Figuring Out How Verb-Particle Constructions Are Understood During L1 and L2 Reading
| Autor: | Mehrgol Tiv, Debra Titone, Deanna C. Friesen, Veronica Whitford, Debra Jared, Laura M. Gonnerman |
|---|---|
| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Rok vydání: | 2019 |
| Předmět: |
media_common.quotation_subject
lcsh:BF1-990 Verb Literal and figurative language eye tracking 050105 experimental psychology Education 03 medical and health sciences 0302 clinical medicine reading Reading (process) Psychology 0501 psychology and cognitive sciences Meaning (existential) Neuroscience of multilingualism General Psychology media_common Original Research phrasal verbs 05 social sciences Contrast (statistics) bilingualism Linguistics Comprehension lcsh:Psychology Eye tracking verb particle constructions 030217 neurology & neurosurgery |
| Zdroj: | Frontiers in Psychology, Vol 10 (2019) Frontiers in Psychology Education Publications |
| ISSN: | 1664-1078 |
| DOI: | 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01733/full |
| Popis: | The aim of this paper was to investigate first-language (L1) and second-language (L2) reading of verb particle constructions (VPCs) among English-French bilingual adults. VPCs, or phrasal verbs, are highly common collocations of a verb paired with a particle, such as eat up or chew out, that often convey a figurative meaning. VPCs vary in form (eat up the candy vs. eat the candy up) and in other factors, such as the semantic contribution of the constituent words to the overall meaning (semantic transparency) and form frequency. Much like classic forms of idioms, VPCs are difficult for L2 users. Here, we present two experiments that use eye-tracking to discover factors that influence the ease with which VPCs are processed by bilingual readers. In Experiment 1, we compared L1 reading of adjacent vs. split VPCs, and then explored whether the general pattern was driven by item-level factors. L1 readers did not generally find adjacent VPCs (eat up the candy) easier to process than split VPCs (eat the candy up); however, VPCs low in co-occurrence strength (i.e., low semantic transparency) and high in frequency were easiest to process in the adjacent form during first pass reading. In Experiment 2, we compared L2 reading of adjacent vs split VPCs, and then explored whether the general pattern varied with item-level or participant-level factors. L2 readers generally allotted more second pass reading time to split vs. adjacent forms, and there was some evidence that this pattern was greater for L2 English readers who had less English experience. In contrast with L1 reading, there was no influence of item differences on L2 reading behavior. These data suggest that L1 readers often have lexicalized VPC representations that are directly retrieved during comprehension, whereas L2 readers are more likely to compositionally process VPCs given their more general preference for adjacent particles, as demonstrated by longer second pass reading time for all split items. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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