LINGUIST List 21.1350

Fri Mar 19 2010

Diss: Lang Acq/Psycholing: Bobb: 'Morphology in Bilingual Language...'

Editor for this issue: Di Wdzenczny <dilinguistlist.org>

        1.    Susan Bobb, Morphology in Bilingual Language Processing: The role of second language proficiency in acquiring grammatical gender
Message 1: Morphology in Bilingual Language Processing: The role of second language proficiency in acquiring grammatical gender
Date: 17-Mar-2010
From: Susan Bobb <scb207gmail.com>
Subject: Morphology in Bilingual Language Processing: The role of second language proficiency in acquiring grammatical gender
E-mail this message to a friend

Institution: Pennsylvania State University Program: Cognitive Psychology Dissertation Status: Completed Degree Date: 2008

Author: Susan C. Bobb

Dissertation Title: Morphology in Bilingual Language Processing: The role of second language proficiency in acquiring grammatical gender

Linguistic Field(s): Language Acquisition                             Psycholinguistics
Dissertation Director:
Carrie N. Jackson Judith F Kroll
Dissertation Abstract:

The goal of the present study was to further clarify constraints tolanguage learning and help address questions about L2 learning thathave not yet been fully resolved. The experiments examined thedegree to which L2 learners and proficient bilinguals are able to fullyaccess grammatical and morphological features of the L2. The specificaim of the study was to identify the ability of intermediate and advancedEnglish-German bilinguals to comprehend the assignment ofgrammatical gender and to interpret the meaning of compounds.Grammatical gender is a feature that is typically considered difficult toacquire in the L2. Particularly for those whose native language doesnot mark gender, such as English, the question has been raisedwhether full acquisition of gender can take place and under whichcircumstances.

Experiment 1 set out to investigate the sensitivity of English-Germanand German-English L2 learners to grammatical gender and introducedthe paradigm of translation recognition with simple nouns as a way toinvestigate gender processing. Results indicated that English-Germanparticipants had particular difficulties in rejecting correct nountranslations with the wrong gender, and proficiency did not modulatethese effects. In contrast, German-English participants showed robustgender effects, in which participants took longer to reject wrongtranslations whose gender matched the gender of the correcttranslation compared to translations whose gender did not match thatof the correct translation. Results suggest that native speakers ofGerman are sensitive to gender matches and mismatches acrosstranslations, and leave open the possibility that L2 learners of Germanwho achieve native-like language competency may eventually begin toshow sensitivity to gender using this task. Data from event-relatedpotentials with English-German participants corroborated thesefindings, showing no statistical support for sensitivity to gender in nounprocessing, and underscoring the sensitivity of L2 learners of Germanto semantics in translation. Data from a metalinguistic genderassignment task, however, suggested that both English-German L2learners and German-English L2 learners were sensitive to thephonological gender distribution in German, and L2 learners ofGerman may use these distributions as a way to behaviorallyapproximate native-like gender use. In a final step, morphologicalprocessing in compounding was investigated, and results for bothlanguage groups revealed sensitivity in processing internal genderagreement in compounds, although the pattern of data were not in thepredicted direction.

Together, the results of these experiments confirm previous results onthe difficulty of L2 gender processing in German (e.g., e.g., Sabourin,Stowe, & de Haan, 2006) and also appear to show dissociationsbetween tasks that require more automatic processing and those thatare under the participant's control.


This Year the LINGUIST List hopes to raise $65,000. This money will go to help keep the List running by supporting all of our Student Editors for the coming year. See below for donation instructions, and don't forget to check out our Space Fund Drive 2010 and join us for a great journey! http://linguistlist.org/fund-drive/2010/ There are many ways to donate to LINGUIST! You can donate right now using our secure credit card form at https://linguistlist.org/donation/donate/donate1.cfm Alternatively you can also pledge right now and pay later. To do so, go to: https://linguistlist.org/donation/pledge/pledge1.cfm For all information on donating and pledging, including information on how to donate by check, money order, or wire transfer, please visit: http://linguistlist.org/donation/ The LINGUIST List is under the umbrella of Eastern Michigan University and as such can receive donations through the EMU Foundation, which is a registered 501(c) Non Profit organization. Our Federal Tax number is 38-6005986. These donations can be offset against your federal and sometimes your state tax return (U.S. tax payers only). For more information visit the IRS Web-Site, or contact your financial advisor. Many companies also offer a gift matching program, such that they will match any gift you make to a non-profit organization. Normally this entails your contacting your human resources department and sending us a form that the EMU Foundation fills in and returns to your employer. This is generally a simple administrative procedure that doubles the value of your gift to LINGUIST, without costing you an extra penny. Please take a moment to check if your company operates such a program. Thank you very much for your support of LINGUIST!

Page Updated: