Processing Of Gender Agreement Research Articles

Is there a multilingual advantage in gender agreement processing? Evidence from self-paced reading

ABSTRACT Do learners who have mastered two gender systems prior to learning a third have an advantage in gender processing over those who have mastered only one gender system? To address this question, we recruited two groups of adult Polish learners of L3/Ln Swedish with and without prior knowledge of German. They completed a self-paced reading task in Swedish that involved two types of gender marking: the indefinite article, which is realised similarly in Swedish and German, and the definite suffix, which is uniquely present in Swedish. We found that while both groups were sensitive to gender agreement violations involving the indefinite article, only learners with knowledge of German showed sensitivity to gender agreement violations involving the definite suffix. Therefore, knowledge of non-native German conferred an advantage for the processing of dissimilar rather than similar gender marking. We interpret these findings in light of morphological transfer from German that consists in the employment of the existing morphemes and assigning them new grammatical functions. More broadly, the study indicates that the gender system in a non-native language rather than the native language, might be more helpful for the acquisition of a new type of gender marking in L3/Ln.

Morphological Markedness and the Temporal Dynamics of Gender Agreement Processing in Spanish as a Majority and a Heritage Language

Morphological Markedness and the Temporal Dynamics of Gender Agreement Processing in Spanish as a Majority and a Heritage Language

Facilitative Processing of Grammatical Gender in Heritage Speakers with Two Gender Systems

Abstract This study investigates facilitative processing of grammatical gender in heritage Spanish speakers whose dominant language is German, using eye-tracking in the Visual World Paradigm. Bilinguals with two gender systems are known to have an integrated mental lexicon with shared gender features that are co-activated during language processing and can result in interference. The present study shows that, despite observed effects of gender congruency with German, heritage speakers were able to use gender information on prenominal articles in Spanish to facilitate lexical retrieval of the target noun. This suggests that processing of gender agreement in the heritage language is resilient to competition from gender in the dominant language during real-time spoken-language comprehension. Moreover, direct comparison with previous results from heritage Spanish speakers in the USA does not show evidence that overall speed of facilitative processing in the heritage language is modulated by the presence or absence of gender in the majority language.

Working memory and L2 gender agreement processing in structural distance conditions

Previous studies examining the role of executive function in L2 processing show that working memory (WM) facilitates the processing of agreement in local domains in adult second language (L2) learners. Furthermore, other studies explored whether L2 learners can establish the agreement operation across phrases (i.e., structural distance) and whether WM intervenes in the said linguistic computation. However, these studies have often included both syntactic and linear distance in their stimuli, making it impossible to discern whether WM effects emerge from physical or syntactic reasons. The present study assesses how verbal WM updating and L2 proficiency modulate syntactic processing. Beginner and advanced adult English L2 learners of Spanish and Spanish monolinguals completed a verbal WM updating task, and a self-paced reading task containing Spanish sentences with gender agreement and disagreement within and across phrases. Results show that Spanish monolinguals exhibited sensitivity to gender agreement violations in local domains and in structural distance conditions, while beginner L2 learners were not sensitive to violations in either condition. Advanced learners, on the other hand, detected violations in local domains, and their verbal WM updating spans were associated with sensitivity to violations across phrases. Taken together, the findings suggest that (a) morphosyntactically complex structures consume cognitive resources in great number, and (b) L2 processing is qualitatively similar albeit quantitatively different from native processing, thus providing evidence that late bilinguals may process the L2 in a native-like manner.

Fine-grained differences in gender-cue strength affect predictive processing in children: Cross-linguistic evidence from Russian and Bulgarian

We tested predictive gender agreement processing in adjective–noun phrases by 45 4- to 6-year-old Russian- and Bulgarian-speaking children using the visual world eye-tracking paradigm. Russian and Bulgarian are closely related languages that have three genders but differ in the nature and number of gender cues on adjectives. Analysis of the proportion and time course of looks to the target noun showed that only Bulgarian children used gender cues to predict the upcoming noun. We argue that the cross-linguistic difference in the gender cue strength is revealed through the operation of economy, transparency, and interdependence in a gender complexity matrix. The documented advantage for Bulgarian children in gender agreement processing and acquisition underscores the need for a comparative language acquisition approach to typologically close languages.

The effect of asymmetric grammatical gender systems on second language processing: Evidence from ERPs

Aims and objectives: This study examined the effect of the first language (L1) grammatical gender (GG) system on the second language (L2) gender agreement processing, particularly when L1 and L2 are asymmetric in their number of gender values such as in Spanish and German languages. Methodology: Behavioral and brain responses (ERPs) were registered while German native-speakers (16) and Spanish-German bilinguals (24) read sentences for comprehension. We manipulated gender agreement between the determiner and the noun: Der/*die Ring, “themasc/*thefem ringmasc.” The nouns were either of similar or opposite gender across languages or unique in L2 (neuter gender). Data and analysis: Behavioral responses measured participants’ ability to discriminate grammatical from ungrammatical sentences. For ERPs, N400 and P600 components were analyzed by means of a linear mixed-effect model. Findings/conclusion: Behavioral data showed that German native-speakers discriminated gender agreement violations better than Spanish-German bilinguals, irrespective of lexical gender overlap across languages. Native speakers showed a P600 effect to gender agreement violations, whereas bilinguals showed an N400-like effect to gender mismatches that involved same-gender nouns across languages and neuter gender nouns. Interestingly, opposite gender nouns between L1 and L2 that agreed in gender with the determiner were processed as incorrect for the bilinguals. These results suggest transfer effects from L2 learners’ L1 GG system that facilitate L2 gender agreement processing for similar and neuter gender nouns or hinder it for opposite gender nouns across languages. Originality: This study used ERPs to demonstrate how asymmetries in terms of the number of lexical gender categories between L1 and L2 GG systems can affect L2 learners’ ability to process L2 gender agreement in a native-like manner. Significance/implications: These findings elucidate the challenges L2 learners face when learning a three-gender value system in L2, including a great number of gender incongruences between L1 and L2 nouns and a new neuter gender category.

The processing of gender agreement during reading comprehension in L2 French: The effects of syntactic complexity and working memory

A longstanding debate in L2 research focuses on how syntactic complexity needs to be operationalized to account for L2 performances. Whereas many studies investigated this issue in L2 production, very few studies focused on L2 sentence processing. The present study aimed at investigating the effect of syntactic complexity on gender agreement processing in L2 French, while controlling for the learners’ working memory capacity. We tested 37 Dutch learners of French by means of a self-paced reading technique. The results showed decreased sensitivity to gender agreement in embedded structures, but increased sensitivity to gender agreement in non-embedded structures. We concluded that the number of clauses in gender agreement constructions accounts for the effect of syntactic complexity on gender agreement processing in L2 French and that this measure is negatively correlated to sensitivity to gender agreement. We furthermore concluded that (non-verbal) working memory does not affect L2 gender agreement processing.

Does pleasantness affect the grammatical brain? An ERP study on individual differences

ABSTRACT This ERP study used a grammaticality judgement task to analyse the interface between morphosyntactic and affective processing, as well as the modulatory role of individual differences. Participants (mostly women) were presented with Spanish noun phrases (Determiner + Noun + Adjective) in which the noun and the adjective (pleasant or neutral) either agreed or not in gender. Results confirm previous evidence on the existence of two main dominance brain patterns: negative (people showing LAN effects) and positive (people showing P600 effects). They also reveal that the individuals with a negative profile temporarily prioritised grammatical processing over affective processing while the individuals with a positive profile prioritised emotionality over grammaticality. Crucially, interactive effects between these two factors did not emerge in either group or time window. This lack of interaction contradicts previous evidence on unpleasant words. The present findings highlight the relevance of individual differences and word valence in gender agreement processing.

Processing gender agreement in an additional language: The more languages the better?

Although previous research has observed a facilitative influence of the first language (L1) on the acquisition and processing of gender agreement in a second language (L2), particularly in language pairs with similar gender agreement marking, the question of whether knowledge of two languages with gender can confer an additional advantage for L3/Ln (third or additional language) learners has not yet been addressed. The present study aimed to fill this research gap by examining the processing of gender agreement in intermediate and advanced L3/Ln Swedish among two groups of Polish native speakers: 30 L2 English / L3 Swedish learners, and 30 L2 English / L3 German / L4 Swedish learners. Participants were tested by means of a speeded grammaticality judgment task, in which they judged the correctness of indefinite noun phrases that either agreed or did not agree in gender. They also completed an untimed gender assignment task to control for their lexical knowledge of gender. Accuracy and response time data were submitted to Generalized Linear Models. The analysis shows that L4 Swedish learners process noun phrases faster than L3 Swedish learners, but only at the intermediate proficiency level; however, the groups do not differ in their judgment accuracy. This advantage is interpreted in terms of a surface transfer of similar gender agreement marking, which helps the learners automatize gender agreement processes earlier, but does not increase their sensitivity to gender-agreement violations. Moreover, the results accord with previous L2 studies in showing that learners of Swedish as L3/Ln develop sensitivity to ungrammaticality with advancing proficiency and benefit substantially from their gender assignment knowledge in processing gender agreement. Crucially, the present study provides preliminary evidence of a multilingual advantage in processing morphosyntactic features in L3/Ln.

The Effect of Age of Onset of Bilingualism on Gender Agreement Processing in Spanish as a Heritage Language

AbstractMontrul's (2008) onset age hypothesis predicts that, if attrition occurs in early bilingualism, it will be more severe in simultaneous than in sequential bilinguals. This study tested that prediction in an eye‐tracking experiment focused on the processing of Spanish gender agreement during sentence reading. Heritage Spanish speakers exposed to English at different ages (0–3, 4–6, 7–10 years) read sentences containing violations of noun–adjective gender agreement in 2 distance conditions (adjacent, nonadjacent). Mixed‐effects modeling with reverse Helmert contrasts showed that heritage speakers displayed sensitivity to gender agreement violations in their minority language regardless of onset age and noun–adjective proximity. However, onset age of majority language acquisition determined how early sensitivity manifested itself in the time course of grammatical processing. Consistent with Montrul's hypothesis, sequential bilinguals showed sensitivity to violations earlier in their eye‐movement record than did simultaneous bilinguals. The results suggest onset age can affect grammatical processing in bilinguals who otherwise acquire target like mental representations.

Syntactic Gender Agreement Processing on Direct-Object Clitics by Spanish-Speaking Children with Developmental Language Disorder: Evidence from ERP.

Children with developmental language disorder (DLD) have a psycholinguistic profile evincing multiple syntactic processing impairments. Spanish-speaking children with DLD struggle with gender agreement on clitics; however, the existing evidence comes from offline, elicitation tasks. In the current study, we sought to determine whether converging evidence of this deficit can be found. In particular, we use the real-time processing technique of event-related brain potentials (ERP) with direct-object clitic pronouns in Spanish-speaking children with DLD. Our participants include 15 six-year-old Mexican Spanish-speaking children with DLD and 19 typically developing, age-matched (TD) children. Auditory sentences that matched or did not match the gender features of antecedents represented in pictures were employed as stimuli in a visual–auditory gender agreement task. Gender-agreement violations were associated with an enhanced anterior negativity between 250 and 500 ms post-target onset in the TD children group. In contrast, children with DLD showed no such effect. This absence of the left anterior negativity (LAN) effect suggests weaker lexical representation of morphosyntactic gender features and/or non-adult-like morphosyntactic gender feature checking for the DLD children. We discuss the relevance of these findings for theoretical accounts of DLD. Our findings may contribute to a better understanding of syntactic agreement processing and language disorders.

Auditory Processing of Gender Agreement across Relative Clauses by Spanish Heritage Speakers

Processing research on Spanish gender agreement has focused on L2 learners’ and—to a lesser extent—heritage speakers’ sensitivity to gender agreement violations. This research has been mostly carried out in the written modality, which places heritage speakers at a disadvantage as they are more frequently exposed to Spanish auditorily. This study contributes to the understanding of the differences between heritage and L2 grammars by examining the processing of gender agreement in the auditory modality and its impact on comprehension. Twenty Spanish heritage speakers and 20 intermediate L2 learners listened to stimuli containing two nouns with gender mismatches in the main clause, and an adjective in the relative clause that only agreed in gender with one of the nouns. We measured noun-adjective agreement accuracy through participants’ responses to an auditory task. Our results show that heritage speakers are more accurate than L2 learners in the auditory processing of gender agreement information for comprehension. Additionally, heritage speakers’ accuracy is modulated by their Spanish language proficiency and age of onset. Participants also exhibit higher accuracies in cases in which the adjective agrees with the first noun. We argue that this is an ambiguity resolution strategy influenced by the experimental task.

Early and late bilingual processing of Spanish gender, morphology and gender congruency

The present study investigates whether advanced proficiency-matched early and late bilinguals display gender agreement processing quantitatively and qualitatively similar to that of native speakers of Spanish. To address this issue, a timed grammaticality judgment task was used to analyze the effects on accuracy and reaction times of grammatical gender, morphology, and gender congruency of the article and adjective within a noun phrase. Overall results indicated no significant statistical differences between the native speakers and the two bilingual groups. Both early and late bilinguals displayed similar grammatical gender knowledge in their underlying grammars. A detailed examination of the congruency effect, however, revealed that the native speakers, not the bilinguals, displayed sensitivity to gender agreement violations. Moreover, the native and heritage speakers pattern together in accuracy and directionality of gender agreement processing: both were less accurate with incongruent articles than with incongruent adjectives, while the second language learners were equally accurate in both agreement domains. Despite having internalized gender in their implicit grammars, the late bilinguals did not show native-like patterns in real time processing. The present findings suggest that, for high proficiency speakers, there is a distinct advantage for early over late bilinguals in achieving native-like gender lexical access and retrieval. Therefore, age of acquisition, in conjunction with learning context, might be the best predictor of native-like gender agreement processing at advanced and near-native proficiency levels.

Syntactic processing in L2 depends on perceived reliability of the input: Evidence from P600 responses to correct input.

In 3 ERP experiments, we investigated how experienced L2 speakers process natural and correct syntactic input that deviates from their own, sometimes incorrect, syntactic representations. Our previous study (Lemhöfer, Schriefers, & Indefrey, 2014) had shown that L2 speakers do engage in native-like syntactic processing of gender agreement but base this processing on their own idiosyncratic (and sometimes incorrect) grammars. However, as in other standard ERP studies, but different from realistic L2 input, the materials in that study contained a large proportion of incorrect sentences. In the present study, German speakers of Dutch read exclusively objectively correct Dutch sentences that did or did not contain subjective determiner "errors" (e.g., de boot "the boat," which conflicts with the intuition of many German speakers that the correct phrase should be het boot). During reading for comprehension (Experiment 1), no syntax-related ERP responses for subjectively incorrect compared to correct phrases were observed. The same was true even when participants explicitly attended to and learned from the determiners in the sentences (Experiment 2). Only when participants judged the correctness of determiners in each sentence (Experiment 3) did a clear P600 appear. These results suggest that the full and native-like use of subjective grammars, as reflected in the P600 to subjective violations, occurs only when speakers have reason to mistrust the grammaticality of the input, either because of the nature of the task (grammaticality judgments) or because of the salient presence of incorrect sentences. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

The neurocognitive mechanisms of semantic gender processing in L1 and L2 personal nouns by Chinese-English bilinguals

ABSTRACTSemantic gender agreement processing can be a problem for Chinese-English bilinguals, but it is still unclear whether the problem originates from a processing deficiency in the antecedent. To clarify this issue, the present study conducted two ERP experiments in which unbalanced Chinese-English bilinguals read L1 and L2 sentences describing pictures just presented. ERP responses to the personal nouns that were either congruent or incongruent in gender with the picture referents were recorded and analysed. In the L1, a gender incongruity effect (P600) was observed. In the L2, the more proficient group demonstrated the same gender incongruity effect as in the L1, while the less proficient group manifested a pattern of N400 plus late P600 (700–900 ms). These findings indicate that Chinese-English bilinguals were able to access in time semantic gender information in both L1 and L2 personal nouns, but the exact mechanisms differed qualitatively between learners differing in L2 proficiency.

Learning (not) to predict: Grammatical gender processing in second language acquisition

In two experiments, this article investigates the predictive processing of gender agreement in adult second language (L2) acquisition. We test (1) whether instruction on lexical gender can lead to target predictive agreement processing and (2) how variability in lexical gender representations moderates L2 gender agreement processing. In a pretest–posttest design, Experiment 1 trained 34 intermediate first language (L1) English learners of German on gender assignment. After training, the L2 group showed predictive gender processing; yet, performance correlated with accuracy in gender assignment. Experiment 1 suggests that target knowledge of lexical gender in the L2 lexicon is a prerequisite for predictive use of gender agreement in L2 syntax: Non-target gender assignment would lead to partially erroneous gender prediction such that use of gender agreement is costly for the parser and therefore abandoned. To test this account, Experiment 2 investigated predictive processing in 42 German native speakers who have target-like gender assignment and agreement. In a between-group design, one group received target input and the other received filler items with non-target gender assignment. The latter group subsequently stopped using gender agreement predictively in all experimental trials. Hence, L2 problems with gender agreement can be emulated in native processing. Taken together, the experiments suggest that variability of lexical gender assignment affects processing of gender agreement in natives and non-natives. We interpret the findings in the context of current probabilistic theories of implicit learning and processing adaptation.

Two sides of gender: ERP evidence for the presence of two routes during gender agreement processing

The present ERP study aimed at providing evidence for the existence of two routes in the brain for the processing of morphosyntactic features during language comprehension; a lexical route which retrieves grammatical properties stored in the lexicon without reliance on formal cues, and a form-based route that takes advantage of sub-lexical units strongly related to a specific grammatical class. In the experiment, we investigated grammatical gender agreement processing in Spanish article–noun word pairs using a grammaticality judgment task. Article–noun pairs either agreed or did not agree in gender. Noun transparency was manipulated such that the ending could be strongly associated with a specific gender class (i.e., transparent nouns) or not (i.e., opaque nouns). A visual half-field method was employed and ERPs were recorded in response to the target nouns in order to disentangle the initial hemisphere-specific computations of gender processing. ERP results showed that, while both hemispheres compute agreement dependencies, the left hemisphere is sensitive to the presence of formal gender cues at an early stage (i.e., 350–500ms) indicating the presence of a form-based route. The right hemisphere showed an ERP effect of transparency, but later than the left hemisphere (i.e., 500–750ms). These findings confirm the presence of two routes to gender, which can be differently used depending on the availability of transparent endings. In addition, the results showed hemispheric differences in the time course of the form-based route.

ERPs and task effects in the auditory processing of gender agreement and semantics in French

We investigated task effects on violation ERP responses to Noun-Adjective gender mismatches and lexical/conceptual semantic mismatches in a combined auditory/visual paradigm in French. Participants listened to sentences while viewing pictures of objects. This paradigm was designed to investigate language processing in special populations (e.g., children) who may not be able to read or to provide stable behavioural judgment data. Our main goal was to determine how ERP responses to our target violations might differ depending on whether participants performed a judgment task (Task) versus listening for comprehension (No-Task). Characterizing the influence of the presence versus absence of judgment tasks on violation ERP responses allows us to meaningfully interpret data obtained using this paradigm without a behavioural task and relate them to judgment-based paradigms in the ERP literature. We replicated previously observed ERP patterns for semantic and gender mismatches, and found that the task especially affected the later P600 component.

Early language experience facilitates the processing of gender agreement in Spanish heritage speakers

We examined how age of acquisition in Spanish heritage speakers and L2 learners interacts with implicitness vs. explicitness of tasks in gender processing of canonical and non-canonical ending nouns. Twenty-three Spanish native speakers, 29 heritage speakers, and 33 proficiency-matched L2 learners completed three on-line spoken word recognition experiments involving gender monitoring, grammaticality judgment, and word repetition. All three experimental tasks required participants to listen to grammatical and ungrammatical Spanish noun phrases (determiner–adjective–noun) but systematically varied the type of response required of them. The results of the Gender Monitoring Task (GMT) and the Grammaticality Judgment Task (GJT) revealed significant grammaticality effects for all groups in accuracy and speed, but in the Word Repetition Task (WRT), the native speakers and the heritage speakers showed a grammaticality effect, while the L2 learners did not. Noun canonicity greatly affected processing in the two experimental groups. We suggest that input frequency and reduced language use affect retrieval of non-canonical ending nouns from declarative memory in L2 learners and heritage speakers more so than in native speakers. Native-like processing of gender in the WRT by the heritage speakers is likely related to context of acquisition and particular experience with oral production.

Second Language Acquisition of Gender Agreement in Explicit and Implicit Training Conditions: An Event‐Related Potential Study

This study employed an artificial language learning paradigm together with a combined behavioral/event-related potential (ERP) approach to examine the neurocognition of the processing of gender agreement, an aspect of inflectional morphology that is problematic in adult second language (L2) learning. Subjects learned to speak and comprehend an artificial language under either explicit (classroomlike) or implicit (immersionlike) training conditions. In each group, both noun-article and noun-adjective gender agreement processing were examined behaviorally and with ERPs at both low and higher levels of proficiency. Results showed that the two groups learned the language to similar levels of proficiency but showed somewhat different ERP patterns. At low proficiency, both types of agreement violations (adjective, article) yielded N400s, but only for the group with implicit training. Additionally, noun-adjective agreement elicited a late N400 in the explicit group at low proficiency. At higher levels of proficiency, noun-adjective agreement violations elicited N400s for both the explicit and implicit groups, whereas noun-article agreement violations elicited P600s for both groups. The results suggest that interactions among linguistic structure, proficiency level, and type of training need to be considered when examining the development of aspects of inflectional morphology in L2 acquisition.