Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-grxwn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-12T11:49:11.217Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

ACROSS LANGUAGES, SPACE, AND TIME

A Review of the Role of Cross-Language Similarity in L2 (Morpho)Syntactic Processing as Revealed by fMRI and ERP Methods

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 February 2011

Leida C. Tolentino  and
Natasha Tokowicz
Leida C. Tolentino
Affiliation:
University of Pittsburgh
Natasha Tokowicz*
Affiliation:
University of Pittsburgh
*
*Address correspondence to: Natasha Tokowicz, LRDC Room 634, 3939 O’Hara St., University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260-5169; e-mail: [email protected].
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This review examines whether similarity between the first language (L1) and second language (L2) influences the (morpho)syntactic processing of the L2, using both neural location and temporal processing information. Results from functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and event-related potential (ERP) studies show that nonnative speakers can exhibit nativelike online L2 (morpho)syntactic processing behavior and neural patterns. These findings are contrary to predictions of the shallow structure hypothesis for syntactic processing (Clahsen & Felser, 2006a, 2006b). The data are in line with predictions of the (morpho)syntactic domain of the unified competition model of L2 acquisition (MacWhinney, 2005): Differences in L2 processing as compared to the L1 (or to native speakers of the L2) were generally associated with constructions that were crosslinguistically dissimilar or unique to the L2. The processing of crosslinguistically similar constructions generally produced no differences in brain activity between the L1 and L2. Overall, the available data suggest that cross-language similarity is an important factor that influences L2 (morpho)syntactic processing.

Type
Research Articles
Information
Studies in Second Language Acquisition , Volume 33 , Issue 1 , March 2011 , pp. 91 - 125
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Abutalebi, J. (2008). Neural aspects of second language representation and language control. Acta Psychologica, 128, 466–478.Google Scholar
Allen, M., Badecker, W., & Osterhout, L. (2003). Morphological analysis in sentence processing: An ERP study. Language and Cognitive Processes, 18, 405–430.Google Scholar
Bates, E., & MacWhinney, B. (1989). Functionalism and the competition model. In MacWhinney, B. & Bates, E. (Eds.), The crosslinguistic study of sentence processing (pp. 3–73). New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Benson, C. (2002). Transfer/crosslinguistic influence. ELT Journal, 56, 68–70.Google Scholar
Birdsong, D. (2005). Interpreting age effects in second language acquisition. In Kroll, J. F. & de Groot, A. M. B. (Eds.), Handbook of bilingualism: Psycholinguistic approaches. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Chen, L., Shu, H., Liu, Y., Zhao, J., & Li, P. (2007). ERP signatures of subject-verb agreement in L2 learning. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 10, 161–174.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clahsen, H., & Felser, C. (2006a). Continuity and shallow structures in language processing. Applied Psycholinguistics, 27, 107–126.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clahsen, H., & Felser, C. (2006b). Grammatical processing in language learners. Applied Psycholinguistics, 27, 3–42.Google Scholar
Clahsen, H., & Felser, C. (2006c). How nativelike is non-native language processing? Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 10, 564–570.Google Scholar
Comrie, B. (1989). Language universals and linguistic typology: Syntax and morphology. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Costa, A., Kovacic, D., Frank, J., & Caramazza, A. (2003). On the autonomy of the grammatical gender systems of the two languages of a bilingual. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 6, 181–200.Google Scholar
De Diego Balaguer, R. D. D., Sebastián-Gallés, N., Díaz, B., & Rodríguez-Fornells, A. (2005). Morphological processing in early bilinguals: An ERP study of regular and irregular verb processing. Cognitive Brain Research, 25, 312–327.Google Scholar
Dehaene, S., Dupoux, E., Mehler, J., Cohen, L., Paulesu, E., Perani, D., et al. (1997). Anatomical variability in the cortical representation of first and second language. NeuroReport, 8, 3809–3815.Google Scholar
Dodel, S., Golestani, N., Pallier, C., ElKouby, V., Le Bihan, D., & Poline, J. (2005). Condition-dependent functional connectivity: Syntax networks in bilinguals. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 360, 921–935.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dussias, P. E., & Sagarra, N. (2007). The effect of exposure on syntactic parsing in Spanish-English bilinguals. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 10, 101–116.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ellis, N. C. (2005). At the interface: Dynamic interactions of explicit and implicit language knowledge. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 27, 305–352.Google Scholar
Fender, M. (2003). English word recognition and word integration skills of native Arabic- and Japanese-speaking learners of English as a second language. Applied Psycholinguistics, 24, 289–315.Google Scholar
Fodor, J. D. (1995). Comprehending sentence structure. In Gleitman, L. R. & Liberman, M. (Eds.), Invitation to cognitive science: Language (pp. 209–246). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Frenck-Mestre, C., Osterhout, L., & McLaughlin, J. (2008). The effect of phonological realization of inflectional morphology on verbal agreement in French: Evidence from ERPs. Acta Psychologica, 128, 528–536.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Green, D. W., Crinion, J., & Price, C. J. (2006). Convergence, degeneracy, and control. Language Learning, 56, 99–125.Google Scholar
Hagoort, P. (2006). What we cannot learn from neuroanatomy about language learning and language processing: Commentary on Uylings. Language Learning, 56, 91–97.Google Scholar
Hahne, A. (2001). What’s different in second-language processing? Evidence from event-related potentials. Journal of Psycholinguistics Research, 30, 251–265.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hahne, A., & Friederici, A. D. (1999). Electrophysiological evidence for two steps in syntactic analysis: Early automatic and late controlled processes. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 11, 194–205.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hahne, A., & Friederici, A. D. (2001). Processing a second language: Late learners’ comprehension mechanisms as revealed by event-related brain potentials. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 4, 123–141.Google Scholar
Hasegawa, M., Carpenter, P. A., & Just, M. A. (2002). An fMRI study of bilingual sentence comprehension and workload. NeuroImage, 15, 647–660.Google Scholar
Hernandez, A. E., Hofmann, J., & Kotz, S. A. (2007). Age of acquisition modulates neural activity for both regular and irregular syntactic functions. NeuroImage, 36, 912–923.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Indefrey, P. (2006). A meta-analysis of hemodynamic studies on first and second language processing: Which suggested differences can we trust and what do they mean? Language Learning, 56, 279–304.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Isel, F. (2007). Syntactic and referential processes in second-language learners: Event-related brain potential evidence. NeuroReport, 18, 1885–1889.Google Scholar
Isel, F., Hahne, A., Maess, B., & Friederici, A. D. (2007). Neurodynamics of sentence interpretation: ERP evidence from French. Biological Psychology, 74, 337–346.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jeong, H., Sugiura, M., Sassa, Y., Haji, T., Usui, N., Taira, M., et al. (2007). Effect of syntactic similarity on cortical activation during second language processing: A comparison of English and Japanese among native Korean trilinguals. Human Brain Mapping, 28, 194–204.Google Scholar
Jeong, H., Sugiura, M., Sassa, Y., Yokoyama, S., Horie, K., Sato, S., et al. (2007). Cross-linguistic influence on brain activation during second language processing: An fMRI study. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 10, 175–187.Google Scholar
Jiang, N. (2004). Morphological insensitivity in second language processing. Applied Psycholinguistics, 25, 603–634.Google Scholar
Jiang, N. (2007). Selective integration of linguistic knowledge in adult second language learning. Language Learning, 57, 1–33.Google Scholar
Jing, M. (2008). Erroneous collocations caused by language transfer in Chinese EFL writing. US-China Foreign Language, 6, 57–61.Google Scholar
Johnson, J. S., & Newport, E. L. (1989). Critical period effects in second language learning: The influence of maturational state on the acquisition of English as a second language. Cognitive Psychology, 21, 60–99.Google Scholar
Just, M. A., Carpenter, P. A., Keller, T. A., Eddy, W. F., & Thulborn, K. R. (1996). Brain activation modulated by sentence comprehension. Science, 274, 114–116.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kaan, E., & Swaab, T. Y. (2003). Repair, revision, and complexity in syntactic analysis: An electrophysiological differentiation. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 15, 98–110.Google Scholar
Kellerman, E. (1995). Crosslinguistic influence: Transfer to nowhere? Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 15, 125–150.Google Scholar
Kempe, V., & MacWhinney, B. (1996). The crosslinguistic assessment of foreign language vocabulary learning. Applied Psycholinguistics, 17, 149–183.Google Scholar
Kim, A., & Osterhout, L. (2005). The independence of combinatory semantic processing: Evidence from event-related potentials. Journal of Memory and Language, 52, 205–225.Google Scholar
Kotz, S. A. (2008). A critical review of ERP and fMRI evidence on L2 syntactic processing. Brain and Language, 109, 68–74.Google Scholar
Kotz, S. A., Holcomb, P. J., & Osterhout, L. (2008). ERPs reveal comparable syntactic sentence processing in native and non-native readers of English. Acta Psychologica, 128, 514–527.Google Scholar
Lau, E., Stroud, C., Plesch, S., & Phillips, C. (2006). The role of structural prediction in rapid syntactic analysis. Brain and Language, 98, 74–88.Google Scholar
Leikin, M. (2008). Syntactic processing in two languages by native and bilingual adult readers: An ERP study. Journal of Neurolinguistics, 21, 349–373.Google Scholar
MacWhinney, B. (1997). Second language acquisition and the competition model. In de Groot, A. M. B. & Kroll, J. (Eds.), Tutorials in bilingualism: Psycholinguistic perspectives (pp. 113–142). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
MacWhinney, B. (2005). A unified model of language acquisition. In Kroll, J. & de Groot, A. M. B. (Eds.), Handbook of bilingualism: Psycholinguistic approaches (pp. 49–67). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Mahendra, N., Plante, E., Magloire, J., Milman, L., & Trouard, T. P. (2003). fMRI variability and the localization of languages in the bilingual brain. NeuroReport, 14, 1225–1228.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McCandliss, B. D., Cohen, L., & Dehaene, S. (2003). The visual word form area: Expertise for reading in the fusiform gyrus. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 7, 293–299.Google Scholar
McDonald, J. L. (1987). Sentence interpretation in bilingual speakers of English and Dutch. Applied Psycholinguistics, 8, 379–413.Google Scholar
McDonald, J. L., & MacWhinney, B. (1989). Maximum likelihood estimation in crosslinguistic studies of sentence processing. In MacWhinney, B. and Bates, E. (Eds.), The crosslinguistic study of sentence processing (pp. 397–421). New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
McLaughlin, J., Osterhout, L., & Kim, A. (2004). Neural correlates of second-language word learning: Minimal instruction produces rapid change. Nature Neuroscience, 7, 703–704.Google Scholar
Mueller, J. L. (2005). Electrophysiological correlates of second language processing. Second Language Research, 21, 152–174.Google Scholar
Ojima, S., Nakata, H., & Kakigi, R. (2005). An ERP study of second language learning after childhood: Effects of proficiency. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 17, 1212–1228.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Osterhout, L., & Holcomb, P. J. (1992). Event-related potentials elicited by syntactic anomaly. Journal of Memory and Language, 31, 785–806.Google Scholar
Osterhout, L., McLaughlin, J., Kim, A., Greenwald, R., & Inoue, K. (2004). Sentences in the brain: Event-related potentials as real-time reflections of sentence comprehension and language learning. In Carreiras, M. & Clifton, C. Jr. (Eds.), The on-line study of sentence comprehension: Eyetracking, ERP, and beyond (pp. 271–308). New York: Psychology Press.Google Scholar
Osterhout, L., McLaughlin, J., Pitkänen, I., Frenck-Mestre, C., & Molinaro, N. (2006). Novice learners, longitudinal designs, and event-related potentials: A means for exploring the neurocognition of second language processing. Language Learning, 56, 199–230.Google Scholar
Patel, A. D. (2003). Language, music, syntax and the brain. Nature Neuroscience, 6, 674–681.Google Scholar
Patel, A. D., Gibson, E., Ratner, J., Besson, M., & Holcomb, P. J. (1998). Processing syntactic relations in language and music: An event-related potential study. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 10, 717–733.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Perani, D., Paulesu, E., Sebastián-Gallés, N., Dupoux, E., Dehaene, S., Bettinardi, V., et al. (1998). The bilingual brain: Proficiency and age of acquisition of the second language. Brain, 121, 1841–1852.Google Scholar
Rossi, S., Gugler, M. F., Friederici, A. D., & Hahne, A. (2006). The impact of proficiency on syntactic second-language processing of German and Italian: Evidence from event-related potentials. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 18, 2030–2048.Google Scholar
Rüschemeyer, S. A., Fiebach, C. J., Kempe, V., & Friederici, A. D. (2005). Processing lexical semantic and syntactic information in first and second language: fMRI evidence from German and Russian. Human Brain Mapping, 25, 266–286.Google Scholar
Rüschemeyer, S. A., Zysset, S., & Friederici, A. D. (2006). Native and non-native reading of sentences: An fMRI experiment. NeuroImage, 31, 354–365.Google Scholar
Sabourin, L., & Stowe, L. A. (2008). Second language processing: When are first and second languages processed similarly? Second Language Research, 24, 397–430.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sabourin, L., Stowe, L. A., & de Haan, G. J. (2006). Transfer effects in learning a second language grammatical gender system. Second Language Research, 22, 1–29.Google Scholar
Springer, J. A., Binder, J. R., Hammeke, T. A., Swanson, S. J., Frost, J. A., Bellgowan, P. S. F., et al. (1999). Language dominance in neurologically normal and epilepsy subjects: A functional MRI study. Brain, 122, 2033–2045.Google Scholar
Stowe, L. A., & Sabourin, L. (2005). Imaging the processing of a second language: Effects of maturation and proficiency on the neural processes involved. International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching, 43, 329–353.Google Scholar
Suh, S., Hyo, W. Y., Lee, S., Chung, J. Y., Cho, Z. H., & Park, H. (2007). Effects of syntactic complexity in L1 and L2: An fMRI study of Korean-English bilinguals. Brain Research, 1136, 178–189.Google Scholar
Tatsuno, Y., & Sakai, K. L. (2005). Language-related activations in the left prefrontal regions are differentially modulated by age, proficiency, and task demands. Journal of Neuroscience, 25, 1637–1644.Google Scholar
Teschner, R. V., & Russell, W. M. (1984). The gender patterns of Spanish nouns: An inverse dictionary-based analysis. Hispanic Linguistics, 1, 115–132.Google Scholar
Thierry, G., & Wu, Y. J. (2007). Brain potentials reveal unconscious translation during foreign-language comprehension. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 104, 12,530–12,535.Google Scholar
Tokowicz, N., & MacWhinney, B. (2005). Implicit and explicit measures of sensitivity to violations in second language grammar. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 27, 173–204.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tokowicz, N., & Warren, T. (2010). Beginning adult learners’ sensitivity to morphosyntactic violations: A self-paced reading study. European Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 22, 1092–1106.Google Scholar
Tolentino, L. C., & Tokowicz, N. (2010). The relationship between ERP and behavioral measures of second-language processing: The role of cross-language similarity. Manuscript submitted for publication.Google Scholar
van Hell, J. G., & Tokowicz, N. (2010). Event-related brain potentials and second language learning: Syntactic processing in late L2 learners at different L2 proficiency levels. Second Language Research, 26, 43–74.Google Scholar
Vingerhoets, G., Borsel, J. V., Tesink, C., Noort, M., Deblaere, K., Seurinck, R., et al. (2003). Multilingualism: An fMRI study. NeuroImage, 20, 2181–2196.Google Scholar
Wartenburger, I., Heekeren, H., Abutalebi, J., Cappa, S., Villringer, A., & Perani, D. (2003). Early setting of grammatical processing in the bilingual brain. Neuron, 37, 159–170.Google Scholar
Wattendorf, E., Westermann, B., Zappatore, D., Franceschini, R., Lüdi, G., Radü, E.-W., et al. (2001). Different languages activate different subfields in Broca area. NeuroImage, 13, 624.Google Scholar
Weber-Fox, C. M., & Neville, H. J. (1996). Maturational constraints on functional specializations for language processing: ERP and behavioral evidence in bilingual speakers. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 8, 231–256.Google Scholar
Yudes, C., Macizo, P., & Bajo, T. (2010). Cognate effects in bilingual language comprehension tasks. NeuroReport, 21, 507–512.Google Scholar
Yokoyama, S., Okamoto, H., Miyamoto, T., Yoshimoto, K., Kim, J., Iwata, K., et al. (2006). Cortical activation in the processing of passive sentences in L1 and L2: An fMRI study. NeuroImage, 30, 570–579.Google Scholar