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?
• 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)
Experiment 1
• 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
Different verb in prime and target:
Participant hears:
“El autobús persigue el tren”
OR
“El tren es perseguido por el autobús”
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…
Same verb in prime and target:
Participant hears:
“La guitarra destruye el televisor”
OR
“El televisor es destruido por la guitarra”
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
70
60
Group
% Passives
50
40
L1
L2
30
20
10
0
Act / same v
Act / diff v
Pass / same v
Prime Type
Pass / diff v
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 preferences
in 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)
Different verb in prime and target:
Participant reads:
“El pingüino baila”
OR
“Baila el pingüino”
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
60
% VS order
50
40
Group
30
L1
L2
20
10
0
SV / same v
SV / diff v
VS / same v
Prime Type
VS / diff v
Experiment 4 (unaccusatives):
proportion of VS
60
% VS order
50
Group
40
L1
L2
30
20
10
0
SV / same v
SV / diff v
Prime Type
VS / same v
VS / diff v
% VS order
Comparing Expts: 3 and 4
60
60
50
50
40
40
L1
L2
30
20
20
10
10
0
L1
L2
30
0
SV / same v
SV / diff v
VS / same v
VS / diff v
SV / same v
SV / diff v
VS / same v
VS / diff v
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