Morphosyntactic underspecification affects the processing of verbal forms at different levels of abstraction in L1 and L2 German

Bibliographic Data

ID15087348
AuthorsAndreas Opitz (0000-0002-1494-7591, Herder Institute, corresponding author), Denisa Bordag (Herder Institute), Alberto Furgoni (0000-0002-4077-7776, Herder Institute)
Year2025
Volume28
Issue1
Pages185-197
Publication date2025-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueBilingualism Language and Cognition (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1366-7289 • E-ISSN: 1469-1841
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s1366728924000282
OpenAlexW4394723709
LanguageEN
References cited51

Using a priming paradigm, we investigated the processing of overtly identical verb forms with different sets of morphosyntactic features in L1 and L2 German. We found that more specific functions of a verb (inflected verbs) were better primes for less specific verb functions (past participles) than vice versa. For L1 speakers, these priming asymmetries were observed regardless of whether the lexical verb was repeated in prime and target or not (i.e., priming also for abstract configurations). For L2 learners, a similar but not native-like asymmetric priming pattern was seen only with repetition of the lexical verb. It was absent when the verb was not repeated. We conclude that in L2, morphosyntactic information is processed more on a lexical, item-based level compared to L1. We discuss our results in the context of several accounts, e.g., Shallow Structure Hypothesis, Declarative Procedural Model and the Ontogenesis Model of the L2 Lexical Representation

Abstraction · Cognitive psychology · German · Linguistics · Underspecification · Computer Science · Neurobiology of Language and Bilingualism · Philosophy · Psychology · Second Language Acquisition and Learning · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation

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