Abstract
We used event-related potentials to investigate morphosyntactic development in 78 adult English-speaking learners of Spanish as a second language (L2) across the proficiency spectrum. We examined how development is modulated by the similarity between the native language (L1) and the L2, by comparing number (a feature present in English) and gender agreement (novel feature). We also investigated how development is impacted by structural distance, manipulating the distance between the agreeing elements by probing both within-phrase (fruta muy jugosa “fruit-FEM-SG very juicy-FEM-SG”) and across-phrase agreement (fresa es ácida “strawberry-FEM-SG is tart-FEM-SG”). Regression analyses revealed that the learners’ overall proficiency, as measured by a standardized test, predicted their accuracy with the target properties in the grammaticality judgment task (GJT), but did not predict P600 magnitude to the violations. However, a relationship emerged between immersion in Spanish-speaking countries and P600 magnitude for gender. Our results also revealed a correlation between accuracy in the GJT and P600 magnitude, suggesting that behavioral sensitivity to the target property predicts neurophysiological sensitivity. Subsequent group analyses revealed that the highest-proficiency learners showed equally robust P600 effects for number and gender. This group also elicited more positive waveforms for within- than across-phrase agreement overall, similar to the native controls. The lowest-proficiency learners showed a P600 for number overall, but no effects for gender. Unlike the highest-proficiency learners, they also showed no sensitivity to structural distance, suggesting that sensitivity to such linguistic factors develops over time. Overall, these results suggest an important role for proficiency in morphosyntactic development, although differences emerged between behavioral and electrophysiological measures. While L2 proficiency predicted behavioral sensitivity to agreement, development with respect to the neurocognitive mechanisms recruited in processing only emerged when comparing the two extremes of the proficiency spectrum. Importantly, while both L1-L2 similarity and hierarchical structure impact development, they do not constrain it.
Highlights
The present study uses event-related potentials “ERPs” to investigate morphosyntactic development in a group of 78 adult English-speaking learners of Spanish as a second language (L2) at three levels of proficiency
We examine noun-adjective number and gender agreement. An example of these agreement relations in Spanish is shown in (1), where the noun manzanas “apples” triggers number and gender agreement on both the attributive adjective rojas “red”, which is located within the determiner phrase (DP), and the predicative adjective deliciosas “delicious”, which is located across a verb phrase (VP): DP1⁄2Las manzanas rojas VP1⁄2son deliciosas: theÀ FEMÀ PL appleÀ FEMÀ PL redÀ FEMÀ PL are deliciousÀ FEMÀ PL
The present study reveals a strong role for proficiency in L2 morphosyntactic development, differences emerged between behavioral and electrophysiological measures of sensitivity
Summary
The present study uses event-related potentials “ERPs” to investigate morphosyntactic development in a group of 78 adult English-speaking learners of Spanish as a second language (L2) at three levels of proficiency (low, intermediate, high). We examine noun-adjective number and gender agreement. One of the main questions that we investigate concerns how development is impacted by the properties of the learners’ native language (L1). The linguistic properties that we focus on differ with respect to their status in our learners’ L1. Our study is among the first to investigate how morphosyntactic development is affected by linguistic factors such as the structural distance between the elements in the agreement dependency (i.e. whether the noun and the adjective belong in the same phrase or in different phrases) (see [3])
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