spoken language processing in the visual world. Language, Cognition and Neuroscience, 31(1), 80–93. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Huettig, F., Rommers, J., & Meyer, A. S.
(2011) Using the visual world paradigm to study language processing: A review and critical evaluation. Acta Psychologica, 137(2), 151–171. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ito, A., Corley, M., & Pickering, M. J.
(2018) A cognitive load delays predictive eye movements similarly during L1 and L2 comprehension. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 21(2), 251–264. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ito, K., & Speer, S. R.
(2008) Anticipatory effects of intonation: Eye movements during instructed visual search. Journal of Memory and Language, 58(2), 541–573. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kamide, Y., Altmann, G. T. M., & Haywood, S. L.
(2003) The time-course of prediction in incremental sentence processing: Evidence from anticipatory eye movements. Journal of Memory and Language, 49(1), 133–156. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kane, M. J., Tuholski, S. W., Hambrick, D. Z., Wilhelm, O., Payne, T. W., & Engle, R. W.
(2004) The generality of working memory capacity: A latent-variable approach to verbal and visuospatial memory span and reasoning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 133(2). DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Koehne, J., & Crocker, M. W.
(2015) The interplay of cross-situational word learning and sentence-level constraints. Cognitive Science, 39(5), 849–889. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kukona, A., Fang, S. Y., Aicher, K. A., Chen, H., & Magnuson, J. S.
(2011) The time course of anticipatory constraint integration. Cognition, 119(1), 23–42. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kuperberg, G. R., & Jaeger, T. F.
(2016) What do we mean by prediction in language comprehension? Language, Cognition and Neuroscience, 31(1), 32–59. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lew-Williams, C., & Fernald, A.
(2010) Real-time processing of gender-marked articles by native and non-native Spanish speakers. Journal of Memory and Language, 63(4), 447–464. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Marslen-Wilson, W.
(1973) Linguistic structure and speech shadowing at very short latencies. Nature, 244(5417), 522–523. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Martin, C. D., Thierry, G., Kuipers, J. R., Boutonnet, B., Foucart, A., & Costa, A.
(2013) Bilinguals reading in their second language do not predict upcoming words as native readers do. Journal of Memory and Language, 69(4), 574–588. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Matin, E., Shao, K. C., & Boff, K. R.
(1993) Saccadic overhead: Information-processing time with and without saccades. Perception & Psychophysics, 53(4), 372–380. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Michigan English Language Institute
(2001) Michigan English Language Institute College English Test. Ann Arbor, MI: Michigan English Language InstituteGoogle Scholar
Mitsugi, S., & MacWhinney, B.
(2016) The use of case marking for predictive processing in second language Japanese. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 19(1), 19–35. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Nakamura, C., Arai, M., & Mazuka, R.
(2012) Immediate use of prosody and context in predicting a syntactic structure. Cognition, 125(2), 317–323. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Nieuwland, M. S., Politzer-Ahles, S., Heyselaar, E., Segaert, K., Darley, E., Kazanina, N., Von Grebmer Zu Wolfsthurn, S., Bartolozzi, F., Kogan, V., Ito, A., Mézière, D., Barr, D. J., Rousselet, G. A., Ferguson, H. J., Busch-Moreno, S., Fu, X., Tuomainen, J., Kulakova, E., Husband, E. M., … Huettig, F.
(2018) Large-scale replication study reveals a limit on probabilistic prediction in language comprehension. ELife, 7, e33468. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Otten, M., Nieuwland, M. S., & Van Berkum, J. J. A.
(2007) Great expectations: Specific lexical anticipation influences the processing of spoken language. BMC Neuroscience, 8(1), 89–98. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Otten, M., & Van Berkum, J. J. A.
(2009) Does working memory capacity affect the ability to predict upcoming words in discourse? Brain Research, 1291, 92–101. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Perdomo, M., & Kaan, E.
(2021) Prosodic cues in second-language speech processing: A visual world eye-tracking study. Second Language Research 37(2), 349–375. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pickering, M. J., & Gambi, C.
(2018) Predicting while comprehending language: A theory and review. Psychological Bulletin, 144(10), 1002–1044. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pickering, M. J., & Garrod, S.
(2013) An integrated theory of language production and comprehension. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 36(4), 329–347. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Porretta, V., Kyröläinen, A., van Rij, J., & Järvikivi, J.
(2017) VWPre: tools for preprocessing visual world data. R package version, 1.2.3Google Scholar
R Core Team
(2016) R: A language and environment for statistical computing. Foundation for Statistical Computing. Retrieved on 15 March, 2020 from: [URL]
Segalowitz, N., & Hulstijn, J.
(2005) Automaticity in bilingualism and second language learning. In J. F. Kroll & A. M. B. de Groot (Eds.), Handbook of bilingualism: Psycholinguistic approaches (pp. 371–388). Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Shipley, W. C.
(1940) A self-administering scale for measuring intellectual impairment and deterioration. Journal of Psychology: Interdisciplinary and Applied, 9(2), 371–377. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
University of Michigan
(2001) Michigan English Language Institute College English Test: Grammar, cloze, vocabulary, reading. University of Michigan.Google Scholar
van Bergen, G., & Flecken, M.
(2017) Putting things in new places: Linguistic experience modulates the predictive power of placement verb semantics. Journal of Memory and Language, 92, 26–42. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Zhou, H., Rossi, S., & Chen, B.
(2017) Effects of working memory capacity and tasks in processing L2 complex sentence: Evidence from Chinese-english bilinguals. Frontiers in Psychology, 8, 595. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 2 other publications

Liu, Yiguang, Florian Hintz, Junying Liang & Falk Huettig
2022. Prediction in challenging situations: Most bilinguals can predict upcoming semantically-related words in their L1 source language when interpreting. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 25:5 ► pp. 801 ff. DOI logo
Schlenter, Judith
2022. Prediction in bilingual sentence processing: How prediction differs in a later learned language from a first language. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 5 march 2023. 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.