Determiner-Number Specification and Non-Local Agreement Computation in L1 and L2 Processing

• Published in: Journal of applied pharmaceutical research Vol. 51; no. 4; pp. 847 - 863
• Main Authors: Cheng, Yesi, Rothman, Jason, Cunnings, Ian
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.08.2022; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Acceptability; Behavioral Science and Psychology; Brain Mapping; Chinese; Chinese languages; Cognitive Psychology; Decision Making; Determiners; Electroencephalography; English (Second Language); Form Classes (Languages); Grammar; Grammatical agreement; Grammatical number; Humans; Language; Multilingualism; Native Language; Native speakers; Nonnative speakers; Prediction; Psycholinguistics; Psychology; Reading Processes; Second Language Instruction; Second Language Learning; Semantics; Task Analysis; Non-local agreement; Determiner-number specification; Self-paced reading; Non-native sentence processing
• ISSN: 0090-6905; 1573-6555; 2348-0335; 1573-6555; 2348-0335
• DOI: 10.1007/s10936-022-09864-w

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.