Visual attention and quantifier-spreading in heritage Russian bilinguals
- It is well established in language acquisition research that monolingual children and adult second language learners misinterpret sentences with the universal quantifier every and make quantifier-spreading errors that are attributed to a preference for a match in number between two sets of objects. The present Visual World eye-tracking study tested bilingual heritage Russian–English adults and investigated how they interpret of sentences like Every alligator lies in a bathtub in both languages. Participants performed a sentence–picture verification task while their eye movements were recorded. Pictures showed three pairs of alligators in bathtubs and two extra objects: elephants (Control condition), bathtubs (Overexhaustive condition), or alligators (Underexhaustive condition). Monolingual adults performed at ceiling in all conditions. Heritage language (HL) adults made 20% q-spreading errors, but only in the Overexhaustive condition, and when they made an error they spent more time looking at the two extra bathtubs during the VerbIt is well established in language acquisition research that monolingual children and adult second language learners misinterpret sentences with the universal quantifier every and make quantifier-spreading errors that are attributed to a preference for a match in number between two sets of objects. The present Visual World eye-tracking study tested bilingual heritage Russian–English adults and investigated how they interpret of sentences like Every alligator lies in a bathtub in both languages. Participants performed a sentence–picture verification task while their eye movements were recorded. Pictures showed three pairs of alligators in bathtubs and two extra objects: elephants (Control condition), bathtubs (Overexhaustive condition), or alligators (Underexhaustive condition). Monolingual adults performed at ceiling in all conditions. Heritage language (HL) adults made 20% q-spreading errors, but only in the Overexhaustive condition, and when they made an error they spent more time looking at the two extra bathtubs during the Verb region. We attribute q-spreading in HL speakers to cognitive overload caused by the necessity to integrate conflicting sources of information, i.e. the spoken sentences in their weaker, heritage, language and attention-demanding visual context, that differed with respect to referential salience.…
Author details: | Irina A. SekerinaORCiDGND, Antje SauermannORCiDGND |
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URN: | urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-404870 |
Title of parent work (English): | Postprints der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe |
Publication series (Volume number): | Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe (404) |
Publication type: | Postprint |
Language: | English |
Date of first publication: | 2018/05/17 |
Publication year: | 2015 |
Publishing institution: | Universität Potsdam |
Release date: | 2018/05/17 |
Tag: | Russian; eye-tracking; heritage language; quantifier-spreading; universal quantifiers; visual attention |
Issue: | 404 |
Number of pages: | 30 |
Source: | Second Language Research 31 (2015) Nr. 1, S. 75–104, DOI: 10.1177/0267658314537292 |
Organizational units: | Humanwissenschaftliche Fakultät |
DDC classification: | 3 Sozialwissenschaften / 37 Bildung und Erziehung / 370 Bildung und Erziehung |
4 Sprache / 40 Sprache / 400 Sprache | |
8 Literatur / 80 Literatur, Rhetorik, Literaturwissenschaft / 800 Literatur und Rhetorik | |
Peer review: | Referiert |
Publishing method: | Open Access |
Grantor: | Sage |
License (German): | Keine öffentliche Lizenz: Unter Urheberrechtsschutz |
External remark: | Bibliographieeintrag der Originalveröffentlichung/Quelle |