Vocabulary size and native speaker self-identification influence flexibility in linguistic prediction among adult bilinguals

Abstract

When language users predict upcoming speech, they generate pluralistic expectations, weighted by likelihood (Kuperberg & Jaeger, 2016). Many variables influence the prediction of highly likely sentential outcomes, but less is known regarding variables affecting the prediction of less-likely outcomes. Here we explore how English vocabulary size and self-identification as a native speaker (NS) of English modulate adult bi-/multilinguals’ preactivation of less-likely sentential outcomes in two visual-world experiments. Participants heard transitive sentences containing an agent, action, and theme (The pirate chases the ship) while viewing four referents varying in expectancy by relation to the agent and action. In Experiment 1 (N=70), spoken themes referred to highly expected items (e.g., ship). Results indicate lower skill (smaller vocabulary size) and less confident (not identifying as NS) bi-/multilinguals activate less-likely action-related referents more than their higher skill/confidence peers. In Experiment 2 (N=65), themes were one of two less-likely items (The pirate chases the bone/cat). Results approaching significance indicate an opposite but similar size effect: higher skill/confidence listeners activate less-likely action-related (e.g., bone) referents slightly more than lower skill/confidence listeners. Results across experiments suggest higher skill/confidence participants more flexibly modulate their linguistic predictions per the demands of the task, with similar but not identical patterns emerging when bi-/multilinguals are grouped by self-ascribed NS status versus vocabulary size.

Prediction ability in bilingual individuals: An eye tracking study with younger and older adults

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The predictive processing of number information in subregular verb morphology in a first and second language

“…Recently, there has been an increase in studies exploring L2 predictive processing (Godfroid, 2020). Research has provided ample evidence that L2 listeners can make predictions based on lexical-semantic cues (e.g., Dijkgraaf et al, 2017Dijkgraaf et al, , 2019Peters et al, 2018). In contrast to L1 prediction, the outcomes regarding L2 prediction based on morphosyntactic cues have been more mixed.…”

Prediction in bilingual sentence processing: How prediction differs in a later learned language from a first language

“…To wrap up, one possible explanation for the variability in study outcomes is a difference in complexity: if complexity increases, be it linguistically or non-linguistically, differences in prediction between L1 and L2 processing are more likely to occur. Complexity, and with that uncertainty on the part of the L2 speakers, may increase even more when the visual display not only contains multiple images, but when it contains competitor imagesas, for instance, shown by Peters, Grüter andBorovsky (2018) (but cf. Ito, Corley &, who found that a semantic competitor image did not receive more fixations than two distractor images).…”

“…Ito, Corley &, who found that a semantic competitor image did not receive more fixations than two distractor images). Peters et al (2018) presented a large heterogeneous group of bilingual speakers with sentences such as The pirate chases the ship while the visual display, in addition to the target image (ship), contained the image of an agent-related object (treasure), an action-related object (cat), and an unrelated object (bone). The authors found that the consideration of competitor images was more pronounced in bilingual speakers who had a smaller vocabulary and/or speakers who indicated themselves as non-native speakers of English: lowvocabulary bilingual speakers and self-indicated L2 speakers were more likely to consider the image of a cat upon listening to the action verb than high-vocabulary speakers and speakers who considered themselves as native speakers.…”