@article{FelserJessen2021, author = {Felser, Claudia and Jessen, Anna}, title = {Correlative coordination and variable subject-verb agreement in German}, series = {Languages : open access journal}, volume = {6}, journal = {Languages : open access journal}, number = {2}, publisher = {MDPI}, address = {Basel}, issn = {2226-471X}, doi = {10.3390/languages6020067}, pages = {20}, year = {2021}, abstract = {Coordinated subjects often show variable number agreement with the finite verb, but linguistic approaches to this phenomenon have rarely been informed by systematically collected data. We report the results from three experiments investigating German speakers' agreement preferences with complex subjects joined by the correlative conjunctions sowohl horizontal ellipsis als auch ('both horizontal ellipsis and'), weder horizontal ellipsis noch ('neither horizontal ellipsis nor') or entweder horizontal ellipsis oder ('either horizontal ellipsis or'). We examine to what extent conjunction type and a conjunct's relative proximity to the verb affect the acceptability and processibility of singular vs. plural agreement. Experiment 1 was an untimed acceptability rating task, Experiment 2 a timed sentence completion task, and Experiment 3 was a self-paced reading task. Taken together, our results show that number agreement with correlative coordination in German is primarily determined by a default constraint triggering plural agreement, which interacts with linear order and semantic factors. Semantic differences between conjunctions only affected speakers' agreement preferences in the absence of processing pressure but not their initial agreement computation. The combined results from our offline and online experimental measures of German speakers' agreement preferences suggest that the constraints under investigation do not only differ in their relative weighting but also in their relative timing during agreement computation.}, language = {en} } @article{Felser2019, author = {Felser, Claudia}, title = {Do processing resource limitations shape heritage language grammars?}, series = {Bilingualism : language and cognition}, volume = {23}, journal = {Bilingualism : language and cognition}, number = {1}, publisher = {Cambridge University Press}, address = {New York}, issn = {1366-7289}, doi = {10.1017/S1366728919000397}, pages = {23 -- 24}, year = {2019}, language = {en} } @article{ArslanGuerFelser2017, author = {Arslan, Se{\c{c}}kin and G{\"u}r, Eren and Felser, Claudia}, title = {Predicting the sources of impaired wh-question comprehension in non-fluent aphasia}, series = {Cognitive neuropsychology}, volume = {34}, journal = {Cognitive neuropsychology}, publisher = {Taylor \& Francis}, address = {Abingdon}, issn = {0264-3294}, doi = {10.1080/02643294.2017.1394284}, pages = {312 -- 331}, year = {2017}, abstract = {This study investigates the comprehension of wh-questions in individuals with aphasia (IWA) speaking Turkish, a non-wh-movement language, and German, a wh-movement language. We examined six German-speaking and 11 Turkish-speaking IWA using picture-pointing tasks. Findings from our experiments show that the Turkish IWA responded more accurately to both object who and object which questions than to subject questions, while the German IWA performed better for subject which questions than in all other conditions. Using random forest models, a machine learning technique used in tree-structured classification, on the individual data revealed that both the Turkish and German IWA's response accuracy is largely predicted by the presence of overt and unambiguous case marking. We discuss our results with regard to different theoretical approaches to the comprehension of wh-questions in aphasia.}, language = {en} } @article{ReifegersteHauerFelser2017, author = {Reifegerste, Jana and Hauer, Franziska and Felser, Claudia}, title = {Agreement processing and attraction errors in aging}, series = {Aging, neuropsychology, and cognition : a journal on normal and dysfunctional development}, volume = {24}, journal = {Aging, neuropsychology, and cognition : a journal on normal and dysfunctional development}, number = {6}, publisher = {Taylor \& Francis Group}, address = {Abingdon}, issn = {1382-5585}, doi = {10.1080/13825585.2016.1251550}, pages = {672 -- 702}, year = {2017}, abstract = {Effects of aging on lexical processing are well attested, but the picture is less clear for grammatical processing. Where age differences emerge, these are usually ascribed to working-memory (WM) decline. Previous studies on the influence of WM on agreement computation have yielded inconclusive results, and work on aging and subject-verb agreement processing is lacking. In two experiments (Experiment 1: timed grammaticality judgment, Experiment 2: self-paced reading + WM test), we investigated older (OA) and younger (YA) adults' susceptibility to agreement attraction errors. We found longer reading latencies and judgment reaction times (RTs) for OAs. Further, OAs, particularly those with low WM scores, were more accepting of sentences with attraction errors than YAs. OAs showed longer reading latencies for ungrammatical sentences, again modulated by WM, than YAs. Our results indicate that OAs have greater difficulty blocking intervening nouns from interfering with the computation of agreement dependencies. WM can modulate this effect.}, language = {en} } @article{JessenFestmanBoxelletal.2017, author = {Jessen, Anna and Festman, Julia and Boxell, Oliver and Felser, Claudia}, title = {Native and non-native speakers' brain responses to filled indirect Object Gaps}, series = {Journal of Psycholinguistic Research}, volume = {46}, journal = {Journal of Psycholinguistic Research}, publisher = {Springer}, address = {New York}, issn = {0090-6905}, doi = {10.1007/s10936-017-9496-9}, pages = {1319 -- 1338}, year = {2017}, abstract = {We examined native and non-native English speakers' processing of indirect object wh-dependencies using a filled-gap paradigm while recording event-related potentials (ERPs). The non-native group was comprised of native German-speaking, proficient non-native speakers of English. Both participant groups showed evidence of linking fronted indirect objects to the subcategorizing verb when this was encountered, reflected in an N400 component. Evidence for continued filler activation beyond the verb was seen only in the non-native group, in the shape of a prolonged left-anterior negativity. Both participant groups showed sensitivity to filled indirect object gaps reflected in a P600 response, which was more pronounced and more globally distributed in our non-native group. Taken together, our results indicate that resolving indirect object dependencies is a two-step process in both native and non-native sentence comprehension, with greater processing cost incurred in non-native compared to native comprehension.}, language = {en} } @article{ArslanFelser2017, author = {Arslan, Seckin and Felser, Claudia}, title = {Comprehension of wh-questions in Turkish-German bilinguals with aphasia}, series = {Clinical linguistics \& phonetics}, volume = {32}, journal = {Clinical linguistics \& phonetics}, number = {7}, publisher = {Taylor \& Francis Group}, address = {Philadelphia}, issn = {0269-9206}, doi = {10.1080/02699206.2017.1416493}, pages = {640 -- 660}, year = {2017}, abstract = {The aim of our study was to examine the extent to which linguistic approaches to sentence comprehension deficits in aphasia can account for differential impairment patterns in the comprehension of wh-questions in bilingual persons with aphasia (PWA). We investigated the comprehension of subject and object wh-questions in both Turkish, a wh-in-situ language, and German, a wh-fronting language, in two bilingual PWA using a sentence-to-picture matching task. Both PWA showed differential impairment patterns in their two languages. SK, an early bilingual PWA, had particular difficulty comprehending subject which-questions in Turkish but performed normal across all conditions in German. CT, a late bilingual PWA, performed more poorly for object which-questions in German than in all other conditions, whilst in Turkish his accuracy was at chance level across all conditions. We conclude that the observed patterns of selective cross-linguistic impairments cannot solely be attributed either to difficulty with wh-movement or to problems with the integration of discourse-level information. Instead our results suggest that differences between our PWA's individual bilingualism profiles (e.g. onset of bilingualism, premorbid language dominance) considerably affected the nature and extent of their impairments.}, language = {en} } @article{FelserDrummer2016, author = {Felser, Claudia and Drummer, Janna-Deborah}, title = {Sensitivity to Crossover Constraints During Native and Non-native Pronoun Resolution}, series = {Journal of psycholinguistic research}, volume = {46}, journal = {Journal of psycholinguistic research}, publisher = {Springer}, address = {New York}, issn = {0090-6905}, doi = {10.1007/s10936-016-9465-8}, pages = {771 -- 789}, year = {2016}, abstract = {We report the results from two experiments examining native and non-native German speakers' sensitivity to crossover constraints on pronoun resolution. Our critical stimuli sentences contained personal pronouns in either strong (SCO) or weak crossover (WCO) configurations. Using eye-movement monitoring during reading and a gender-mismatch paradigm, Experiment 1 investigated whether a fronted wh-phrase would be considered as a potential antecedent for a pronoun intervening between the wh-phrase and its canonical position. Both native and non-native readers initially attempted coreference in WCO but not in SCO configurations, as evidenced by early gender-mismatch effects in our WCO conditions. Experiment 2 was an offline antecedent judgement task whose results mirrored the SCO/WCO asymmetry observed in our reading-time data. Taken together, our results show that the SCO constraint immediately restricts pronoun interpretation in both native and non-native comprehension, and further suggest that SCO and WCO constraints derive from different sources.}, language = {en} } @article{BoschDeCesareDemskeetal.2023, author = {Bosch, Sina and De Cesare, Ilaria and Demske, Ulrike and Felser, Claudia}, title = {Word-order variation and coherence in German infinitival complementation}, series = {The journal of comparative Germanic linguistics}, volume = {26}, journal = {The journal of comparative Germanic linguistics}, number = {1}, publisher = {Springer}, address = {New York}, issn = {1572-8552}, doi = {10.1007/s10828-023-09140-8}, pages = {43}, year = {2023}, abstract = {This study provides a synthesis of corpus-based and experimental investigations of word-order preferences in German infinitival complementation. We carried out a systematic analysis of present-day German corpora to establish frequency distributions of different word-order options: extraposition, intraposition, and 'third construction'. We then examined, firstly, whether and to what extent corpus frequencies and processing economy constraints can predict the acceptability of these three word-order variants, and whether subject raising and subject control verbs form clearly distinguishable subclasses of infinitive-embedding verbs in terms of their word-order behaviour. Secondly, our study looks into the issue of coherence by comparing acceptability ratings for monoclausal coherent and biclausal incoherent construals of intraposed infinitives, and by examining whether a biclausal incoherent analysis gives rise to local and/or global processing difficulty. Taken together, our results revealed that (i) whilst the extraposition pattern consistently wins out over all other word-order variants for control verbs, neither frequency nor processing-based approaches to word-order variation can account for the acceptability of low-frequency variants, (ii) there is considerable verb-specific variation regarding word-order preferences both between and within the two sets of raising and control verbs under investigation, and (iii) although monoclausal coherent intraposition is rated above biclausal incoherent intraposition, the latter is not any more difficult to process than the former. Our findings indicate that frequency of occurrence and processing-related constraints interact with idiosyncratic lexical properties of individual verbs in determining German speakers' structural preferences.}, language = {en} } @misc{ArslanGuerFelser2017, author = {Arslan, Se{\c{c}}kin and G{\"u}r, Eren and Felser, Claudia}, title = {Predicting the sources of impaired wh-question comprehension in non-fluent aphasia}, series = {Postprints der Universit{\"a}t Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe}, journal = {Postprints der Universit{\"a}t Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe}, number = {464}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-412717}, pages = {21}, year = {2017}, abstract = {This study investigates the comprehension of wh-questions in individuals with aphasia (IWA) speaking Turkish, a non-wh-movement language, and German, a wh-movement language. We examined six German-speaking and 11 Turkish-speaking IWA using picture-pointing tasks. Findings from our experiments show that the Turkish IWA responded more accurately to both object who and object which questions than to subject questions, while the German IWA performed better for subject which questions than in all other conditions. Using random forest models, a machine learning technique used in tree-structured classification, on the individual data revealed that both the Turkish and German IWA's response accuracy is largely predicted by the presence of overt and unambiguous case marking. We discuss our results with regard to different theoretical approaches to the comprehension of wh-questions in aphasia.}, language = {en} } @misc{FelserCunningsBatterhametal.2012, author = {Felser, Claudia and Cunnings, Ian and Batterham, Claire and Clahsen, Harald}, title = {The timing of island effects in nonnative sentence processing}, series = {Postprints der Universit{\"a}t Potsdam Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe}, journal = {Postprints der Universit{\"a}t Potsdam Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe}, issn = {1866-8364}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-41517}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-415179}, pages = {32}, year = {2012}, abstract = {Using the eye-movement monitoring technique in two reading comprehension experiments, this study investigated the timing of constraints on wh-dependencies (so-called island constraints) in first- and second-language (L1 and L2) sentence processing. The results show that both L1 and L2 speakers of English are sensitive to extraction islands during processing, suggesting that memory storage limitations affect L1 and L2 comprehenders in essentially the same way. Furthermore, these results show that the timing of island effects in L1 compared to L2 sentence comprehension is affected differently by the type of cue (semantic fit versus filled gaps) signaling whether dependency formation is possible at a potential gap site. Even though L1 English speakers showed immediate sensitivity to filled gaps but not to lack of semantic fit, proficient German-speaking learners of English as a L2 showed the opposite sensitivity pattern. This indicates that initial wh-dependency formation in L2 processing is based on semantic feature matching rather than being structurally mediated as in L1 comprehension.}, language = {en} }