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theses

It is unclear whether postpuberty second language (L2) learners can achieve a native-like representation and processing in the target language. Some researchers argue that lack of convergence in postpuberty L2 systems results from their fundamentally different nature, which cannot instantiate new grammatical features that are absent in the L1 of the learners due to maturational constraints (e.g., Franceschina, 2005; Hawkins and Franceschina, 2004). Moreover, as the underlying grammatical representation is non-native-like, L2 systems cannot apply a full parsing route to the incoming linguistic input in the L2, especially with grammatical long-distance dependencies (Clahsen and Felser, 2006a, 2006b, 2006c). By contrast, other researchers claim that postpuberty L2 systems are fundamentally identical to native systems, and variability in the L2 representation and processing is the result of different factors, such as L1-L2 overlap, individual cognitive differences (e.g., working memory), task demands, structural complexity, exposure to the target language, and proficiency level, among others (e.g., Dekydtspotter and Renaud, 2014; Hopp, 2007; Lardiere, 2009). This dissertation investigates the role of L1-L2 overlap, structural complexity, and task effects in the processing of L2 Spanish. Specifically, it explores how L1 English advanced postpuberty learners of L2 Spanish process grammatical gender and number agreement violations in Spanish clitic-doubled left dislocations, and whether they parse this type of long-distance grammatical dependency by applying syntactic island constraints. In order to do so, a group of L1 English advanced postpuberty learners of L2, and a control group of Spanish native speakers completed a series of experiments employing the moving-window paradigm (Just et al., 1982). Results reveal that L2 learners can acquire and process grammatical features that are absent in their L1 in a native-like fashion, regardless of whether the online tasks require subjects to answer comprehension or acceptability questions. Moreover, they show that postpuberty L2 speakers can parse grammatically complex representations that are subject to syntactic island constraints such as clitic-doubled left dislocations in a native-like way. From these results, it is possible to conclude that the nature of L2 systems is fundamentally identical to that of natives’. The findings of this dissertation contribute to a better understanding of L2 verb-object agreement relations, an understudied domain in the field of second language acquisition, which has been shown to be particularly problematic for postpuberty L2 speakers (e.g., Tremblay, 2005). Finally, the findings are also informative about how this type of dependency is parsed in a Romance language like Spanish for which there is few psycholinguistic research (e.g., Coughlin and Tremblay, 2013; Leal Méndez, Farmer, and Slabakova, 2014; Pablos, 2006).

ETD_7725

Ph.D.

Includes bibliographical references

by Juan Pablo Comínguez

doi:10.7282/T3T72KQ5

ETD doctoral

The author owns the copyright to this work.