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ERIC Number: EJ1438421
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2023-Dec
Pages: 27
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0272-2631
EISSN: EISSN-1470-1545
Cross-Linguistic Differences in Predicting L2 Sentence Structure: The Use of Categorical and Gradient Verb Constraints
Duygu F. Safak; Holger Hopp
Studies in Second Language Acquisition, v45 n5 p1234-1260 2023
This study investigates whether cross-linguistic differences affect how adult second language (L2) learners use different types of verb subcategorization information for prediction in real-time sentence comprehension. Using visual world eye-tracking, we tested if first language (L1) German and L1 Turkish intermediate-to-advanced learners of L2 English make use of categorical and gradient probabilistic selectional information of ditransitive verbs to predict whether the verbs would be followed by prepositional-object or double-object dative constructions. L1 German learners used both categorical ("pay/*donate the woman the money") and gradient ("pay/#send the woman the money") constraints for prediction in a target-like manner. In contrast, L1 Turkish learners were delayed in recruiting categorical verb information and were only selectively sensitive to gradient verb information. We argue that target-like predictive processing across categorical and gradient verb information is attainable for L2 learners, but differences in L1-L2 word order may curtail the utility of prediction by verb subcategorization information in L2 processing.
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A