Vol. 7:1 (2017) ► pp.96–130
Cross-linguistic lexical and syntactic co-activation in L2 sentence processing
This study investigates under which conditions the L1 syntax is activated in L2 on-line sentence comprehension. We study whether cross-linguistic syntactic activation of the L1 word order is affected by lexical activation of the first language (L1) by virtue of cognate words. In two eye-tracking experiments, German-English bilinguals and English natives read English sentences containing reduced relative clauses whose surface word order partially overlaps with German embedded clauses. The verbs used were either German-English cognates or matched control verbs. The results show lexical cognate facilitation and syntactic co-activation of L1 word order, with the latter being moderated by proficiency and cognate status. Critically, syntactic co-activation is found only with English control words. We argue that fleeting co-activation of the L1 syntax becomes measurable under higher demands of lexical processing, while cognate facilitation frees resources for inhibition of the L1 syntax and target-like syntactic processing.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Cross-linguistic influence in lexical and syntactic processing
- 3.The current study
- 3.1Experiment 1
- 3.1.1Participants
- 3.1.2Materials
- 3.1.3Procedure
- 3.1.4Results
- Cognate effects on V1
- Reading times by condition across areas of interest
- 3.1.5Discussion
- 3.2Experiment 2
- 3.2.1Participants
- 3.2.2Materials
- 3.2.3Procedure
- 3.2.4Results
- Cognate effects on V1
- Reading times by condition across areas of interest
- 3.2.5Discussion
- 3.1Experiment 1
- 4.General discussion
- Acknowledgements
- Notes
-
References
This article is currently available as a sample article.
References
Cited by
Cited by 17 other publications
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 23 april 2022. 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.