1、Syntactic Processing in Second Language Production,Susanna Flett Holly Branigan, Martin Pickering, & Antonella Sorace School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences University of Edinburgh,L2 sentence level production:,Research focuses on L2 lexical level What about phrasal/sentence level?Wh
2、at ? 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 lexica
3、l items Shared between different lexical itemsSame 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 va
4、ries: 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;
5、word order; that complementiser.) Not due to lexical, semantic or rhythmic overlap (Bock, 1989; Bock 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 process
6、ing 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,Exper
7、iments 1 & 2,English and Spanish have actives and passives John built the house The house was built by John Juan construy la casa La casa fue construida por JuanSpanish passive grammatical but uncommonActive/Passive Same/Different verb (Branigan et al., 2000; Pickering & Branigan, 1998),Picture desc
8、ription game Dialogue with native Spanish confederate (e.g., Branigan, Pickering & Cleland, 2000) Sit opposite each other Confederate follows scriptSpoken primes,Experiment 1,Experiment 1,Participant hears: “El autobs persigue el tren” OR “El tren es perseguido por el autobs”,Different verb in prime
9、 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 pri
10、me 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,
11、Passive or Other produced in each condition,Experiment 1: Percentage of passive targets,Prime Type,Group,% Passives,Experiment 2,Social influence pressure to conform to native speaker interlocuter?Experiment 2: Monologue Primes and pictures on computer Visual primesIdentical pattern of results, atte
12、nuated L2 priming,Implications,L2 abstract representation Linked to specific verbs lexical boost Shared in comprehension and production L2 more susceptible to priming than L1Passives exist in English and Spanish Shared across languages (e.g., Hartsuiker, Pickering and Veltkamp, 2004) Prime a new str
13、ucture?,Experiments 3 & 4: word order,Spanish allows SV and VS order Juan lleg Juan arrived Lleg Juan *Arrived Juan Preference determined by: lexical verb class discourse structureDifficult for L2 learners to use appropriately,Intransitives,Two intransitive verb groups (e.g., Perlmutter, 1978)Unaccu
14、satives: 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 preferenc
15、es in neutral context:,Unergatives take SV order Mi hermana grit (my sister shouted)Unaccusatives prefer VS order Lleg 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 or
16、der is primable (e.g., Hartsuiker 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 verbExpt 3: Unergatives (shout-type) Expt 4: Unaccusatives (arrive-type)L1 Spanish (n=20
17、) L2 Spanish (L1 English; n=24),Participant reads:“El pingino baila” OR “Baila el pingino”,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,Expe
18、riment 3 (unergatives): proportion of VS,Prime Type,Group,% VS order,Experiment 4 (unaccusatives): proportion of VS,Prime Type,Group,% VS order,Comparing Expts: 3 and 4,% VS order,Summary of findings,Word order priming in L1 and L2 Spanish Stronger when verbal repetition Lexical preferences affect L
19、1 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 Hartsuiker & Kolk, 1
20、998, passives in Dutch) L2 speakers: find passive and unerg-VS more acceptable,Conclusions,Syntactic representation and processing similar in L1 and L2 ( la de Bot, 1992) Syntactic priming Lexical overlap boost L2 speakers not sensitive to preferences can prime dispreferred structure L1 speakers floor effect cant 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.fletted.ac.uk,
