A series of five studies is proposed to examine sentence comprehension in three groups of participants: adult native monolinguals, early and late bilinguals. It is hypothesized that fluent sentence comprehension can be achieved because proficient native speakers possess knowledge of generalized units of meaning larger than the word, For instance, in English, the verb 'provide' typically precedes positive words (e.g. 'provide work') whereas 'cause' typically precedes negative items (e.g. 'cause trouble'). These statistical patterns form units of meaning that imbue lexical items, and their argument structures, with semantic valence tendencies (positive/neutral/negative connotations). This proposal examines the impact of semantic valence tendencies on fluent sentence comprehension-To do so, first an accurate algorithm will be developed to assess the pervasiveness of valence tendencies in large corpora of English and Italian. Second, the proposal examines whether fluent reading is affected in sentences containing a violation of a valence tendency (e.g. 'cause optimism'). Third, the proposal examines fluency in bilinguals. Even very proficient second-language speakers seem to lag behind native speakers specifically in the degree of knowledge of language-specific selectional restrictions. It is proposed that part of the difference between early and late bilinguals' fluency in sentence comprehension may be in the processing of extended units of meaning such as 'cause + negative valence tendency'. The broader scope of this work is thus to contribute to better teaching practices that develop native-like fluency in second language learners. Fourth, the proposal examines whether both mental lexicons in bilinguals are activated concurrently when valence tendencies are processed. The research has direct implications for instructional methods used in second-language training, as being aware of statistical tendencies toward differential semantic valences for certain cognates may greatly improve second-language fluency. The research will also be informative for the further development of automated translation systems. And it will expose undergraduate research assistants, including ethnic minorities, to laboratory training in the language sciences. ? ? ?
| Onnis, Luca; Thiessen, Erik (2013) Language experience changes subsequent learning. Cognition 126:268-84 |
| Christiansen, Morten H; Conway, Christopher M; Onnis, Luca (2012) Similar Neural Correlates for Language and Sequential Learning: Evidence from Event-Related Brain Potentials. Lang Cogn Process 27:231-256 |
| Christiansen, Morten H; Onnis, Luca; Hockema, Stephen A (2009) The secret is in the sound: from unsegmented speech to lexical categories. Dev Sci 12:388-95 |
| Onnis, Luca; Waterfall, Heidi R; Edelman, Shimon (2008) Learn locally, act globally: learning language from variation set cues. Cognition 109:423-30 |
