The role of linguistic cues in bilingual negation processing

Abstract

Aims and objectives: A vast body of research has dealt with negation processing. There are many differences between negations across languages, which could influence negation processing in bilingual speakers. However, bilingual negation processing has rarely been experimentally investigated. This study aims at exploring whether highly proficient Croatian-English bilinguals are able to adequately adopt English negations, and whether linguistic cues from both languages have similar effect on negation processing. Methodology: A sentence–picture verification task was used to investigate the processing of affirmative sentences, sentential and constituent negations, Croatian negative concord and English sentences with negated subject. Data and analysis: 2 (language) × 4 (sentence type) × 2 (congruency) ANOVA with repeated measures was used to analyze the data. Findings: The results showed that the effect of language was not significant, except in the case of constituent negations which were processed faster in English. There was a significant difference between the processing of affirmative and negative sentences, as affirmatives were processed faster than negatives in both languages. Constituent negations in both languages were processed slower compared with other types of negations. Originality: The results suggest that strong linguistic cues, such as word order and quantifiers, influence negation processing in both languages, resulting in differences between different types of negations. The results are discussed in the light of two existing models of negation and sentence processing. A new model, as a combination of these two models, is proposed. Implications: The fact that there was no significant difference in negation processing between the bilinguals’ two languages supports the view that highly proficient successive bilinguals are able to adequately adopt negations in both their languages.

From “No, she does” to “Yes, she does”: Negation processing in negative yes–no questions by Mandarin speakers of English

“…Unlike Manning et al (2018), Ćoso and Bogunović (2019) argued that it is not more difficult for bilinguals to process negation in an L2. The researchers instructed Croatian 2 learners of English to verify positive/negative sentences (e.g., Hearts are not above arrows) against pictures.…”

“…This is an important addition since in comparison to the great number of studies on negation processing in monolingual speakers (e.g., Akiyama et al, 1979;Carpenter & Just, 1975;Clark & Chase, 1972;Dale & Duran, 2011;Fischler et al, 1983;Kaup et al, 2006Kaup et al, , 2007Lüdtke et al, 2008;Tian et al, 2010Tian et al, , 2016, negation processing in bilinguals has received little attention. While Manning et al (2018) argued that it is more demanding to process negation in the L2 than in the L1, Ćoso and Bogunović (2019) claimed that negation processing in L2 and L1 is similar. In this study, bilinguals showed an overall English-like performance, which suggests shifts from the Mandarin-like pattern toward the English-like pattern.…”

“…If English and Mandarin monolingual speakers and Mandarin-English bilinguals do not process negation in the same way, different attachments of negation are expected to manifest themselves as variation in response type and processing speed. Building on previous research on negation processing (e.g., Akiyama, 1979;Choi, 2014;Ćoso & Bogunović, 2019;Manning et al, 2018), we designed a production experiment to measure preferred response types and speech onset times (Expt. 1) and a comprehension experiment to measure response times (Expt.…”

Affective and concreteness norms for 3,022 Croatian words

“…In Croatian and English, adjectives usually come before nouns, while in Spanish adjectives come after nouns. Also, there are significant differences in expressing negations between English and Croatian, as Croatian sentences with multiple negations exist as negative concord (Ćoso & Bogunović, 2019). Similar grammar structures can be seen in Spanish and Italian, but not in English, German, or Dutch.…”

Form and function of negation in German and Indonesian: Searching for equivalent construction of meaning

“…Negation is considered to be pragmatically universal since all language varieties are believed to indicate functional negative propositions (Anderwald, 2002(Anderwald, , 2005Ladusaw, 1992). Since no language without negation has been found (Miestamo, 2007;, and negated expressions can be observed in all languages, it can be asserted that negation appears in every recognized language (Ćoso & Irena, 2017). There appears to be a common phenomenon underlying the distinctive negation construction of each language (Sassoon, 2010;Borroff, 2006), namely, that negation can be accomplished through one or multiple negation constructions.…”