TY - JOUR A1 - Adani, Flavia A1 - Stegenwallner-Schutz, Maja Henny Katherine A1 - Niesel, Talea T1 - The Peaceful Co-existence of Input Frequency and Structural Intervention Effects on the Comprehension of Complex Sentences in German-Speaking Children JF - Frontiers in psychology N2 - The predictions of two contrasting approaches to the acquisition of transitive relative clauses were tested within the same groups of German-speaking participants aged from 3 to 5 years old. The input frequency approach predicts that object relative clauses with inanimate heads (e.g., the pullover that the man is scratching) are comprehended earlier and more accurately than those with an animate head (e.g., the man that the boy is scratching). In contrast, the structural intervention approach predicts that object relative clauses with two full NP arguments mismatching in number (e.g., the man that the boys are scratching) are comprehended earlier and more accurately than those with number-matching NPs (e.g., the man that the boy is scratching). These approaches were tested in two steps. First, we ran a corpus analysis to ensure that object relative clauses with number-mismatching NPs are not more frequent than object relative clauses with number-matching NPs in child directed speech. Next, the comprehension of these structures was tested experimentally in 3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds respectively by means of a color naming task. By comparing the predictions of the two approaches within the same participant groups, we were able to uncover that the effects predicted by the input frequency and by the structural intervention approaches co-exist and that they both influence the performance of children on transitive relative clauses, but in a manner that is modulated by age. These results reveal a sensitivity to animacy mismatch already being demonstrated by 3-year-olds and show that animacy is initially deployed more reliably than number to interpret relative clauses correctly. In all age groups, the animacy mismatch appears to explain the performance of children, thus, showing that the comprehension of frequent object relative clauses is enhanced compared to the other conditions. Starting with 4-year-olds but especially in 5-year-olds, the number mismatch supported comprehension-a facilitation that is unlikely to be driven by input frequency. Once children fine-tune their sensitivity to verb agreement information around the age of four, they are also able to deploy number marking to overcome the intervention effects. This study highlights the importance of testing experimentally contrasting theoretical approaches in order to characterize the multifaceted, developmental nature of language acquisition. KW - relative clauses KW - sentence comprehension KW - input frequency KW - number KW - animacy KW - language acquisition KW - German Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01590 SN - 1664-1078 VL - 8 PB - Frontiers Research Foundation CY - Lausanne ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Boll-Avetisyan, Natalie A1 - Bhatara, Anjali A1 - Höhle, Barbara T1 - Effects of musicality on the perception of rhythmic structure in speech JF - Laboratory phonology N2 - Language and music share many rhythmic properties, such as variations in intensity and duration leading to repeating patterns. Perception of rhythmic properties may rely on cognitive networks that are shared between the two domains. If so, then variability in speech rhythm perception may relate to individual differences in musicality. To examine this possibility, the present study focuses on rhythmic grouping, which is assumed to be guided by a domain-general principle, the Iambic/Trochaic law, stating that sounds alternating in intensity are grouped as strong-weak, and sounds alternating in duration are grouped as weak-strong. German listeners completed a grouping task: They heard streams of syllables alternating in intensity, duration, or neither, and had to indicate whether they perceived a strong-weak or weak-strong pattern. Moreover, their music perception abilities were measured, and they filled out a questionnaire reporting their productive musical experience. Results showed that better musical rhythm perception - ability was associated with more consistent rhythmic grouping of speech, while melody perception - ability and productive musical experience were not. This suggests shared cognitive procedures in the perception of rhythm in music and speech. Also, the results highlight the relevance of - considering individual differences in musicality when aiming to explain variability in prosody perception. KW - Musical ability KW - rhythm KW - grouping KW - Iambic/Trochaic law KW - speech KW - speech perception KW - musicality KW - prosody KW - domain-general KW - German Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.5334/labphon.91 SN - 1868-6346 SN - 1868-6354 VL - 8 IS - 1 PB - Ubiquity Press CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Adani, Flavia A1 - Stegenwallner-Schütz, Maja Henny Katherine A1 - Niesel, Talea T1 - The Peaceful Co-existence of Input Frequency and Structural Intervention Effects on the Comprehension of Complex Sentences in German-Speaking Children JF - Frontiers in psychology N2 - The predictions of two contrasting approaches to the acquisition of transitive relative clauses were tested within the same groups of German-speaking participants aged from 3 to 5 years old. The input frequency approach predicts that object relative clauses with inanimate heads (e.g., the pullover that the man is scratching) are comprehended earlier and more accurately than those with an animate head (e.g., the man that the boy is scratching). In contrast, the structural intervention approach predicts that object relative clauses with two full NP arguments mismatching in number (e.g., the man that the boys are scratching) are comprehended earlier and more accurately than those with number-matching NPs (e.g., the man that the boy is scratching). These approaches were tested in two steps. First, we ran a corpus analysis to ensure that object relative clauses with number-mismatching NPs are not more frequent than object relative clauses with number-matching NPs in child directed speech. Next, the comprehension of these structures was tested experimentally in 3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds respectively by means of a color naming task. By comparing the predictions of the two approaches within the same participant groups, we were able to uncover that the effects predicted by the input frequency and by the structural intervention approaches co-exist and that they both influence the performance of children on transitive relative clauses, but in a manner that is modulated by age. These results reveal a sensitivity to animacy mismatch already being demonstrated by 3-year-olds and show that animacy is initially deployed more reliably than number to interpret relative clauses correctly. In all age groups, the animacy mismatch appears to explain the performance of children, thus, showing that the comprehension of frequent object relative clauses is enhanced compared to the other conditions. Starting with 4-year-olds but especially in 5-year-olds, the number mismatch supported comprehension—a facilitation that is unlikely to be driven by input frequency. Once children fine-tune their sensitivity to verb agreement information around the age of four, they are also able to deploy number marking to overcome the intervention effects. This study highlights the importance of testing experimentally contrasting theoretical approaches in order to characterize the multifaceted, developmental nature of language acquisition. KW - relative clauses KW - sentence comprehension KW - input frequency KW - number KW - animacy KW - language acquisition KW - German Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01590 SN - 1664-1078 VL - 8 SP - 1 EP - 11 PB - Frontiers Research Foundation CY - Lausanne ER - TY - GEN A1 - Adani, Flavia A1 - Stegenwallner-Schütz, Maja Henny Katherine A1 - Niesel, Talea T1 - The Peaceful Co-existence of Input Frequency and Structural Intervention Effects on the Comprehension of Complex Sentences in German-Speaking Children N2 - The predictions of two contrasting approaches to the acquisition of transitive relative clauses were tested within the same groups of German-speaking participants aged from 3 to 5 years old. The input frequency approach predicts that object relative clauses with inanimate heads (e.g., the pullover that the man is scratching) are comprehended earlier and more accurately than those with an animate head (e.g., the man that the boy is scratching). In contrast, the structural intervention approach predicts that object relative clauses with two full NP arguments mismatching in number (e.g., the man that the boys are scratching) are comprehended earlier and more accurately than those with number-matching NPs (e.g., the man that the boy is scratching). These approaches were tested in two steps. First, we ran a corpus analysis to ensure that object relative clauses with number-mismatching NPs are not more frequent than object relative clauses with number-matching NPs in child directed speech. Next, the comprehension of these structures was tested experimentally in 3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds respectively by means of a color naming task. By comparing the predictions of the two approaches within the same participant groups, we were able to uncover that the effects predicted by the input frequency and by the structural intervention approaches co-exist and that they both influence the performance of children on transitive relative clauses, but in a manner that is modulated by age. These results reveal a sensitivity to animacy mismatch already being demonstrated by 3-year-olds and show that animacy is initially deployed more reliably than number to interpret relative clauses correctly. In all age groups, the animacy mismatch appears to explain the performance of children, thus, showing that the comprehension of frequent object relative clauses is enhanced compared to the other conditions. Starting with 4-year-olds but especially in 5-year-olds, the number mismatch supported comprehension—a facilitation that is unlikely to be driven by input frequency. Once children fine-tune their sensitivity to verb agreement information around the age of four, they are also able to deploy number marking to overcome the intervention effects. This study highlights the importance of testing experimentally contrasting theoretical approaches in order to characterize the multifaceted, developmental nature of language acquisition. T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe - 352 KW - German KW - animacy KW - input frequency KW - language acquisition KW - number KW - relative clauses KW - sentence comprehension Y1 - 2017 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-403672 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Lago, Sol A1 - Sloggett, Shayne A1 - Schlüter, Zoe A1 - Chow, Wing Yee A1 - Williams, Alexander A1 - Lau, Ellen A1 - Phillips, Colin T1 - Coreference and Antecedent Representation Across Languages JF - Journal of experimental psychology : Learning, memory, and cognition KW - coreference KW - German KW - English KW - sentence comprehension KW - eye-tracking Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1037/xlm0000343 SN - 0278-7393 SN - 1939-1285 VL - 43 SP - 795 EP - 817 PB - American Psychological Association CY - Washington ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Laurinavichyute, Anna A1 - Jager, Lena Ann A1 - Akinina, Yulia A1 - Roß, Jennifer A1 - Dragoy, Olga V. T1 - Retrieval and Encoding Interference: Cross-Linguistic Evidence from Anaphor Processing JF - Frontiers in psychology KW - encoding interference KW - retrieval interference KW - German KW - Russian KW - comprehension KW - reflexive processing KW - anaphor Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00965 SN - 1664-1078 VL - 8 PB - Frontiers Research Foundation CY - Lausanne ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Petrone, Caterina A1 - Truckenbrodt, Hubert A1 - Wellmann, Caroline A1 - Holzgrefe-Lang, Julia A1 - Wartenburger, Isabell A1 - Höhle, Barbara T1 - Prosodic boundary cues in German BT - evidence from the production and perception of bracketed lists JF - Journal of phonetics N2 - This study investigates prosodic phrasing of bracketed lists in German. We analyze variation in pauses, phrase-final lengthening and f0 in speech production and how these cues affect boundary perception. In line with the literature, it was found that pauses are often used to signal intonation phrase boundaries, while final lengthening and f0 are employed across different levels of the prosodic hierarchy. Deviations from expectations based on the standard syntax-prosody mapping are interpreted in terms of task-specific effects. That is, we argue that speakers add/delete prosodic boundaries to enhance the phonological contrast between different bracketings in the experimental task. In perception, three experiments were run, in which we tested only single cues (but temporally distributed at different locations of the sentences). Results from identification tasks and reaction time measurements indicate that pauses lead to a more abrupt shift in listeners׳ prosodic judgments, while f0 and final lengthening are exploited in a more gradient manner. Hence, pauses, final lengthening and f0 have an impact on boundary perception, though listeners show different sensitivity to the three acoustic cues. KW - Prosodic boundary KW - Phrase-final lengthening KW - Pause KW - f0 peaks KW - Production KW - Perception KW - German Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wocn.2017.01.002 SN - 0095-4470 VL - 61 SP - 71 EP - 92 PB - Elsevier CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Czypionka, Anna A1 - Spalek, Katharina A1 - Wartenburger, Isabell A1 - Krifka, Manfred T1 - On the interplay of object animacy and verb type during sentence comprehension in German: ERP evidence from the processing of transitive dative and accusative constructions JF - Linguistics : an interdisciplinary journal of the language sciences N2 - Comprehension of transitive sentences relies on different kinds of information, like word order, case marking, and animacy contrasts between arguments. When no formal cues like case marking or number congruency are available, a contrast in animacy helps the parser to decide which argument is the grammatical subject and which the object. Processing costs are enhanced when neither formal cues nor animacy contrasts are available in a transitive sentence. We present an ERP study on the comprehension of grammatical transitive German sentences, manipulating animacy contrasts between subjects and objects as well as the verbal case marking pattern. Our study shows strong object animacy effects even in the absence of violations, and in addition suggests that this effect of object animacy is modulated by the verbal case marking pattern. KW - sentence comprehension KW - animacy KW - case marking KW - ERP KW - German Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1515/ling-2017-0031 SN - 0024-3949 SN - 1613-396X VL - 55 SP - 1383 EP - 1433 PB - De Gruyter Mouton CY - Berlin ER - TY - THES A1 - Schunack, Silke T1 - Processing of non-canonical word orders in an L2 T1 - Verarbeitung von nichtkanonischen Wortfolgen in der L2 BT - when small changes make no big difference BT - wenn kleine Änderungen keine große Unterschiede machen N2 - This thesis investigates the processing of non-canonical word orders and whether non-canonical orders involving object topicalizations, midfield scrambling and particle verbs are treated the same by native (L1) and non-native (L2) speakers. The two languages investigated are Norwegian and German. 32 L1 Norwegian and 32 L1 German advanced learners of Norwegian were tested in two experiments on object topicalization in Norwegian. The results from the online self-paced reading task and the offline agent identification task show that both groups are able to identify the non-canonical word order and show a facilitatory effect of animate subjects in their reanalysis. Similarly high error rates in the agent identification task suggest that globally unambiguous object topicalizations are a challenging structure for L1 and L2 speakers alike. The same participants were also tested in two experiments on particle placement in Norwegian, again using a self-paced reading task, this time combined with an acceptability rating task. In the acceptability rating L1 and L2 speakers show the same preference for the verb-adjacent placement of the particle over the non-adjacent placement after the direct object. However, this preference for adjacency is only found in the L1 group during online processing, whereas the L2 group shows no preference for either order. Another set of experiments tested 33 L1 German and 39 L1 Slavic advanced learners of German on object scrambling in ditransitive clauses in German. Non-native speakers accept both object orders and show neither a preference for either order nor a processing advantage for the canonical order. The L1 group, in contrast, shows a small, but significant preference for the canonical dative-first order in the judgment and the reading task. The same participants were also tested in two experiments on the application of the split rule in German particle verbs. Advanced L2 speakers of German are able to identify particle verbs and can apply the split rule in V2 contexts in an acceptability judgment task in the same way as L1 speakers. However, unlike the L1 group, the L2 group is not sensitive to the grammaticality manipulation during online processing. They seem to be sensitive to the additional lexical information provided by the particle, but are unable to relate the split particle to the preceding verb and recognize the ungrammaticality in non-V2 contexts. Taken together, my findings suggest that non-canonical word orders are not per se more difficult to identify for L2 speakers than L1 speakers and can trigger the same reanalysis processes as in L1 speakers. I argue that L2 speakers’ ability to identify a non-canonical word order depends on how the non-canonicity is signaled (case marking vs. surface word order), on the constituents involved (identical vs. different word types), and on the impact of the word order change on sentence meaning. Non-canonical word orders that are signaled by morphological case marking and cause no change to the sentence’s content are hard to detect for L2 speakers. N2 - Diese Arbeit untersucht die Verarbeitung nichtkanonischer Wortfolgen und ob nichtkanonische Wortfolgen, die Objekttopikalisierung, Mittelfeldscrambling und Partikelverben beinhalten, von Muttersprachlern (L1) und Fremdsprachenlernern (L2) gleichermaßen verarbeitet werden. Die untersuchten Sprachen sind Norwegisch und Deutsch. 32 norwegische Muttersprachler und 32 fortgeschrittene deutsche Norwegischlerner wurden in zwei Experimenten zur Objekttopikalisierung im Norwegischen getestet. Die Resultate des Leseexperiments und der Agensidentifikation zeigen, dass beide Gruppen in der Lage sind die nichtkanonische Wortfolge zu identifizieren und einen fördernden Effekt von belebten Subjekten auf ihre Reanalyse zeigen. Ähnlich hohe Fehlerrate in der Agensidentifikation suggerieren, dass global unambige Objekttopikalisierungen eine anspruchsvolle Struktur für L1- und L2-Sprecher sind. Dieselben Teilnehmer wurden auch in zwei Experimenten zur Platzierung von Partikeln im Norwegischen getestet. Es wurde wieder ein Leseexperiment durchgeführt, diesmal zusammen mit einem Akzeptabilitätsrating. In diesem Rating zeigen L1- und L2-Sprecher die gleiche Präferenz für die verbnahe Platzierung der Partikel gegenüber der Platzierung nach dem direkten Objekt. Diese Präferenz findet sich im Leseexperiment nur in den Daten der L1-Gruppe, die L2-Gruppe zeigt dort keine Präferenz für eine der beiden Reihenfolgen. Eine weitere Gruppe Experimente testete 33 deutsche Muttersprachler und 39 fortgeschrittene slawische Deutschlerner zum Objektscrambling in deutschen ditransitiven Sätzen. Fremdsprachenlerner akzeptieren beide möglichen Reihenfolgen und zeigen keine Präferenz oder schnellere Verarbeitung für die kanonische Reihenfolge. Die L1-Gruppe zeigt eine numerisch kleine, aber signifikante Präferenz für die kanonische Dativ-Akkusativ-Folge im Akzeptabilitätsrating und dem Leseexperiment. Dieselben Teilnehmer wurden auch in zwei Experimenten zur Anwendung der Trennungsregel bei trennbaren Verben im Deutschen getestet. Fortgeschrittenen L2-Sprecher des Deutschen können trennbare Verben identifizieren und die Trennregel in V2-Kontexten wie dem Akzeptabilitätsrating genauso anwenden wie Muttersprachler. Allerdings zeigt die L2-Gruppe keine Sensibilität gegenüber der Grammatikalitätsmanipulation in der Leseaufgabe. Sie scheinen die zusätzliche lexikalische Information der Partikel wahrzunehmen, können jedoch getrennte Partikel nicht mit dem vorhergehenden Verb verbinden und die Ungrammatikalität der Trennung in Nicht-V2-Kontexten erkennen. Hierin unterscheiden sie sich von Mutterprachlern. Auf der Basis meiner Ergebnisse scheinen nichtkanonische Wortfolgen nicht per se schwieriger zu identifizieren zu sein für Fremdsprachlerner als für Muttersprachler und können dieselben Reanalyseprozesse auslösen. Ich argumentiere, dass die Fähigkeit von L2-Sprechern nichtkanonische Wortfolgen zu identifizieren davon abhängt, wie diese signalisiert werden (morphologische Kasusmarkierung vs. Oberflächenwordfolge), von den involvierten Konstituenten (gleiche vs. verschiedene Wortarten) und dem Einfluss der Änderung der Wortfolge auf die Satzbedeutung. Nichtkanonische Wortfolgen, die durch morphologische Kasusmarkierung signalisiert werden und keine Änderung der Satzbedeutung verursachen sind schwer zu identifizieren für Fremdsprachenlerner. KW - L2 sentence processing KW - object topicalization KW - scrambling KW - particle verbs KW - Norwegian KW - German KW - self-paced reading KW - acceptability judgments KW - Satzverarbeitung KW - Objekttopikalisierung KW - Scrambling KW - Partikelverben KW - Norwegisch KW - Leseexperiment KW - Akzeptabilitätsbewertung Y1 - 2017 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-103750 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Gerth, Sabrina A1 - Otto, Constanze A1 - Felser, Claudia A1 - Nam, Yunju T1 - Strength of garden-path effects in native and non-native speakers’ processing of object-subject ambiguities JF - International journal of bilingualism : cross-disciplinary, cross-linguistic studies of language behavior N2 - Aims and objectives: Our study addresses the following research questions: To what extent is L2 comprehenders’ online sensitivity to morphosyntactic disambiguation cues affected by L1 background? Does noticing the error signal trigger successful reanalysis in both L1 and L2 comprehension? Can previous findings suggesting that case is a better reanalysis cue than agreement be replicated and extended to L2 processing when using closely matched materials? Design/methodology/approach: We carried out a self-paced reading study using temporarily ambiguous object-initial sentences in German. These were disambiguated either by number marking on the verb or by nominative case marking on the subject. End-of-trial comprehension questions probed whether or not our participants ultimately succeeded in computing the correct interpretation. Data and analysis: We tested a total of 121 participants (25 Italian, 32 Russian, 32 Korean and 32 native German speakers), measuring their word-by-word reading times and comprehension accuracy. The data were analysed using linear mixed-effects and logistic regression modelling. Findings/conclusions: All three learner groups showed online sensitivity to both case and agreement disambiguation cues. Noticing case disambiguations did not necessarily lead to a correct interpretation, whereas noticing agreement disambiguations did. We conclude that intermediate to advanced learners are sensitive to morphosyntactic interpretation cues during online processing regardless of whether or not corresponding grammatical distinctions exist in their L1. Our results also suggest that case is not generally a better reanalysis cue than agreement. Significance/implications: L1 influence on L2 processing is more limited than might be expected. Contra previous findings, even intermediate learners show sensitivity to both agreement and case information during processing. KW - Ambiguity resolution KW - second language processing KW - self-paced-reading KW - case KW - agreement KW - German Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1177/1367006915604401 SN - 1367-0069 SN - 1756-6878 VL - 21 SP - 125 EP - 144 PB - Sage Publ. CY - London ER -