21.1350, Diss: Lang Acq/Psycholing: Bobb: 'Morphology in Bilingual Language...'

Sat Mar 20 01:29:49 UTC 2010

LINGUIST List: Vol-21-1350. Fri Mar 19 2010. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 21.1350, Diss: Lang Acq/Psycholing: Bobb: 'Morphology in Bilingual Language...'

Moderators: Anthony Aristar, Eastern Michigan U <aristar at linguistlist.org>
            Helen Aristar-Dry, Eastern Michigan U <hdry at linguistlist.org>

Reviews: Monica Macaulay, U of Wisconsin-Madison  
Eric Raimy, U of Wisconsin-Madison  
Joseph Salmons, U of Wisconsin-Madison  
Anja Wanner, U of Wisconsin-Madison  
       <reviews at linguistlist.org> 

Homepage: http://linguistlist.org/

The LINGUIST List is funded by Eastern Michigan University, 
and donations from subscribers and publishers.

Editor for this issue: Di Wdzenczny <di at linguistlist.org>
================================================================  

To post to LINGUIST, use our convenient web form at
http://linguistlist.org/LL/posttolinguist.cfm.

===========================Directory==============================  

1)
Date: 17-Mar-2010
From: Susan Bobb < scb207 at gmail.com >
Subject: Morphology in Bilingual Language Processing: The role of second language proficiency in acquiring grammatical gender

-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Fri, 19 Mar 2010 21:28:55
From: Susan Bobb [scb207 at gmail.com]
Subject: Morphology in Bilingual Language Processing: The role of second language proficiency in acquiring grammatical gender

E-mail this message to a friend:
http://linguistlist.org/issues/emailmessage/verification.cfm?iss=21-1350.html&submissionid=2618554&topicid=14&msgnumber=1

Institution: Pennsylvania State University 
Program: Cognitive Psychology 
Dissertation Status: Completed 
Degree Date: 2008 

Author: Susan C. Bobb

Dissertation Title: Morphology in Bilingual Language Processing: The role of
second language proficiency in acquiring grammatical gender 

Linguistic Field(s): Language Acquisition
                     Psycholinguistics

Dissertation Director(s):
Carrie N. Jackson
Judith F Kroll

Dissertation Abstract:

The goal of the present study was to further clarify constraints to 
language learning and help address questions about L2 learning that 
have not yet been fully resolved. The experiments examined the 
degree to which L2 learners and proficient bilinguals are able to fully 
access grammatical and morphological features of the L2. The specific 
aim of the study was to identify the ability of intermediate and advanced 
English-German bilinguals to comprehend the assignment of 
grammatical gender and to interpret the meaning of compounds. 
Grammatical gender is a feature that is typically considered difficult to 
acquire in the L2. Particularly for those whose native language does 
not mark gender, such as English, the question has been raised 
whether full acquisition of gender can take place and under which 
circumstances. 

Experiment 1 set out to investigate the sensitivity of English-German 
and German-English L2 learners to grammatical gender and introduced 
the paradigm of translation recognition with simple nouns as a way to 
investigate gender processing. Results indicated that English-German 
participants had particular difficulties in rejecting correct noun 
translations with the wrong gender, and proficiency did not modulate 
these effects. In contrast, German-English participants showed robust 
gender effects, in which participants took longer to reject wrong 
translations whose gender matched the gender of the correct 
translation compared to translations whose gender did not match that 
of the correct translation. Results suggest that native speakers of 
German are sensitive to gender matches and mismatches across 
translations, and leave open the possibility that L2 learners of German 
who achieve native-like language competency may eventually begin to 
show sensitivity to gender using this task. Data from event-related 
potentials with English-German participants corroborated these 
findings, showing no statistical support for sensitivity to gender in noun 
processing, and underscoring the sensitivity of L2 learners of German 
to semantics in translation. Data from a metalinguistic gender 
assignment task, however, suggested that both English-German L2 
learners and German-English L2 learners were sensitive to the 
phonological gender distribution in German, and L2 learners of 
German may use these distributions as a way to behaviorally 
approximate native-like gender use. In a final step, morphological 
processing in compounding was investigated, and results for both 
language groups revealed sensitivity in processing internal gender 
agreement in compounds, although the pattern of data were not in the 
predicted direction. 

Together, the results of these experiments confirm previous results on 
the difficulty of L2 gender processing in German (e.g., e.g., Sabourin, 
Stowe, & de Haan, 2006) and also appear to show dissociations 
between tasks that require more automatic processing and those that 
are under the participant's control. 

-----------------------------------------------------------
This Year the LINGUIST List hopes to raise $65,000. This money will go to help 
keep the List running by supporting all of our Student Editors for the coming year.

See below for donation instructions, and don't forget to check out our Space Fund 
Drive 2010 and join us for a great journey!

http://linguistlist.org/fund-drive/2010/

There are many ways to donate to LINGUIST!

You can donate right now using our secure credit card form at  
https://linguistlist.org/donation/donate/donate1.cfm

Alternatively you can also pledge right now and pay later. To do so, go to: 
https://linguistlist.org/donation/pledge/pledge1.cfm

For all information on donating and pledging, including information on how to 
donate by check, money order, or wire transfer, please visit: 
http://linguistlist.org/donation/

The LINGUIST List is under the umbrella of Eastern Michigan University and as 
such can receive donations through the EMU Foundation, which is a registered 
501(c) Non Profit organization. Our Federal Tax number is 38-6005986. These 
donations can be offset against your federal and sometimes your state tax return 
(U.S. tax payers only). For more information visit the IRS Web-Site, or contact 
your financial advisor.

Many companies also offer a gift matching program, such that they will match 
any gift you make to a non-profit organization. Normally this entails your 
contacting your human resources department and sending us a form that the 
EMU Foundation fills in and returns to your employer. This is generally a simple 
administrative procedure that doubles the value of your gift to LINGUIST, without 
costing you an extra penny. Please take a moment to check if your company 
operates such a program.

Thank you very much for your support of LINGUIST! 
-----------------------------------------------------------
LINGUIST List: Vol-21-1350	