TY  - GEN
A1  - Bosch, Sina
A1  - Veríssimo, Joao Marques
A1  - Clahsen, Harald
T1  - Inflectional morphology in bilingual language processing
BT  - an age-of-acquisition study
T2  - Postprints der Universität Potsdam Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe
N2  - This study addresses the question of how age of acquisition (AoA) affects grammatical processing, specifically with respect to inflectional morphology, in bilinguals. We examined experimental data of more than 100 participants from the Russian/German community in Berlin, all of whom acquired Russian from birth and German at different ages. Using the cross-modal lexical priming technique, we investigated stem allomorphs of German verbs that encode multiple morphosyntactic features. The results revealed a striking AoA modulation of observed priming patterns, indicating efficient access to morphosyntactic features for early AoAs and a gradual decline with increasing AoAs. In addition, we found a discontinuity in the function relating AoA to morphosyntactic feature access, suggesting a sensitive period for the development of morphosyntax.
T3  - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe - 569 
KW  - critical-period
KW  - 2nd-language grammar
KW  - adjectives
KW  - lexicon
KW  - L1
KW  - L2
Y1  - 2019
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-433371
SN  - 1866-8364
IS  - 569
SP  - 339
EP  - 360
ER  - 
TY  - GEN
A1  - Veríssimo, Joao Marques
A1  - Heyer, Vera
A1  - Jacob, Gunnar
A1  - Clahsen, Harald
T1  - Selective effects of age of acquisition on morphological priming
BT  - evidence for a sensitive period
T2  - Postprints der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe
N2  - Is there an ideal time window for language acquisition after which nativelike
representation and processing are unattainable? Although this question has
been heavily debated, no consensus has been reached. Here, we present
evidence for a sensitive period in language development and show that it is
specific to grammar. We conducted a masked priming task with a group of
Turkish-German bilinguals and examined age of acquisition (AoA) effects on
the processing of complex words. We compared a subtle but meaningful
linguistic contrast, that between grammatical inflection and lexical-based
derivation. The results showed a highly selective AoA effect on inflectional
(but not derivational) priming. In addition, the effect displayed a discontinuity
indicative of a sensitive period: Priming from inflected forms was nativelike
when acquisition started before the age of 5 but declined with increasing
AoA. We conclude that the acquisition of morphological rules expressing
morphosyntactic properties is constrained by maturational factors.
T3  - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe - 486 
KW  - visual word recognition
KW  - 2nd-language acquisition
KW  - maturational constraints
KW  - language-acquisition
KW  - 2nd langauge
KW  - speech
KW  - experience
KW  - perception
KW  - english
Y1  - 2018
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-412611
SN  - 1866-8364
IS  - 486
ER  - 
TY  - GEN
A1  - Farhy, Yael
A1  - Veríssimo, Joao Marques
A1  - Clahsen, Harald
T1  - Universal and particular in morphological processing
BT  - evidence from Hebrew
T2  - Postprints der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe
N2  - Do properties of individual languages shape the mechanisms by which they are processed? By virtue of their non-concatenative morphological structure, the recognition of complex words in Semitic languages has been argued to rely strongly on morphological information and on decomposition into root and pattern constituents. Here, we report results from a masked priming experiment in Hebrew in which we contrasted verb forms belonging to two morphological classes, Paal and Piel, which display similar properties, but crucially differ on whether they are extended to novel verbs. Verbs from the open-class Piel elicited familiar root priming effects, but verbs from the closed-class Paal did not. Our findings indicate that, similarly to other (e.g., Indo-European) languages, down-to-the-root decomposition in Hebrew does not apply to stems of non-productive verbal classes. We conclude that the Semitic word processor is less unique than previously thought: Although it operates on morphological units that are combined in a non-linear way, it engages the same universal mechanisms of storage and computation as those seen in other languages.
T3  - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe - 468 
KW  - language universals
KW  - morphology
KW  - priming
KW  - Semitic
Y1  - 2018
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-412541
EP  - 468
ER  -