Robyn Berghoff
Biographic Data
| ID | 2492279 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Robyn Berghoff |
| GIVEN NAMES | Robyn |
| FAMILY NAME | Berghoff |
| SIGNATURE | BERGHOFF R |
| AFFILIATIONS | Stellenbosch University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-5601-3589 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 13 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 1 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 13 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2020 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Semantic coherence in noun class assignment
A central question in research on grammatical gender is whether it is semantically meaningful. This paper employs an auditory lexical decision task to investigate the role of noun class (NC) semantic coherence in judgments of novel NC marker + noun stem combinations in isiXhosa. Ninety participants made lexical decisions to pseudowords created by placing an NC prefix from a more (NC4) and less (NC10) semantically coherent NC on noun stems belongi…
Diversity in research on the psychology of language
Linguistic and Geographic Diversity in Research on Second Language Acquisition and Multilingualism
The present study assesses linguistic and geographic diversity in selected outlets of SLA and multilingualism research. Specifically, we examine over 2,000 articles published in specialized top-tier journals, recording the languages under study and their acquisition order, author affiliations, the country in which the research was conducted, and citations. In the sample, there were 183 unique languages and 174 unique pairings, corresponding to 3 …
Lexical and sub-lexical frequencies in isiXhosa-medium children’s stories
Visual word recognition in developing readers is affected by several factors, many of which are important in the design of teaching and testing materials. Among these, one well-studied factor is word frequency: more frequent words are recognised more quickly than less frequent words. Another is the presence of consonant sequences, where words containing a consonant sequence (e.g. ‘tsh’) are recognised more slowly than non-consonant-sequence-conta…
Cognitive control affects the reanalysis of reduced complement clause ambiguities
Cognitive control (CC) affects the ability to revise an incorrect parse. It has been shown to be implicated in detecting and resolving conflicts between semantic and syntactic cues during sentence processing. Previous studies in this area have primarily found CC effects with sentences requiring relatively substantial reanalyses, which may be expected to draw more on CC. This study investigates whether CC is also implicated in the processing of am…
L2 activation during L1 processing is increased by exposure but decreased by proficiency
Aims: The study investigates the effects of L2 proficiency and L2 exposure on L2-to-L1 cross-language activation (CLA) in L1-dominant bilinguals. In so doing, it tests the predictions made by prominent models of the bilingual lexicon regarding how language experience modulates CLA. Design: The participants (27 L1-dominant L1 English–L2 Afrikaans speakers) completed a visual world eye-tracking task, conducted entirely in English, in which they saw…
First language primacy in multilingualism and emotion research
The interaction between multilingualism and emotions has so far mostly been researched in Northern contexts. The findings obtained suggest that the first language is typically preferred for emotional and mental activities (i.e. ‘first language primacy’). In this article, we extend this area of investigation to Africa. We use the Bilingualism and Emotions Questionnaire to probe first language primacy in South Africa, employing a novel analytical a…
The role of English in South African multilinguals’ linguistic repertoires
A substantial body of research has examined the role of English in South Africans’ linguistic repertoires. Many of these studies have investigated whether a language shift towards English might be underway among first-language (L1) speakers of the indigenous languages. At the same time, the role of English in the repertoires of L1 English speakers has received little attention, the implicit assumption being that English remains dominant for them.…
Structural priming of code-switches in non-shared-word-order utterances
Code-switching is generally dispreferred at points of non-shared word order across a bilingual's two languages. In priming studies, this dispreference persists even following exposure to a code-switched non-shared-word-order utterance. The present study delves deeper into the scope of code-switching priming by investigating whether lexical repetition across target and prime, a factor known to boost structural priming, can increase code-switching …
Wh-Dependency Processing in a Naturalistic Exposure Context
This study replicates Felser and Roberts (2007), which used a cross-modal picture priming task to examine indirect-object dependency processing in classroom L2 learners. The replication focuses on early L2 learners with extensive naturalistic L2 exposure (n = 22)—an understudied group in the literature—and investigates whether these learners, in contrast to those in the original study, reactivate the moved element at its original position in the …
Evaluativity in the Afrikaans Equative and Excessive Constructions
Afrikaans has two degree modifiers translatable as “much,” “many,” or “a lot,” namely veel and baie. However, the default excessive and equative constructions in Afrikaans are te veel (too much) and ewe veel (as much), not te baie and ewe baie. This article argues that veel is dominant in these constructions because the atypical/marked status of te baie and ewe baie can lend these formulations a marked meaning. Specifically, this marked meaning i…
L2 processing of filler-gap dependencies
In the online processing of long-distance wh-dependencies, native speakers have been found to make use of intermediate syntactic gaps, which has the effect of facilitating dependency resolution. This strategy has also been observed in second language (L2) speakers living in an L2 immersion context, but not in classroom L2 learners. This research note investigates whether there is evidence of use of the intermediate gap among L2 speakers that have…
Degree modification across categories in Afrikaans
The paper presents an analysis of the Afrikaans degree modifierbaie'very/much/many'.Baieappears to be a single lexical item with a wide distribution in terms of the categories of gradable predicate with which it can combine. However, the paper shows that two syntactically distinct instances ofbaieshould be distinguished. These instances ofbaieportion out the modification of different grammatical categories between them: one, a head, exclusively m…
L2 processing of filler-gap dependencies
In the online processing of long-distance wh-dependencies, native speakers have been found to make use of intermediate syntactic gaps, which has the effect of facilitating dependency resolution. This strategy has also been observed in second language (L2) speakers living in an L2 immersion context, but not in classroom L2 learners. This research note investigates whether there is evidence of use of the intermediate gap among L2 speakers that have…
Evaluativity in the Afrikaans Equative and Excessive Constructions
Afrikaans has two degree modifiers translatable as “much,” “many,” or “a lot,” namely veel and baie. However, the default excessive and equative constructions in Afrikaans are te veel (too much) and ewe veel (as much), not te baie and ewe baie. This article argues that veel is dominant in these constructions because the atypical/marked status of te baie and ewe baie can lend these formulations a marked meaning. Specifically, this marked meaning i…
L2 processing of filler-gap dependencies
In the online processing of long-distance wh-dependencies, native speakers have been found to make use of intermediate syntactic gaps, which has the effect of facilitating dependency resolution. This strategy has also been observed in second language (L2) speakers living in an L2 immersion context, but not in classroom L2 learners. This research note investigates whether there is evidence of use of the intermediate gap among L2 speakers that have…
Degree modification across categories in Afrikaans
The paper presents an analysis of the Afrikaans degree modifierbaie'very/much/many'.Baieappears to be a single lexical item with a wide distribution in terms of the categories of gradable predicate with which it can combine. However, the paper shows that two syntactically distinct instances ofbaieshould be distinguished. These instances ofbaieportion out the modification of different grammatical categories between them: one, a head, exclusively m…
Structural priming of code-switches in non-shared-word-order utterances
Code-switching is generally dispreferred at points of non-shared word order across a bilingual's two languages. In priming studies, this dispreference persists even following exposure to a code-switched non-shared-word-order utterance. The present study delves deeper into the scope of code-switching priming by investigating whether lexical repetition across target and prime, a factor known to boost structural priming, can increase code-switching …
Wh-Dependency Processing in a Naturalistic Exposure Context
This study replicates Felser and Roberts (2007), which used a cross-modal picture priming task to examine indirect-object dependency processing in classroom L2 learners. The replication focuses on early L2 learners with extensive naturalistic L2 exposure (n = 22)—an understudied group in the literature—and investigates whether these learners, in contrast to those in the original study, reactivate the moved element at its original position in the …
Linguistic and Geographic Diversity in Research on Second Language Acquisition and Multilingualism
The present study assesses linguistic and geographic diversity in selected outlets of SLA and multilingualism research. Specifically, we examine over 2,000 articles published in specialized top-tier journals, recording the languages under study and their acquisition order, author affiliations, the country in which the research was conducted, and citations. In the sample, there were 183 unique languages and 174 unique pairings, corresponding to 3 …
Lexical and sub-lexical frequencies in isiXhosa-medium children’s stories
Visual word recognition in developing readers is affected by several factors, many of which are important in the design of teaching and testing materials. Among these, one well-studied factor is word frequency: more frequent words are recognised more quickly than less frequent words. Another is the presence of consonant sequences, where words containing a consonant sequence (e.g. ‘tsh’) are recognised more slowly than non-consonant-sequence-conta…
Cognitive control affects the reanalysis of reduced complement clause ambiguities
Cognitive control (CC) affects the ability to revise an incorrect parse. It has been shown to be implicated in detecting and resolving conflicts between semantic and syntactic cues during sentence processing. Previous studies in this area have primarily found CC effects with sentences requiring relatively substantial reanalyses, which may be expected to draw more on CC. This study investigates whether CC is also implicated in the processing of am…
L2 activation during L1 processing is increased by exposure but decreased by proficiency
Aims: The study investigates the effects of L2 proficiency and L2 exposure on L2-to-L1 cross-language activation (CLA) in L1-dominant bilinguals. In so doing, it tests the predictions made by prominent models of the bilingual lexicon regarding how language experience modulates CLA. Design: The participants (27 L1-dominant L1 English–L2 Afrikaans speakers) completed a visual world eye-tracking task, conducted entirely in English, in which they saw…
First language primacy in multilingualism and emotion research
The interaction between multilingualism and emotions has so far mostly been researched in Northern contexts. The findings obtained suggest that the first language is typically preferred for emotional and mental activities (i.e. ‘first language primacy’). In this article, we extend this area of investigation to Africa. We use the Bilingualism and Emotions Questionnaire to probe first language primacy in South Africa, employing a novel analytical a…
The role of English in South African multilinguals’ linguistic repertoires
A substantial body of research has examined the role of English in South Africans’ linguistic repertoires. Many of these studies have investigated whether a language shift towards English might be underway among first-language (L1) speakers of the indigenous languages. At the same time, the role of English in the repertoires of L1 English speakers has received little attention, the implicit assumption being that English remains dominant for them.…
Diversity in research on the psychology of language
Semantic coherence in noun class assignment
A central question in research on grammatical gender is whether it is semantically meaningful. This paper employs an auditory lexical decision task to investigate the role of noun class (NC) semantic coherence in judgments of novel NC marker + noun stem combinations in isiXhosa. Ninety participants made lexical decisions to pseudowords created by placing an NC prefix from a more (NC4) and less (NC10) semantically coherent NC on noun stems belongi…
Linguistics (11 works) · Psychology (9 works) · Neurobiology of Language and Bilingualism (6 works) · Cognition (5 works) · Cognitive psychology (5 works) · Computer Science (5 works) · EFL/ESL Teaching and Learning (5 works) · Philosophy (5 works) · First language (4 works) · Multilingual Education and Policy (4 works)