Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-22dnz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-28T13:15:25.024Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Sentence interpretation in bilingual speakers of English and Chinese

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

Hua Liu ,
Elizabeth Bates  and
Ping Li
Hua Liu*
Affiliation:
University of California, San Diego
Elizabeth Bates
Affiliation:
University of California, San Diego
Ping Li
Affiliation:
University of California, San Diego
*
Hua Liu, Department of Cognitive Science, University of California-San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This study examines patterns of transfer in the sentence processing strategies displayed by Chinese-English and English–Chinese bilinguals. Our results indicate that late bilinguals display strong evidence for forward transfer: late Chinese–English bilinguals transfer animacybased strategies to English sentences; late English–Chinese bilinguals transfer English-like word order strategies to Chinese. Early bilinguals display a variety of transfer patterns, including differentiation (use of animacy strategies in Chinese and word order strategies in English) and backward transfer (use of L2 processing strategies in L1, a possible symptom of language loss). These unusual transfer patterns reflect a complex interaction of variables, including age of exposure to L2 and patterns of daily language use. Implications of these findings for the critical period hypothesis are discussed, together with some new hypotheses concerning the interaction between acquisition of L2 and maintenance of L1.

Type
Articles
Information
Applied Psycholinguistics , Volume 13 , Issue 4 , October 1992 , pp. 451 - 484
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1992

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.)

References

REFERENCES

Bates, E., & MacWhinney, B. (1981). Second language acquisition from a functionalist perspective: Pragmatic, semantic and perceptual strategies. In Winitz, H. (Ed.), Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences Conference on Native and Foreign Language Acquisition. New York: New York Academy of Sciences.Google Scholar
Bates, E., (1982). Functionalist approaches to grammar. In Wanner, E. & Gleitman, L. (Eds.), Language acquisition: The state of the art. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bates, E., (1989). Functionalism and the competition model. In MacWhinney, B. & Bates, E. (Eds.), The crosslinguistic study of sentence processing. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bates, E., MacWhinney, B., Caselli, C., Devescovi, A., Natale, E., & Venza, V. (1984). A cross-linguistic study of the development of sentence interpretation strategies. Child Development, 55, 341–354.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bates, E., McNew, S., MacWhinney, B., Devescovi, A., & Smith, S. (1982). Functional constraints on sentence processing: A cross-linguistic study. Cognition, 11, 245–299.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bavin, E., & Shopen, T. (1989). Waripiri children's processing of transitive sentences. In MacWhinney, B. & Bates, E. (Eds.), The crosslinguistic study of sentence processing. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Chao, Y. R. (1968). A grammar of spoken Chinese. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Chen, S., Tzeng, O., & Bates, E. (1990). Sentence interpretation in Chinese aphasia. Unpublished manuscript, University of Southern California; University of California, Riverside; University of California, San Diego.Google Scholar
Gass, S. (1987). The resolution of conflicts among competing systems: A bidirectional perspective. Applied Psycholinguistics, 8, 329–350.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harrington, M. (1987). Processing transfer: Language-specific processing strategies as a source of interlanguage variation. Applied Psycholinguistics, 8, 351–378.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnson, J. S., & Newport, E. L. (1989). Critical period effects in second language learning: The influence of maturational state on the acquisition of English as a second language. Cognitive Psychology, 21, 60–99.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kail, M. (1989). Cue validity, cue cost, and processing types in French sentences comprehension. In MacWhinney, B. & Bates, E. (Eds.), The crosslinguistic study of sentence processing. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Kilborn, K. (1987). Sentence processing in a second language: Seeking a performance definition of fluency. Doctoral dissertation, University of California, San Diego.Google Scholar
Kilborn, K. (1989). Sentence processing in a second language: The timing of transfer. Language & Speech, 32, 1–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kilborn, K., & Cooreman, A. (1987). Sentence interpretation strategies in adult Dutch-English bilinguals. Applied Psycholinguistics, 8, 415–431.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kilborn, K., & Ito, T. (1989). Sentence processing strategies in adult bilinguals. In MacWhinney, B. & Bates, E. (Eds.), The crosslinguistic study of sentence processing. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Li, P. (1989). What cues can Chinese speakers use in sentence processing? Paper presented at the workshop on cross-linguistic studies of sentence processing, Department of Psychology, Carnegie-Mellon University.Google Scholar
Li, P., MacWhinney, B., & Bates, E. (1991). Processing a language without morphology: An on-line study of sentence interpretation in Chinese. CRL Technical Report 9102, University of California, San Diego.Google Scholar
MacWhinney, B. (1987). Applying the Competition Model to bilingualism. Applied Psycholinguistics, 8, 315–327.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MacWhinney, B. (1989). Competition and lexical categorization. In Corrigan, R., Eckman, F., & Noonan, M. (Eds.), Linguistic categorization. New York: Benjamins.Google Scholar
McDonald, J. (1986a). Assigning linguistic roles: The influence of conflicting cues. Journal of Memory and Language, 25, 415–431.Google Scholar
McDonald, J. (1986b). The development of sentence comprehension strategies in English and Dutch. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 41, 317–335.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McDonald, J. (1987a). Sentence interpretation in bilingual speakers of English and Dutch. Applied Psycholinguistics, 8, 379–415.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McDonald, J. (1987b). Sentence interpretation processes: The influence of conflicting cues. Journal of Memory and Language, 26, 100–117.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McDonald, J. (1989). The acquisition of cue-category mappings. In MacWhinney, B. & Bates, E. (Eds.), The crosslinguistic study of sentence processing. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Miao, X. (1981). Word order and semantic strategies in Chinese sentence comprehension. International Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 8, 23–33.Google Scholar
Miao, X., Chen, G., & Ying, H. (1986). Sentence comprehension in Chinese. In Shu, Zhu Man (Ed.), Studies in Child Language Development. Shanghai: East China University Press.Google Scholar
Slobin, D. I., (1985). Crosslinguistic evidence for the language-making capacity. In Slobin, D. I. (Ed.), The crosslinguistic study of language acquisition. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Smith, S., & Mimica, I. (1984). Agrammatism in a case-inflected language: Comprehension of agent-object relations. Brain and Language, 13, 274–290.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sokolov, J. (1989). The development of role assignment in Hebrew. In MacWhinney, B. & Bates, E. (Eds.), The crosslinguistic study of sentence processing. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Vaid, J., & Chengappa, S. (1988). Assigning linguistic roles: Sentence interpretation in normal and aphasic Kannada-English bilinguals. Journal of Neurolinguistics, 3(2), 161–183.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vaid, J., & Pandit, R. (1991). Sentence interpretation in normal and aphasic Hindi speakers. Brain and Language, 41(2), 250–274.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wong-Fillmore, L. (1991, 04). Loss of a native language ability due to premature exposure to English. Invited address to the Society for Research in Child Development. Seattle, WA.Google Scholar
Wulfeck, B., Juarez, L., Bates, E., & Kilborn, K. (1986). Sentence interpretation strategies in healthy and aphasic bilingual adults. In Vaid, J. (Ed.), Language processing in bilinguals: Psycholinguistics and neurological perspectives. Hillside, NJ: Eribaum.Google Scholar