Schlenter, J.
Potsdam Research Institute for Multilingualism, University of Potsdam
It is well known that language comprehenders use multiple cues to predict upcoming information. However, some cues might be less reliable. Agreeing verbs can either precede or follow their subjects, allowing less reliable predictions than determiners. When used to predict the subject's number feature, they might be even less reliable because grammatical and notional number can mismatch (e.g., There is a group of ...). This fact might explain the mixed findings from experimental studies that found prediction in toddlers [1], but not experienced adults [2].
In a visual-world eye-tracking experiment, we tested German native (n=28) and highly proficient non-native speakers with Russian as first language (n=25). Participants were presented with German sentences like "Im Briefkasten ist/sind {am Mittag} eine Zeitung/mehrere Zeitungen - In the mailbox is/are {at noon} a/several newspaper/s", while looking at a display showing a mailbox at the bottom and above two pictures, one newspaper and several newspapers. Parentheses indicate the critical window for anticipatory eye movements, where we expect more looks to the singular picture after ist/is and to the plural picture after sind/are.
Results show a baseline difference and overall preference for the plural picture. Nevertheless, a growth curve analysis reveals an emerging effect for the singular condition as indicated by a main effect of linear time across groups. Anticipation seemed moreover modulated by years of immersion for the non-natives with more experience leading to better prediction. Thus, the results do not provide evidence that language experience may lead to a reduced use of number marking [2].
[1] Lukyanenko & Fisher (2016): Where are the cookies? Two- and three-year-olds use number-marked verbs to anticipate upcoming nouns. Cognition, 146, 349-370.
[2] Riordan, Dye, & Jones (2015): Grammatical number processing and anticipatory eye movements are not tightly coordinated in English spoken language comprehension. Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 590.