Abstract
Abstract The present article examines the proposal that typology is a major factor guiding transfer selectivity in L3/Ln acquisition. We tested first exposure in L3/Ln using two artificial languages (ALs) lexically based in English and Spanish, focusing on gender agreement between determiners and nouns, and between nouns and adjectives. 50 L1 Spanish-L2 English speakers took part in the experiment. After receiving implicit training in one of the ALs (Mini-Spanish, N = 26; Mini-English, N = 24), gender violations elicited a fronto-lateral negativity in Mini-English in the earliest time window (200–500 ms), although this was not followed by any other differences in subsequent periods. This effect was highly localized, surfacing only in electrodes of the right-anterior region. In contrast, gender violations in Mini-Spanish elicited a broadly distributed positivity in the 300–600 ms time window. While we do not find typical indices of grammatical processing such as the P600 component, we believe that the between-groups differential appearance of the positivity for gender violations in the 300–600 ms time window reflects differential allocation of attentional resources as a function of the ALs’ lexical similarity to English or Spanish. We take these differences in attention to be precursors of the processes involved in transfer source selection in L3/Ln.
Highlights
IntroductionEffects can in principle: (i) come from an L1 (either in the case of simultaneous [2L1] bilinguals) or from a sequentially acquired language (i.e., L2), (ii) have distinct qualitative natures (e.g., momentary intrusions of grammar versus contributions from copies of underlying linguistic representations), (iii) be holistic (from a single language, (one of) the L1(s) or the L2) or piecemeal, property-by-property (from both the L1 or L2) and/or (iv) come all at once (likely very early on) or iteratively, as needed, over the course of L3/Ln development
Quite rightly, determining how we approach these problems empirically and when the best time to test is along the L3/Ln developmental continuum must be assessed against the backdrop of articulated questions, situated in a context of relevant theoretical models
After removing the data from filler sentences, the raw accuracy scores and response times (RTs) were submitted to statistical analysis
Summary
Effects can in principle: (i) come from an L1 (either in the case of simultaneous [2L1] bilinguals) or from a sequentially acquired language (i.e., L2), (ii) have distinct qualitative natures (e.g., momentary intrusions of grammar versus contributions from copies of underlying linguistic representations), (iii) be holistic (from a single language, (one of) the L1(s) or the L2) or piecemeal, property-by-property (from both the L1 or L2) and/or (iv) come all at once (likely very early on) or iteratively, as needed, over the course of L3/Ln development This dynamic reality makes the study of cross-linguistic effects in multilingualism a challenging task. Quite rightly, determining how we approach these problems empirically and when the best time to test is along the L3/Ln developmental continuum must be assessed against the backdrop of articulated questions, situated in a context of relevant theoretical models
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