Syntactic Processing in Second Language Production

Susanna FlettHolly Branigan, Martin Pickering,

& Antonella SoraceSchool of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences

University of Edinburgh

L2 sentence level production:

• Research focuses on L2 lexical level• What about phrasal/sentence level?

• What ?– Which structures available– How to form them

• When ?– Frequency of L2 structure– Semantic or pragmatic constraints on usage

Models of L1 production(Roelofs, 1992, 1993; Pickering & Branigan, 1998)

• Syntactic knowledge in lexicon• Combinatorial information:

• Phrasal in nature• Linked to specific lexical items• Shared between different lexical items

• Same architecture in L2?– (de Bot, 1992; Truscott & Sharwood Smith, 2004)

• Based on on-line behavioural evidence syntactic priming

• Tendency to re-used previously processed structure

Typical priming study

• Hear or read a sentence (prime)• Syntactic structure varies:

– Active: “One of the fans punched the referee”

– Passive: “The referee was punched by one of the fans”

• Then describe unrelated picture (target)

Priming Effect: Passive target more likely after passive prime

Syntactic priming

• Found with a variety of structures• (e.g., active/passive; dative PO/DO; word order; ‘that’

complementiser...)

• Not due to lexical, semantic or rhythmic overlap• (Bock, 1989; Bock & Loebell, 1990)

• Indicates abstract syntactic representations• Stronger effect if lexical overlap

• (e.g., Pickering & Branigan, 1998; Cleland & Pickering, 2003)

• Tool to study sentence level production• Well established in L1 speakers

L2 syntactic processing

• Do L2 speakers acquire:– Abstract syntactic representations?– Syntactic processing similar to L1?– L2 structural preferences?

• L2 Priming?• Stronger than in L1?• Change with proficiency?• Change with experimental context?

Experiments

• L1 and L2 Spanish (English L1)

• 1) Actives/Passives – dialogue

• 2) Actives/Passives – computerised

• 3) SV/VS – unergative verbs

• 4) SV/VS – unaccusative verbs

Experiments 1 & 2

• English and Spanish have actives and passives– John built the house– The house was built by John– Juan construyó la casa– La casa fue construida por Juan

• Spanish passive grammatical but uncommon

• Active/Passive• Same/Different verb

• (Branigan et al., 2000; Pickering & Branigan, 1998)

• Picture description game

• Dialogue with native Spanish confederate• (e.g., Branigan, Pickering & Cleland, 2000)

• Sit opposite each other

• Confederate follows script

• Spoken primes

Experiment 1

Experiment 1

Participant hears:

“El autobús persigue el tren” OR

“El tren es perseguido por el autobús”

Different verb in prime and target:

Different verb in prime and target:

Then see:

Decide if previous sentence matches picture or not

Different verb in prime and target:

Then see:

Describe picture out loud…

Participant hears:

“La guitarra destruye el televisor” OR

“El televisor es destruido por la guitarra”

Same verb in prime and target:

Same verb in prime and target:

Then see:

Decide if previous sentence matches picture or not

Same verb in prime and target:

Then see:

Describe picture out loud…

Experiment 1

• Participants:– L1 Spanish (n=12)– Intermediate (n=12) and advanced (n=12)

L2 Spanish (L1 English)

• Scoring: Actives, Passive or Other produced in each condition

Experiment 1:Percentage of passive targets

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

Act / same v Act / diff v Pass / same v Pass / diff v

L1L2

Prime Type

Group

% P

assi

ves

Experiment 2

• Social influence – pressure to conform to native speaker interlocuter?

• Experiment 2:– Monologue– Primes and pictures on computer– Visual primes

• Identical pattern of results, attenuated L2 priming

Implications

• L2 abstract representation• Linked to specific verbs lexical boost• Shared in comprehension and production• L2 more susceptible to priming than L1

• Passives exist in English and Spanish• Shared across languages

• (e.g., Hartsuiker, Pickering and Veltkamp, 2004)

• Prime a new structure?

Experiments 3 & 4: word order

• Spanish allows SV and VS order• Juan llegó ‘Juan arrived’• Llegó Juan ‘*Arrived Juan’

• Preference determined by:– lexical verb class – discourse structure

• Difficult for L2 learners to use appropriately

Intransitives

• Two intransitive verb groups – (e.g., Perlmutter, 1978)

– Unaccusatives: Arrive; enter; leave; fall• (argument is theme or patient, base-generated in object

position)

– Unergatives: Shout; dance; speak; laugh• (argument is an agent, generated in subject position)

• Semantic differences, syntactically represented– (e.g., Levin and Rappaport Hovav, 1995)

Lexical preferencesin neutral context:

• Unergatives take SV order • Mi hermana gritó (‘my sister shouted’)

• Unaccusatives prefer VS order• Llegó mi hermana (‘arrived my sister’)

• Early L2 (English L1) use only SV • Increasing sensitivity to preferences• Then over-generalise VS

(Hertel, 2003; Lozano, 2004)

Experiments 3 & 4:

• Word order is primable– (e.g., Hartsuiker & Westenberg, 2000; Hartsuiker, Kolk &

Huiskamp, 1999)

• How will priming and lexical preferences interact in L1 and L2 speakers?

Method:

• Primes presented on computer– SV or VS order– Same or different verb

• Expt 3: Unergatives (shout-type)• Expt 4: Unaccusatives (arrive-type)

• L1 Spanish (n=20)• L2 Spanish (L1 English; n=24)

Participant reads:

“El pingüino baila”

OR

“Baila el pingüino”

Different verb in prime and target:

Different verb in prime and target:

Then see:

Decide if previous sentence matches picture or not

Different verb in prime and target:

Then see:

Describe picture out loud…

Experiment 3 (unergatives):proportion of VS

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

SV / same v SV / diff v VS / same v VS / diff v

L1

L2

Prime Type

Group

% V

S o

rder

Experiment 4 (unaccusatives):proportion of VS

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

SV / same v SV / diff v VS / same v VS / diff v

L1

L2

Prime Type

Group

% V

S o

rder

Comparing Expts: 3 and 4

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

SV / same v SV / diff v VS / same v VS / diff v

L1

L2

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

SV / same v SV / diff v VS / same v VS / diff v

L1

L2

% V

S o

rder

Summary of findings

• Word order priming in L1 and L2 Spanish

• Stronger when verbal repetition

• Lexical preferences affect L1 priming

• L2 priming same for both verb groups

• L2 speakers more willing to use less frequent structures (passives, VS)

• L2 > L1 priming only when structure dispreferred in L1

Structural preferences in L1 and L2

• Priming stronger for lower-frequency structures

• (Bock, 1986; Hartsuiker & Kolk, 1998; Hartsuiker & Westermann, 2000; Scheepers, 2003)

• But dispreference of structures?– L1 dispreference resist priming

• (e.g., Pickering, Branigan & McClean, 2002, no heavy NP shift priming in English ; Hartsuiker & Kolk, 1998, passives in Dutch)

– L2 speakers: find passive and unerg-VS more acceptable

Conclusions

• Syntactic representation and processing similar in L1 and L2 (á la de Bot, 1992)– Syntactic priming– Lexical overlap boost

• L2 speakers not sensitive to preferences – can prime dispreferred structure

• L1 speakers floor effect can’t be overcome

Future Research?

• How would effects vary for:– Proficiency: beginner and near-native L2?– L1 and L2 speakers based in Spanish

environment?– Structures equally acceptable in both

languages?

Thank you for listening

• susanna.flett@ed.ac.uk