BILINGUALSENTENCE PROCESSING

EVA M. FERNÁNDEZ

QUEENS COLLEGE & GRADUATE CENTERCITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK

MY INTEREST IN THE MUNDANEOr: “I’m bilingual—am I normal?”

Humans are genetically predisposed to use Language: we do so by designBILINGUALISM & THE INDIVIDUAL

But bilingualism is a product of the environmentBILINGUALISM & ENVIRONMENT

BILINGUALISM & ENVIRONMENTQ: Most of the world’s children todaygrow up exposed to…

one language

more than one language

The building of the tower of Babel, Pieter Bruegel, 1563 Oil on oak panel, Kunsthistorisches Museum Wienhttp://www.khm.at/homeE3.html

BILINGUALISM & ENVIRONMENTBilingualism is widespread, perhaps not so much in so-called BILINGUAL NATIONS: Canada, Belgium…

It’s pervasive even in places where there is an OFFICIAL LANGUAGE, e.g., Spain:1 official language 6 (recognized) regional languages

13 local languages 9 immigrant languages

bilingualism and bidialectalism are common(Source: http://www.ethnologue.com)

55%

22%

16%

7%"not at all"

"not well"

"well"

"very well"

2000, UNITED STATES:… AND QUEENS COUNTY, NY:

18% speak a LOTE* at home, and

speak English…

54% speak a LOTE* at home, and

speak English…

(Source: http://factfinder.census.gov)

6%

19%

26%

48%

"not at all"

"not well"

"well"

"very well"

* LOTE = language other than English

BILINGUALISM & THE INDIVIDUAL

Bilingual communities are stable if there is a mutually exclusive need for Lx and Ly:“functional compartmentalization”

Functional compartmentalization doesn’t apply

But a great deal of research focuses on precisely the opposite problem:How does a bilingual compare to the ideal speaker of two languages?

BILINGUALISM & THE INDIVIDUALMonolingual processingThe range of bilingual linguistic behaviorBilingual competenceBilingual performance

SIGNAL

MEANING

LANGUAGE:COMPETENCE

& PERFORMANCE

monolingual processing

logic

knowledge about

the real world

math

musi

c…

…

grammar&

lexicon

PERCEPTION

PRODUCTION

monolingual processing

production:

lexicalretrieval

structuralassignment

phonologicalencoding

•I’ll give you my undevoted attention!•You’ll earn her eternal grapefruit.•Put the oven on at a very low speed.

•They roasted a cook.•If you give the nipple an infant…•You ordered up ending.

•taddle tennis•a glear plue sky

perception:

structurebuilding

lexicalaccess

phonologicaldecoding

lexicalretrieval

structuralassignment

phonologicalencoding

2 ??

and for the bilingual…

BILINGUAL BEHAVIOR

ABILITIES TO BE ACCOUNTED FOR:

Separate use of Lx and Ly (unilingual mode) Use of both Lx and Ly in the same discourse or same sentence (code-switching, bilingual mode)

Translation Lx Ly (a specialized bilingual mode)

Accuracy in grammaticality judgments in Lx and Ly

BILINGUAL SPEECH

“Accent” in Lx or Ly, or both!(phonological transfer): or or

Structures taken from the other language(syntactic transfer):Hans fängt um drei Uhr an zum Arbeiten jeden Tag.(Hans fängt um drei Uhr zum Arbeiten jeden Tag an.)

Yo me gusta esa casa, mami.(A mí me gusta esa casa, mami.)

“Please call Stella.  Ask her to bring these things with her from the store:  Six spoons of fresh snow peas, five thick slabs of blue cheese, and maybe a snack for her brother Bob.”The Speech Accent Archive, http://accent.gmu.edu/

Hans goes to work at three o’clock every day. (Myers-Scotton, 2006)

I like that house, mom. (Myers-Scotton, 2006)

BILINGUAL SPEECH

UNINTENTIONAL? (incomplete acquisition, attrition)

Transfer (phonological, syntactic)

INTENTIONAL! (part of communicative repertoire) Lexical borrowing and calquingMi building es el más grande del bloque.

Code-switchingJ’étais certain que c’était pas la real thing.No porque quiera dispressare a mi language Italian

I was certain that it wasn’t the real thing (M-S, 2006)

My building is the biggest on the block. (EMF)

Not that I want to undervalue my Italian language (M-S, 2006)

BILINGUAL SPEECHA:  Ya no están, están en special B:  You know what I saw by Burger King?

¿Ahí no dice free cellulars, free pagers and everything?

A:  Pos ya habíamos ido ahí ¿no? B:  No, we didn't go thereA:  Which one do you say? B:  Nex--- it's in between Taco Palenque

and Burger King. A:  ¿Cuánto valen? ¿no sabes? B:  No sé --- it says there free cellulars,

free pagers, pero I don't knowA:  When are you gonna go? B:  Pues, ouch, pues what is, what is... it

tomorrow is Wednesday, tomorrow es cuando tienes más tiempo tú ¿no?

A:  Yes, but I have to do some homework I don’t know if we have time pos we can go

B:  Ahí para comprarlo para este weekend; pa este weekend

A: Pero antes de la semana que entra

Language in Laredo: A South Texas border community http://www.tamiu.edu/~kdegarcia/texmex/

A:  They’re no longer on special

B:  You know what I saw by Burger King? Doesn’t it say there free cellulars, free pagers and everything?

A:  We’d already gone there, right? B:  No, we didn't go thereA:  Which one do you say? B:  Nex--- it's in between

Taco Palenque and Burger King.

A:  How much do they cost, do you know?

B:  I don’t know --- it says there free cellulars, free pagers, but I don't know

A:  When are you gonna go? B:  Well, ouch, well what is,

what is… it tomorrow is Wednesday, tomorrow iswhen you have more time, right?

A:  Yes, but I have to do some homework otherwise, if we have time so we can go

B:  There to buy it this weekend; for this weekend

A: But before the coming week

bilingual processing

PERCEPTION

PRODUCTION

grammar&

lexicon

grammar&

lexiconLx Ly

Size (=proficiency?) based on:• age of acquisition• frequency of use• etc.

The two competence repositories are connected:• Lx may have Ly-like rules• Lx lexical items will be linked to Ly lexical items

Exploring the model empirically Separate but interconnected competence repositories: Is Lx active during unilingual Ly processing?

Do Lx lexical representations affect structural decisions during Ly processing?

Unitary and language-independent performance mechanisms:Exploit cross-linguistic differences in monolingual processing to examine processing in Lx and Ly, in bilinguals

DATA COLLECTION “Off-line”, UNTIMED techniques (questionnaires)Grammaticality judgment tasksSentence comprehension tasks

“On-line”, TIMED techniquesBehavioral methods:

Cross-modal priming, probe recognition, rapid-serial visual presentation, self-paced reading, self-paced listening, etc.

Eyetracking techniques (“eyes are the windows to the world”):Reading; Visual world paradigm

Neurophysiological techniques:ERP; fMRI

DATA COLLECTIONVariables to consider:

Cost & availabilityDegree of invasivenessEcological validity (?!)

Contrasts to manipulateParticipants:

Language history, working memory, reading skill, sex, handedness

Materials:Phonological, morphological, syntactic, semantic, pragmatic contrasts

Visual world contrasts

FRENCK-MESTRE & PYNTE, 1997 One example (among others) of how sentence processing routines can be compared in monolinguals and bilinguals

Indeterminate terminology:Native speakers, L1 speakers, monolingualsv. non-native speakers, L2 speakers, bilinguals: what’s the difference?

Two experiments:Experiment 1: syntactic ambiguity similar in L1 & L2

Experiment 2: ambiguity only in one language

E1: Similar construction, L1 and L2They accused the ambassador…of espionage but nothing came of it.of Indonesia but nothing came of it.

He rejected the manuscript…on purpose because he hated its author.on horses because he hated its author.

N = 16 x 2 participants N = 24 x 2 itemsL1 v. L2 French speakers attachment & transitivity

Empirical questions

Does the structural processor (parser) operate the same way in L1 and L2?Will L2-ers produce similar patterns of eye movements as L1-ers?

(Qualitative differences)

Is there a cost in processing L2?Will L2-ers take more time than L1ers? (Quantitative differences)

Apparatus

Eye movements

Visual span:9 letters, + periphery

Focus (fixations) &move (saccades:eyetracker records focus

Measurements:First pass gazesFirst pass fixations

RegressionsSecond pass gazeshttp://

gandalf.psych.umn.edu/~gellab/mrchips/chips2d.html

animation by Steve Mansfield & Tim Klitz

Data to discuss

First pass gazes: “left-to-right fixations within a region that had not been previously read, plus all within-zone regressions” (p. 126)

Second pass gazes: “all fixations not included in the first pass analysis and often compris[ing] more than one re-reading of the sentence” (p. 130)They accused the ambassador of / espionage / but / nothing / came of it.

/ Noun of PP / N + 1 / N + 2 /

E1: First pass gaze durations

200

250

300

350

400

450

500

Noun ofPP

Noun +1

Noun ofPP

Noun +1

Noun ofPP

Noun +1

Firs

t pas

s ga

ze d

urat

ions

(ms) .

Ditrans VPDitrans NPMonotrans VPMonotrans NP

Monolinguals Bilinguals Mean

**

E1: Second pass reading times

100

200

300

400

500

600

Mean (L1) Mean (L2) GrandMean

Firs

t pas

s ga

ze d

urat

ions

(ms) .

Ditrans VPDitrans NPMonotrans VPMonotrans NP

Monolinguals Bilinguals Mean

*

E1: Main findings

Processing is qualitatively similar in L1 and L2, particularly in first-pass measures

Processing time is quantitatively different: increased reading times in L2, particularly in second-pass measure

E2: Ambiguity in English only

Every time the dog obeyed the pretty little girl showed her approval.

Chaque fois que le chien obéissait la jolie petite fille montrait sa joie.

Every time the dog barked the pretty little girl showed her approval.

Chaque fois que le chien aboyait la jolie petite fille montrait sa joie.

N = 16 x 2 participants N = 16 x 2 items

Edom v. Fdom bilinguals Transitive (EN) v. intransitive verb

E2: Ambiguity in English only

Every time the dog obeyed the pretty little girl showed her approval.

Chaque fois que le chien obéissait la jolie petite fille montrait sa joie.

Every time the dog barked the pretty little girl showed her approval.

Chaque fois que le chien aboyait la jolie petite fille montrait sa joie.

N = 16 x 2 participants N = 16 x 2 items

Edom v. Fdom bilinguals Transitive (EN) v. intransitive verb

First pass, at subordinate verb

200

300

400

500

600

Edom Fdom Edom Fdom

English French

Intransitive

Transitive (EN)

**-ish

First pass, at beginning of matrix NP

200

300

400

500

600

Edom Fdom Edom Fdom

English French

Intransitive

Transitive (EN)

? **

Second pass, means

200

300

400

500

600

Edom Fdom Edom Fdom

English French

Intransitive

Transitive (EN)

* **

*

E2: Main findings

Influence of language not being processed, if non-dominant, during lexical access (first-pass gazes at subordinate verb)

Otherwise, very similar patterns of eye movement behavior reflecting operations at work during syntactic ambiguity resolution (first-pass gazes at beginning of NP, second pass times)

How should findings like this inform a model for the bilingual linguistic architecture?

bilingual processing

PERCEPTION

PRODUCTION

grammar&

lexicon

grammar&

lexiconLx Ly