Electrophysiological correlates of second-language syntactic processes are related to native and second language distance regardless of age of acquisition
Author
Díaz Menéndez, Begoña
Erdocia, Kepa
De Menezes, Robert F.
Mueller, Jutta L.
Sebastián-Gallés, Núria
Laka, Itziar
Publication date
2016-02-12ISSN
1664-1078
Abstract
In the present study, we investigate how early and late L2 learners process L2 grammatical traits that are either present or absent in their native language (L1). Thirteen early (AoA = 4 years old) and 13 late (AoA = 18 years old) Spanish learners of Basque performed a grammatical judgment task on auditory Basque sentences while their event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were recorded. The sentences contained violations of a syntactic property specific to participants' L2, i.e., ergative case, or violations of a syntactic property present in both of the participants' languages, i.e., verb agreement. Two forms of verb agreement were tested: subject agreement, found in participants' L1 and L2, and object agreement, present only in participants' L2. Behaviorally, early bilinguals were more accurate in the judgment task than late L2 learners. Early bilinguals showed native-like ERPs for verb agreement, which differed from the late learners' ERP pattern. Nonetheless, approximation to native-likeness was greater for the subject-verb agreement processing, the type of verb-agreement present in participants' L1, compared to object-verb agreement, the type of verb-agreement present only in participants' L2. For the ergative argument alignment, unique to L2, the two non-native groups showed similar ERP patterns which did not correspond to the natives' ERP pattern. We conclude that non-native syntactic processing approximates native processing for early L2 acquisition and high proficiency levels when the syntactic property is common to the L1 and L2. However, syntactic traits that are not present in the L1 do not rely on native-like processing, despite early AoA and high proficiency.
Document Type
Article
Document version
Published version
Language
English
Subject (CDU)
8 - language. Linguistics. Literature
Keywords
Bilingüisme
Gramàtica comparada i general -- Morfologia
Llenguatge i llengües -- Adquisició
Bilingüismo
Morfología (Gramática)
Lenguaje -- Adquisición
Bilingualism
Morphology
Language and languages -- Acquisition
Pages
13
Publisher
Frontiers Media
Collection
7;
Is part of
Frontiers in Psychology
Citation
Díaz Menéndez, Begoña; Erdocia, Kepa; De Menezes, Robert F. [et al.]. Electrophysiological correlates of second-language syntactic processes are related to native and second language distance regardless of age of acquisition. Frontiers in Psychology, 2016, 7, p. 1-13. Disponible en: <https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00133/full>. Fecha de acceso: 30 oct. 2020. DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00133
Grant agreement number
info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/EC/FP7/32867
info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/EC/FP7/613465
info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/1PE/PSI2015-66918-P
info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/3PN/PSI2012-34071
info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/1PE/PSI2015-71683-REDC
This item appears in the following Collection(s)
- Ciències de la Salut [740]
Rights
© 2016 Díaz, Erdocia, de Menezes, Mueller, Sebastián-Gallés and Laka. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/