Final published version
Licence: CC BY: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Determiner-Number Specification and Non-Local Agreement Computation in L1 and L2 Processing
AU - Cheng, Yesi
AU - Rothman, Jason
AU - Cunnings, Ian
N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2022, The Author(s).
PY - 2022/8/31
Y1 - 2022/8/31
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
KW - Determiner-number specification
KW - Non-local agreement
KW - Non-native sentence processing
KW - Self-paced reading
U2 - 10.1007/s10936-022-09864-w
DO - 10.1007/s10936-022-09864-w
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 35325344
AN - SCOPUS:85127211366
VL - 51
SP - 847
EP - 863
JO - Journal of Psycholinguistic Research
JF - Journal of Psycholinguistic Research
SN - 0090-6905
IS - 4
ER -