Abstract
Recent behavioural evidence from second language (L2) learners has suggested native-like processing of syntactic structures, such as long-distance wh-dependencies in L2. The underlying processes are still largely debated, while the available neuroimaging evidence has been restricted to native (L1) processing. Here we test highly proficient L2 learners of English in an fMRI experiment incorporating a sentence reading task with long-distance wh-dependencies, including abstract syntactic categories (empty traces of wh-movement). Our results suggest that long-distance wh-dependencies impose increased working memory (WM) demands, compared to control sentences of equal length, demonstrated as increased activation of the superior and middle temporal gyri bilaterally. Additionally, our results suggest abstract syntactic processing by the most immersed L2 learners, manifested as comparable left temporal activity for sentences with wh-traces and sentences with no wh-movement. These findings are discussed against current theoretical proposals about L2 syntactic processing.
Highlights
Research into second language (L2) processing has been increasingly concerned with how L2 syntax is acquired and processed by non-native speakers
In order to investigate effects of the intermediate trace, we did a further analysis comparing the EVP > ENP and ENP > EVP contrasts masked with the temporal cluster that emerged from the previous analysis
Ours is the first attempt to combine the two methods. This approach was preferred for two reasons: first, and foremost, we wanted to model the present study onto Pliatsikas & Marinis (2013), in order to ensure that the fMRI effects we report correspond to the same processing that took place in the behavioural study, and are the brain correlates of this processing without the confound of a different presentation mode
Summary
Research into second language (L2) processing has been increasingly concerned with how L2 syntax is acquired and processed by non-native speakers This has largely been driven by evidence demonstrating that L2 syntactic processing is subject to a number of factors that do not apply to native processing, such as age of L2 acquisition, linguistic immersion, and proficiency. Dallas and Kaan (2008) reviewed a number of studies investigating how long-distance syntactic dependencies are processed by L2 learners. They focused on whether L2 learners restrict their analysis to heuristic (semantic, lexical) information that helps them link displaced sentential elements, or whether they make use of abstract syntactic phrase structure information, which is by default available to native speakers. The present study builds on this debate by implementing a previously used behavioural design on the processing of abstract syntax in an fMRI paradigm, looking at the brain correlates of L2 syntactic p rocessing and how these are affected by the linguistic experience of the L2 learner
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