Poster B45, Tuesday, August 20, 2019, 3:15 – 5:00 pm, Restaurant Hall
Sensitivity to syntactic affixation restrictions in L1 vs. L2 processing as revealed by ERPs
Linnaea Stockall1, Phaedra Royle2,5, Christina Manouilidou3, Sam Steddy1, Carsten Steinhauer4,5;1Queen Mary University of London, 2Université de Montréal, 3Univerza v Ljubljani, 4McGill University, 5Centre for Research on Brain, Language and Music
Recent MEG experiments in English and Greek identify spatially and temporally distinct evoked processing responses associated with grammatical category vs. verb argument structure violations in complex word-formation (Neophytou et al, 2018). In both languages, pseudowords composed of a verbal-stem selecting affix plus a nominal stem (CATegory errors e.g. EN: rehat, GK: varelimos ‘barrelable’) evoke increased left posterior temporal activity between 200-300ms post-stimulus onset in a visual lexical decision paradigm. Pseudowords that respect categorial restrictions but violate ARGument structure requirements of the affix (verb must take a direct object, e.g. EN: relaugh, GK: gelasimos ‘laughable’) evoke increased orbitofrontal activity from 300-500ms p.s.o. LeftPTL sensitivity to syntactic computation has been found in a number of studies (see Flick & Pylkkänen, 2018), while OF activity has been associated with semantic ill-formedness and coercion (Fruchter & Marantz, 2015). Thus, the spatial and temporal CAT vs. ARG dissociation is consistent with ‘syntax-first’ models of language processing. We adapt the CAT vs. ARG violation paradigm in a pair of ERP experiments to address the following questions: (a) can we find evidence for early syntactic processing – as manifest through CATegory errors (rehat) – using EEG? We anticipated LANs and late P600s as reflexes of syntactic word-structure error processing; (b) do L2 speakers show the same neural and behavioural responses for early syntactic processing and for word-formation violations in general as native speakers? We compared results from 26 native Greek speakers who had immigrated to the UK as adults within five years of the experiment, in their two languages (L1:Greek, L2:English) when processing well-formed affixed words (eg. refill), CAT-violations, and ARG-violations. RESULTS: Behavioural: We replicated the pattern of significantly more robust rejection of CAT than ARG violations, in both languages (L1:94% vs. 78%, L2:89% vs. 81%). ERPs: L1, participants exhibit larger N400-like negativities to both violations than real words, with a slightly earlier onset for the CAT violation. L2, group data showed a biphasic N400-P600 pattern which differed for CAT versus ARG conditions: the N400 was stronger in the CAT condition, and the P600 was earlier in the ARG condition, possibly because of the smaller N400 preceding it. This pattern also differed depending on participants’ ability to categorise real vs. pseudo-words in their L2; Low performers showed mostly reduced P600s to both types of errors while high performers exhibited a substantial negativity followed by a late positivity after 700 ms. SUMMARY: Participants exhibit differing patterns of sensitivity to pseudoword violations based on (1) the error type, (2) the L1 or L2 status and (3) their proficiency in L2 as measured by their behavioural results. L1 ERP patterns are consistent with syntactic violations being parsed more rapidly than semantic violations. L2 ERPs appear to converge on L1 patterns with increased proficiency in these adult L2 learners, and apparently more so for more salient, earlier CAT word-structure violations.
Themes: Morphology, Multilingualism
Method: Electrophysiology (MEG/EEG/ECOG)