Using verb morphology to predict subject number in L1 and L2 sentence processing: A visual-world eye-tracking experiment

• Published in: Journal of the European Second Language Association Vol. 5; no. 1; pp. 115 - 132
• Main Authors: Koch, Eva M., Bulté, Bram, Housen, Alex, Godfroid, Aline
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: York Ubiquity Press Ltd 08.12.2021; Ubiquity Press; White Rose University Press
• Subjects: awareness; Cognitive load; Computational linguistics; Dutch language; Experiments; Eye movements; Gender; german; German as a second language; German language; Grammatical number; Grammatical subject; Language; Language acquisition; Language processing; Listening; Memory; Morphological processing; Morphology; morphosyntax; Native speakers; Natural language interfaces; Nonnative speakers; Noun phrases; prediction; Reaction time; second language acquisition; Second language learning; Semantics; Sentences; Short term memory; Suffixes; Syntactic processing; Verbs; visual world paradigm; United Kingdom
• ISSN: 2399-9101; 2399-9101
• DOI: 10.22599/jesla.79

We investigated whether adult German native speakers and Dutch-speaking second-language learners of German exploit German regular verb morphology for predictive sentence processing and whether such predictive processing is moderated by working memory capacity and awareness of the predictive cue. In a picture-matching task with visual-world eye-tracking, the participants (first-language group: n = 31; second-language group: n = 30) saw two pictures of action scenes, varying in the number of referents depicted (singular versus plural). Simultaneously, they heard sentences in German in which the verb suffix represented the first reliable cue for grammatical number of the upcoming subject noun phrase. Successful exploitation of this number cue was measured as anticipatory button-press reaction times and eye-movements toward the correct picture, before subject onset. We found significant prediction effects in both the first-language and the second-language group, with anticipatory processing being somewhat faster in the native speakers than in the learners. Faster reaction times on prediction trials were associated with higher working memory scores. Debriefing interviews revealed that all participants had become aware that they could use the verb form predictively, adding further evidence that prediction can be a conscious process. Keywords: second language acquisition, prediction, morphosyntax, German, visual world paradigm, awareness