TY  - JOUR
A1  - Jessen, Anna
A1  - Felser, Claudia
T1  - Reanalysing object gaps during non-native sentence processing
BT  - Evidence from ERPs
JF  - Second language research
N2  - The present study used event related potentials (ERPs) to investigate how native (L1) German-speaking second-language (L2) learners of English process sentences containing filler-gap dependencies such as Bill liked the house (women) that Bob built some ornaments for __ at his workplace. Using an experimental design which allowed us to dissociate filler integration from reanalysis effects, we found that fillers which were implausible as direct objects of the embedded verb (e.g. built the women) elicited similar brain responses (an N400) in L1 and L2 speakers when the verb was encountered. This confirms findings from behavioral and eye-movement studies indicating that both L1 and L2 speakers immediately try to integrate a filler with a potential lexical licensor. L1/L2 differences were observed when subsequent sentence material signaled that the direct-object analysis was in fact incorrect, however. We found reanalysis effects, in the shape of a P600 for sentences containing fillers that were plausible direct objects only for L2 speakers, but not for the L1 group. This supports previous findings suggesting that L2 comprehenders recover from an initially plausible first analysis less easily than L1 speakers.
KW  - English
KW  - ERPs
KW  - filler-gap dependency
KW  - L2 processing
KW  - reanalysis
Y1  - 2018
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1177/0267658317753030
SN  - 0267-6583
SN  - 1477-0326
VL  - 35
IS  - 2
SP  - 285
EP  - 299
PB  - Sage Publ.
CY  - London
ER  -