How permeable are native and non-native syntactic processing to crosslinguistic influence?

Abstract

This study explores the boundary conditions of crosslanguage permeability in syntactic processing among late bilinguals, testing crosslinguistic influence (CLI) both from the first language (L1) to the second language (L2) and from the L2 to the L1. Findings from a visual world experiment with four groups of German-English and English-German bilinguals showed robust evidence for order of acquisition, but not for usage and immersion in L2, constraining CLI in the processing of structurally ambiguous wh-questions in German. Whereas CLI from the L1 persistently affected L2 sentence processing even among near-native and immersed L2 users, L1 processing appeared resilient against influence from the L2, even after long-term L2 immersion. These findings suggest that the timing of linguistic input in development plays a more critical role than current language use with regard to CLI in sentence processing among late bilinguals. The study highlights how systematic and bidirectional investigations of CLI contribute towards more nuanced models of the bilingual mind.