Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-zzh7m Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T08:47:06.477Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Language distance and non-native syntactic processing: Evidence from event-related potentials*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 November 2010

ADAM ZAWISZEWSKI ,
EVA GUTIÉRREZ ,
BEATRIZ FERNÁNDEZ  and
ITZIAR LAKA
ADAM ZAWISZEWSKI*
Affiliation:
Department of Linguistics and Basque Studies, University of the Basque Country
EVA GUTIÉRREZ
Affiliation:
Center for Mind and Brain, University of California Davis
BEATRIZ FERNÁNDEZ
Affiliation:
Department of Linguistics and Basque Studies, University of the Basque Country
ITZIAR LAKA
Affiliation:
Department of Linguistics and Basque Studies, University of the Basque Country
*
Address for correspondence: Adam Zawiszewski, University of the Basque Country, Elebilab-Psycholinguistics Laboratory, Calle Tomas y Valiente, s/n 01006 Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spainadam.zawis@gmail.com
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In this study, we explore native and non-native syntactic processing, paying special attention to the language distance factor. To this end, we compared how native speakers of Basque and highly proficient non-native speakers of Basque who are native speakers of Spanish process certain core aspects of Basque syntax. Our results suggest that differences in native versus non-native language processing strongly correlate with language distance: native/non-native processing differences obtain if a syntactic parameter of the non-native grammar diverges from the native grammar. Otherwise, non-native processing will approximate native processing as levels of proficiency increase. We focus on three syntactic parameters: (i) the head parameter, (ii) argument alignment (ergative/accusative), and (iii) verb agreement. The first two diverge in Basque and Spanish, but the third is the same in both languages. Our results reveal that native and non-native processing differs for the diverging syntactic parameters, but not for the convergent one. These findings indicate that language distance has a significant impact in non-native language processing.

Keywords

ERP; ergativityL1 versus L2 language processingbilingualismlanguage distance
Type
Research Article
Information
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition , Volume 14 , Issue 3 , July 2011 , pp. 400 - 411
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

This research was partially supported by the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science (BRAINGLOT CSD2007-00012/CONSOLIDER-INGENIO 2010, FFI2009-09695/FILO, FFI2008-00240/FILO, FFI2010-20472/FILO), Basque Government (IT414-10), University of the Basque Country (GIU09/44) and the French Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR-07-CORP-033). We are also grateful to Kepa Erdozia and Begoña Díaz for their valuable help during data acquisition.

References

Baker, M. C. (2001). The atoms of language: The mind's hidden rules of grammar. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Baker, M. C. (2003). Language differences and language design. Trends in Cognitive Sciencies, 7, 349–353.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chen, L., Shu, H., Liu, Y., Zhao, J., & Li, P. (2007). ERP signatures of subject–verb agreement in L2 learning. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 10 (2), 161–174.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cheng, L. (1997). On the typology of wh-questions. New York & London: Garland.Google Scholar
Chomsky, N. (1981). Lectures on government and binding. Dordrecht: Foris.Google Scholar
Coulson, S., King, J., & Kutas, M. (1998). Expect the unexpected: Event-related brain response to morphosyntactic violations. Language and Cognitive Processes, 13 (1), 21–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
de Rijk, R. P. G. (2008). Standard Basque: A progressive grammar. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Díaz, B., Sebastián-Gallés, N., Erdozia, K., Mueller, J., & Laka, I. (2006). Individual differences in the syntactic processing/learning of second language: An ERP study. Poster presented a V Congreso español de Psicofisiología, Granada, September 28–30.Google Scholar
Díaz, B. (2009). Why do some people master a second language? (while others do not). Ph.D. dissertation, University of Barcelona.Google Scholar
Dixon, R. M. W. (1994). Ergativity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Friederici, A. D. (2002). Towards a neural basis of auditory sentence processing. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 6 (2), 78–84.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Friederici, A. D., & Kotz, S. (2003). The brain basis of syntactic processes: Functional imaging and lesion studies. NeuroImage, 20, S8–S17.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Frisch, S., & Schlesewsky, M. (2001). The N400 reflects problems of thematic hierarchizing. Basic and Clinical Neurophysiology, 12 (15), 3391–3394.Google ScholarPubMed
Frisch, S., & Schlesewsky, M. (2005). The resolution of case conflicts from neurophysiological perspective. Cognitive Brain Research, 25, 484–498.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gillon, Dowens, M., Vergara, M., Barber, H. A., & Carreiras, M. (2010). Morphosyntactic processing in late second-language learners. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 22 (8), 1870–1887.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hahne, A. (2001). What's different in second-language processing: Evidence from event-related brain potentials. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 30 (3), 251–266.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hahne, A., & Friederici, A. D. (2001). Processing a second language late learners’ comprehension mechanisms as revealed by event-related brain potentials. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 4 (2), 123–141.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hualde, J. I., & Ortiz de Urbina, J. (2003). A grammar of Basque. Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kotz, S. (2009). A critical review of ERP and fMRI evidence on L2 syntactic processing Brain and Language, 109 (2–3), 68–74.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kotz, S., Holcomb, Ph., & Osterhout, L. (2008). ERPs reveal comparable syntactic sentence processing in native and non-native reader of English. Acta Psychologica, 128, 514–527.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mueller, J., Hahne, A., Fujii, Y., & Friederici, A. D. (2005). Native and nonnative speakers’ processing of a miniature version of Japanese as revealed by ERPs. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 17 (8), 1229–1244.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mueller, J., Hirotani, M., & Friederici, A. D. (2007). ERP evidence for different strategies in the processing of case markers in native speakers and non-native learners. BMC Neuroscience, 8 (18), 1–16.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Munte, T., Heinze, H., Matzke, M., Wieringa, B., & Johannes, S. (1998). Brain potentials and syntactic violations revisited: No evidence for specificity of the syntactic positive shift. Neuropsychologia, 36, 217–226.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ojima, S., Nakata, H., & Kakigi, R. (2005). An ERP study of second language learning after childhood: Effects of proficiency. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 17 (8), 1212–1228.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Oldfield, R.C. (1971). The assessment and analysis of handedness: The Edinburgh Inventory. Neuropsychologia, 9, 97–113.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pallier, Ch., Dupoux, M., & Jeannin, X. (1997). EXPE: An expandable programming language for on-line psychological experiments. Behavioural Research Methods, Instrument and Computer, 29 (3), 322–327.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roehm, D., Bornkessel, I., Heider, H., & Schlesewsky, M. (2005). When case meets agreement: Event-related potential effects for morphology-based conflict resolution in human language comprehension. Cognitive Neuroscience Neuroreport, 16 (8), 875–878.Google ScholarPubMed
Rossi, S., Gugler, M. F., Friederici, A. D., & Hahne, A. (2006). The impact of proficiency on second-language processing of German and Italian: Evidence from event-related potentials. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 18 (2), 2030–2048.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wartenburger, I., Heekeren, H., Abutalebi, J., Cappa, S., & Villringer, A. (2003). Early setting of grammatical processing in the bilingual brain. Neuron, 37, 159–170.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Weber-Fox, Ch. M., & Neville, H. J. (1996). Maturational constraints on functional specializations for language processing: ERP and behavioural evidence in bilingual speakers. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 8 (3), 231–256.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zawiszewski, A., & Friederici, A. D. (2009). Processing canonical and non-canonical sentences in Basque: The case of object–verb agreement as revealed by event-related brain potentials. Brain Research, 1284, 161–179.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed