Incremental comprehension of Japanese passives: Evidence from the visual-world paradigm

Psycholinguistic research has shown that sentence processing is incremental (e.g., Altmann & Kamide, 1999). In Japanese, a verb-final language, native speakers use case markers to incrementally assign thematic roles and predictively activate a structural representation of upcoming linguistic ite...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Applied psycholinguistics 2017-07, Vol.38 (4), p.953-983
Main Author: MITSUGI, SANAKO
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Comprehension
Cues
Evidence
Eye
Eye movements
Grammar
Individual Differences
Japanese
Japanese language
Language
Language acquisition
Language Processing
Linguistic Input
Morphemes
Morphology
Morphology (Languages)
Motor Reactions
Native Speakers
Natural language processing
Nouns
Passive voice
Psycholinguistics
Psychological aspects
Reading comprehension
Second Language Learning
Sentences
Syntax
Thematic roles
Verbs
Visualization
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Summary:Psycholinguistic research has shown that sentence processing is incremental (e.g., Altmann & Kamide, 1999). In Japanese, a verb-final language, native speakers use case markers to incrementally assign thematic roles and predictively activate a structural representation of upcoming linguistic items. This study examined whether second-language learners of Japanese, guided by case markers, generate predictions as to whether the upcoming verb involves the active or passive voice. The results show that the native speakers made predictive eye movements before the verb, but the learners did not; the learners were less efficient in using case-marker cues than the native speakers and relied more on verb morphology information. These results suggest that case markers guide thematic role assignments, expediting the processing for Japanese native speakers. Learners may depend more on information from the verb to compensate for the inefficiency in case-marker-driven predictive processing.
ISSN:0142-7164
1469-1817
DOI:10.1017/S0142716416000515