Syntactic and referential processes in second-language learners: event-related brain potential evidence

Automatic phrase-building processes were investigated in second-language (L2) learners of French (native German speakers). Event-related brain potentials were recorded while participants listened to syntactically or semantically correct or incorrect French sentences containing a subject-modifying relative clause. Phrase structure violations in the subject-modifying relative clause leading to difficulties in reference processing of the subject noun in the main clause (syntactic condition) were associated with a frontal negativity (150-600 ms) followed by a late anterior negativity (750-1500 ms). Violations of the selectional restriction (semantic condition) elicited the classical N400 (300-600 ms). Taken together, our results suggest that automatic syntactic phrase-building processes can also be involved in L2 learners, at least when the word category violation occurs in a syntactically obligatory constituent such as predicative prepositional phrase.