Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-857557d7f7-ksgrx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-11-22T00:12:52.965Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

8 - Neurophysiological Markers of Phrasal Verb Processing: Evidence from L1 and L2 Speakers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2015

By
Silke Paulmann ,
Zainab Ghareeb-Ali  and
Claudia Felser
Edited by
Roberto R. Heredia  and
Anna B. Cieślicka
Silke Paulmann
Affiliation:
University of Essex
Zainab Ghareeb-Ali
Affiliation:
University of Essex
Claudia Felser
Affiliation:
University of Potsdam
Roberto R. Heredia
Affiliation:
Texas A & M University
Anna B. Cieślicka
Affiliation:
Texas A & M University
Get access

Summary

Abstract

Language is often ambiguous. For instance, verb-preposition strings such as look up can be interpreted either as a single verb + preposition combination leading to a literal interpretation (e.g., to look up the chimney), or can be interpreted as a so-called phrasal verb that requires a figurative interpretation (e.g., to look up the number). Past research has primarily used behavioral methodologies to investigate how first (L1) and second language (L2) learners deal with this phenomenon. However, event-related potentials (ERPs) are highly time sensitive and may shed additional light on this issue. In this chapter, we will first provide an overview of evidence on phrasal verb processing in L1 and L2 speakers. We will then present some of our own ERP data exploring phrasal verb processing in native speakers of English and native Arabic-speaking L2 learners of English. We will conclude with directions for future ERP research in this domain.

Keywords: bilingualism, event-related potentials (ERPs), figurative language, phrasal verbs, second language acquisition

Psycholinguistic research has a long tradition in exploring how native speakers successfully master the complexities encountered in everyday language. Lexical and structural ambiguities form a vital part of this complexity and are a frequent feature of language. For instance, multiword expressions such as phrasal verbs (e.g.,run into), which can have a figurative interpretation (e.g.,to meet), have been estimated by some to form about one-third of the English verb vocabulary (Li, Zhang, Niu, Jiang, & Srihari, 2003).

Information

Type
Chapter
Information
Bilingual Figurative Language Processing , pp. 245 - 267
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2015

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Book purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Dehé, N. (2002). Particle verbs in English: Syntax, information structure, and intonation. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moreno, E.M., Rodriguez-Fornells, A., & Laine, M. (2008). Event-related potentials (ERPs) in the study of bilingual language processing. Journal of Neurolinguistics, 21, 477–508.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mueller, J.L. (2005). Electrophysiological correlates of second language processing. Second Language Research, 21, 152–174.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bobrow, S., & Bell, S. (1973). On catching on to idiomatic expressions. Memory & Cognition, 1, 343–346.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
British National Corpus. (2007). BNC XML Edition (Version 3). [Distributed by Oxford University Computing Services on behalf of the BNC Consortium]. Retrieved from
Cacciari, C., & Tabossi, P. (1988). The comprehension of idioms. Journal of Memory and Language, 27, 668–683.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cornejo, C., Simonetti, F., Aldunate, N., Ibáñez, A., López, V., & Melloni, I. (2007). Electrophysiological evidence of different interpretative strategies in irony comprehension. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 36, 411–430.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coulson, S., & Van Petten, C. (2002). Conceptual integration and metaphor: An event-related potential study. Memory & Cognition, 30, 958–968.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coulson, S., & Van Petten, C. (2007). A special role for the right hemisphere in metaphor comprehension? ERP evidence from hemifield presentation. Brain Research, 1146, 128–145.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dagut, M., & Laufer, B. (1985). Avoidance of phrasal verbs: A case for contrastive analysis. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 7, 73–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Delorme, A., & Makeig, S. (2004). EEGLAB: An open source toolbox for analysis of single-trial EEG dynamics. Journal of Neuroscience Methods, 134, 9–21.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Di Sciullo, A.M., & Williams, E. (1987). On the definition of word. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press,Google Scholar
Estill, R.B., & Kemper, S. (1982). Interpreting idioms. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 11, 559–568.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Federmeier, K.D. (2007). Thinking ahead: The role and roots of prediction in language comprehension. Psychophysiology, 44, 491–505.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Frazier, L. (1979). On comprehending sentences: Syntactic parsing strategies. Bloomington: Indiana University Linguistics Club.Google Scholar
Friederici, A.D. (2004). Event-related brain potential studies in language. Current Neurology and Neuroscience Reports, 4, 466–470.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Geisser, S., & Greenhouse, S. (1959). On methods in the analysis of profile data. Psychometrica, 24, 95–112.Google Scholar
Gibbs, R.W. (1980). Spilling the beans on understanding and memory for idioms in conversation. Memory & Cognition, 8, 149–156.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Giora, R. (2003). On our mind: Salience, context, and figurative language. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hulstijn, J.H., & Marchena, E. (1989). Avoidance: Grammatical or semantic causes?Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 11, 241–255.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kutas, M., & Hillyard, S.A. (1980). Reading senseless sentences: Brain potentials reflect semantic incongruity. Science, 207, 203–208.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Laufer, B., & Eliasson, S. (1993). What causes avoidance in second language learning: L1-L2, difference, L1-L2 similarity, or L2 complexity?Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 15, 35–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laurent, J.-P., Denhieres, G., Passerieux, C., Iakimova, G., & Hardy-Bayle, M.-C. (2006). On understanding idiomatic language: The salience hypothesis assessed by ERPs. Brain Research, 1068, 151–160.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Li, W., Zhang, X., Niu, C., Jiang, Y., & Srihari, R. (2003). An expert lexicon approach to identifying English phrasal verbs. In Proceedings of the 41st Annual Meeting of the ACL (pp. 513–520). Sapporo, Japan.Google Scholar
Liao, Y., & Fukuya, Y.J. (2004). Avoidance of phrasal verbs: The case of Chinese learners of English. Language Learning, 54, 193–226.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Matlock, T., & Heredia, R.R. (2002). Lexical access of phrasal verbs and verb-prepositions by monolinguals and bilinguals. In Heredia, R.R. & Altarriba, J. (Eds.), Bilingual sentence processing (pp. 251–274). Amsterdam: Elsevier.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McPartland-Fairman, P. (1989). The processing of phrasal verbs by native and non-native speakers of English (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). The City University of New York.Google Scholar
Mueller, J.L. (2005). Electrophysiological correlates of second language processing. Second Language Research, 21, 152–174.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pynte, J.L., Besson, M., Robichon, F.H., & Poli, J. (1996). The time-course of metaphor comprehension: An event-related potential study. Brain and Language, 55, 293–316.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Regel, S., Gunter, T.C., & Friederici, A.D. (2011). Isn’t it ironic? An electrophysiological exploration of figurative language processing. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 23, 277–293.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Siyanova-Chantuira, A., Conklin, K., & van Heuven, W. J. B. (2011). Seeing a phrase “time and again” matters: The role of phrasal frequency in the processing of multiword sequences. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 37, 776–784.Google Scholar
Siyanova, A., & Schmitt, N. (2007). Native and nonnative use of multi-word vs. one-word verbs. International Review of Applied Linguistics, 45, 109–139.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sjöholm, K. (1995). The influence of crosslinguistic, semantic and input factors on the acquisition of English phrasal verbs. Turku, Finland: Abo Akademi University Press.Google Scholar
Strandburg, R.J., Marsh, J.T., Brown, W.S., Asarnow, R.F., Guthrie, D., Harper, R., Yee, C.M., & Nuechterlein, K.H. (1997). Event-related potential correlates of linguistic information processing in schizophrenics. Biological Psychiatry, 42, 596–608.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Swinney, D., & Cutler, A. (1979). The access and processing of idiomatic expressions. Journal of Learning and Verbal Behavior, 18, 523–534.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vespignani, F., Canal, P., Molinaro, N., Fonda, S., & Cacciari, C. (2010). Predictive mechanisms in idiom comprehension. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 22, 1682–1700.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

Accessibility standard: Unknown

Why this information is here

This section outlines the accessibility features of this content - including support for screen readers, full keyboard navigation and high-contrast display options. This may not be relevant for you.

Accessibility Information

Accessibility compliance for the PDF of this book is currently unknown and may be updated in the future.

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×