Sentence processing in a second language: the timing of transfer

Traditional approaches to second language performance have typically focused on form-related aspects of transfer, without addressing the issue of real-time constraints inherent in the comprehension process. The current study uses an on-line sentence comprehension paradigm to investigate how and when three different cues (word order, noun-verb agreement morphology, animacy relations) to thematic role assignment interact during comprehension. Results indicate that monolingual English speakers depend on word order, often making thematic role assignments immediately after the first noun is encountered, and generally do not attend to morphological information. In contrast, native German speakers depend on morphological cues in their native language, delaying responses until all potential cues are in. When the same subjects perform the task in their second language, English, a similar result is observed, indicating that German-based processing strategies are transferred to on-line processing in the second language. The findings are related to a psycholinguistic model of language performance, the Competition Model, proposed by Bates and MacWhinney (1987, in press).