The resolution of conflicts among competing systems: A bidirectional perspective

Susan M. Gass

122 citations0/0 files storedApplied Psycholinguistics

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Language Development and Disorders EFL/ESL Teaching and Learning Neurobiology of Language and Bilingualism

Abstract

ABSTRACT The present study investigates the interaction of syntax, semantics, and pragmatics from the perspective of functional constraints on sentence processing. The functionalist model of Bates and Mac-Whinney (1981a, 1987) is taken as a basis for investigating subjects' reactions to sentences in which word order, topic, and animacy are varied. Subjects were native speakers of Italian, a language which is sensitive to semantics for interpretation and English, a language which is sensitive to syntax for interpretation (Bates, McNew, MacWhinney, Devescovi, & Smith, 1982). The two native speaker groups were further subdivided in terms of second versus foreign language learners. This study focusses on the question of how learners move from one organizational system to another. It is argued that the ways in which L2 learners are able to determine the strength of dominant factors provides insights not only into the processes involved in L2 acquisition but also into the relative strength of components crosslinguistically and the strength of boundaries between linguistic and extra-linguistic information. The results suggest that in moving from a semantic-dominant language to a syntactic-dominant one, learners first become aware of the importance of the concept of word order in a second language before being able to determine the specifics of word order in that language. On the other hand, moving in the other direction (from syntactic to semantic dominance) seems to come about with greater ease. To account for these results, a prototype model of acquisition is introduced. Finally, differences between second language and foreign language-learning environments are discussed.

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1980Transitivity in Grammar and Discourse 1986Input in Second Language Acquisition 2009Language Acquisition: The State of the Art 2014Mechanisms of Language Acquisition 1977Thinking; Readings in Cognitive Science 1984The Discourse Basis for Lexical Categories in Universal Grammar 1977Studies in cross-cultural psychology 1979Individual Differences in Language Ability and Language Behavior

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1994Second language reading research: Problems and possibilities 1996Comprehension processes in L2 reading: Language competence, textual coherence, and inferences 2003English word recognition and word integration skills of native Arabic- and Japanese-speaking learners of English as a second language 1998The role of phonemic awareness in second language reading 1993Transferred L1 Strategies and L2 Syntactic Structure in L2 Sentence Comprehension 2003Language Processing Capacity

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