Determiner-number specification and non-local agreement computation in L1 and L2 processing

Cheng, Y., Rothman, J. and Cunnings, I. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5318-0186 (2022) Determiner-number specification and non-local agreement computation in L1 and L2 processing. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 51. pp. 847-863. ISSN 0090-6905 doi: 10.1007/s10936-022-09864-w

Abstract/Summary

The present study employed a self-paced reading task in conjunction with concurrent acceptability judgements to examine how similar or different English natives and Chinese learners of English are when processing non-local agreement. We also tested how determiner-number specification modulates number agreement computation in both native and non-native processing by manipulating number marking with demonstrative determiners (the versus that/these). Results suggest both groups were sensitive to non-local agreement violations, indexed by longer reading times for sentences containing number violations. Furthermore, we found determiner-number specification facilitated processing of number violations in both native and non-native groups in an acceptability judgement task only, with stronger sensitivity to violations with demonstrative determiners than those with bare determiners. Contrary to some theories that predict qualitative differences between native and non-native processing, we did not find any significant differences between native and non-native speakers, despite the fact that the Chinese speakers of English had to process a novel linguistic feature absent in their native language.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/104352
Identification Number/DOI	10.1007/s10936-022-09864-w
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Interdisciplinary Research Centres (IDRCs) > Centre for Literacy and Multilingualism (CeLM) Life Sciences > School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences > Department of Clinical Language Sciences Life Sciences > School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences > Language and Cognition
Publisher	Springer
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