Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The Effects of Over- and Under-Specified Linguistic Input on L2 Online Processing of Referring Expressions

Journal of Psycholinguistic Research Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Cite this article

Abstract

Via two reading experiments, this exploratory study examined the effects of over-and under-specified linguistic input on L2 online processing of Chinese referring expressions (REs). In each experiment, a group of advanced L2 Chinese speakers (all with Uyghurs as L1) and a control group of native Chinese speakers read 48 sets of 4 sentence pairs with each set including one sentence pair containing referential underspecification (ambiguity) and one pair containing overspecification (redundancy). An analysis of the two groups’ reaction time (RT) using mixed-effects linear modelling reveals that underspecification had no effect on native Chinese speakers in both experiments, and overspecification also had no effect in the form of a redundant size noun modifier in Experiment 1 but showed a facilitating effect in the form of a color noun modifier in Experiment 2. In contrast, L2 Chinese speakers were significantly disrupted by underspecification in both experiments but not by overspecification. The results seem to support the hypothesis that L2 processing is constraint-based. Tentative research and pedagogical implications of the findings are discussed.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Availability of Data and Materials

All the data and the material used in this study are available and will be provided upon request.

Notes

  1. The native Chinese speaker participants in this experiment and Experiment 2 were recruited for this study specifically, i.e., they were not the participants in Wu and Ma’s (2020) study. In other words, the native Chinese speakers’ data were newly collected for this study.

References

  • Arts, A., Maes, A., Noordman, L. G. M., & Jansen, C. (2011). Overspecification facilitates object identification. Journal of Pragmatics, 43, 361–374.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baayen, R. (2008). A Practical Introduction to Statistics Using R. Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baayen, R. H., & Milin, P. (2010). Analyzing reaction times. International Journal of Psychological Research, 3, 1–27.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barr, D. J., Levy, R., Scheepers, C., & Tily, H. J. (2013). Random effects structure for confirmatory hypothesis testing: Keep it maximal. Journal of Memory and Language, 68, 255–278.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bates, D., Mächler, M., Bolker, B., & Walker, S. (2015). Fitting linear mixed-effects models using lme4. Journal of Statistical Software, 67, 1–48.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clahsen, H., & Felser, C. (2006). Grammatical processing in language learners. Applied Psycholinguistics, 27, 3–41.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clahsen, H., & Felser, C. (2017). Some notes on the Shallow Structure Hypothesis. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 40, 693–706.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dekydtspotter, L., Schwartz, B. D., & Sprouse, R. A. (2006). The comparative fallacy in L2 processing research. In M. Grantham O’Brien, C. Shea, & J. Archibald (Eds.), Proceedings of the 8th Generative Approaches to Second Language Acquisition Conference (GASLA 2006) (pp. 33–40). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.

  • Engelhardt, P., Bailey, K., & Ferreira, F. (2006). Do speakers and listeners observe the Gricean of quantity? Journal of Memory and Language, 54, 554–573.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Engelhardt, P. E., Demiral, ŞB., & Ferreira, F. (2011). Over-specified referring expressions impair comprehension: An ERP study. Brain and Cognition, 77, 304–314.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Frazier, L., & Fodor, J. D. (1978). The sausage machine: A new two-stage parsing model. Cognition, 6, 291–325.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Frenck-Mestre, C. (2002). An on-line look at sentence processing in a second language. In R. Herrida & J. Altarriba (Eds.), Bilingual Sentence Processing (pp. 217–236). North-Holland.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Frenck-Mestre, C., & Pynte, J. (1997). Syntactic ambiguity resolution while reading in second and native languages. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 50A, 119–148.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fukumura, K., & van Gompel, R. P. G. (2017). How do violations of Gricean s affect reading? Journal of Memory and Language, 95, 1–18.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Genç, G. (2016). Can ambiguity tolerance, success in reading, and gender predict the foreign language reading anxiety? Journal of Language and Linguistic Studies, 12, 135–151.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grice, H. P. (1989). Studies in the Way of Words. Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hewitt, E., & Stephenson, J. (2012). Foreign language anxiety and oral exam performance: A replication of Phillips’ MLJ study. The Modern Language Journal, 96, 170–189.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Huang, C.-T.J. (1984). On the distribution and reference of empty pronouns. Linguistic Inquiry, 15, 531–574.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jackson, C. N. (2008). Proficiency level and the interaction of lexical and morphosyntactic information during L2 sentence processing. Language Learning, 58, 875–909.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jiang, N. (2004). Morphological insensitivity in second language processing. Applied Psycholinguistics, 25, 603–634.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jiang, N. (2018). Second language processing: An introduction. Routledge.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Jiang, N. (2021). Introduction. In N. Jiang (Ed.) Studies of bilingual processing presented to Kenneth I. Forster (Special Issue). Journal of Second Language Studies, 4, 201–203.

  • Juffs, A. (1998). Main verb vs. reduced relative clause ambiguity resolution in L2 sentence processing. Language Learning, 48, 107–147.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Luccioni, A., Benotti, L., & Landragin, F. (2015). Overspecified references: An experiment on lexical acquisition in a virtual environment. Computers in Human Behavior, 49, 94–101.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Luke, S. G. (2017). Evaluating significance in linear mixed-effects models in R. Behavior Research Methods, 49, 1494–1502.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Marefat, H., & Nushi, M. (2005). Syntactic ambiguity resolution: A case of L2 learners. Journal of Cognitive Science, 6, 55–71.

    Google Scholar 

  • MacDonald, M. C. (1994). Probabilistic constraints and syntactic ambiguity resolution. Language and Cognitive Processes, 9, 157–201.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • MacDonald, M. C., Pearlmutter, N. J., & Seidenberg, M. S. (1994). The lexical nature of syntactic ambiguity resolution. Psychological Review, 101, 676.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • MacDonald, M. C., & Seidenberg, M. S. (2006). Constraint satisfaction accounts of lexical and sentence comprehension. In M. J. Traxler & M. A. Gernsbacher (Eds.), Handbook of psycholinguistics (2nd ed., pp. 581–611). Elsevier.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Marinis, T., Roberts, L., Felser, C., & Clahsen, H. (2005). Gaps in second language sentence processing. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 27, 53–78.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McRae, K., Hare, M., & Tanenhaus, M. K. (2005). Meaning Through Syntax is insufficient to explain comprehension of sentences with reduced relative clauses: Comment on McKoon and Ratcliff (2003). Psychological Review, 112, 1022–1031.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Orhun, M., Tantug, A. C., & Adali, E. (2009). Rule based analysis of the Uyghur nouns. International Journal on Asian Language Processing, 19, 33–43.

    Google Scholar 

  • Perfetti, C. A., & Harris, L. N. (2013). Universal reading processes are modulated by language and writing system. Language Learning and Development, 9, 296–316.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • R Development Core Team. (2019). R: A Language and Environment for Statistical Computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria (http://www.R-project.org).

  • Rah, A., & Adone, D. (2010). Processing of the reduced relative clause versus main verb ambiguity in L2 learners at different proficiency levels. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 32, 79–109.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Roberts, L. (2012). Individual differences in second language sentence processing. Language Learning, 62, 172–188.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schneider, W., Eschmann, A., & Zuccolotto, A. (2002). E-Prime reference guide. Pittsburgh, PA: Psychology Software Tools.

  • Tourtouri, E. N., Delogu, F., Sikos, L., & Crocker, M. W. (2019). Rational over-specification in visually-situated comprehension and production. Journal of Cultural Cognitive Science, 3, 175–202.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • White, C. (1999). Expectations and emergent beliefs of self-instructed language learners. System, 27, 443–457.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Winter, B. (2019). Statistics for Linguists: An introduction using R. Routledge.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Witzel, J., & Witzel, N. (2021). Relative clause processing in L1 and L2 English: A maze task investigation. Journal of Second Language Studies, 4, 327–352.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wu, S., & Ma, Z. (2020). How is Chinese reading affected by under-specification and over-specification? Evidence from self-paced reading experiments. Journal of Pragmatics, 155, 213–233.

  • Xu, J., Pan, J., & Yan, Y. (2016). Agglutinative language speech recognition using automatic allophone deriving. Chinese Journal of Electronics, 25, 328–333.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Funding

Shanghai Municipal Philosophy and Social Science Foundation (2019BYY022).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Foreign Languages, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 800 # Dongchuan Road, MinHang, Shanghai, 200240, China

    Shiyu Wu & Shaoqiang Huang

  2. Department of English, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL, 35487, USA

    Dilin Liu

Authors
  1. Shiyu Wu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Dilin Liu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Shaoqiang Huang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

SW designed the study, developed the study instrument, and conducted the data analysis along with some of the writing of the article. DL helped with the development of the instrument and data analysis and did most of the writing of the article. SH did the data collection and processing.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Dilin Liu.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

There is no conflict of interest involved in this study.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Wu, S., Liu, D. & Huang, S. The Effects of Over- and Under-Specified Linguistic Input on L2 Online Processing of Referring Expressions. J Psycholinguist Res 52, 283–305 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10936-022-09879-3

Download citation

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10936-022-09879-3

Keywords

search

Navigation