@article {7373, title = {Voice mismatch and contrast in French Right-Node Raising}, journal = {Journal of Linguistics}, year = {2023}, url = {https://hal-cnrs.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-03924688}, author = {Anne Abeill{\'e} and Aoi Shiraishi and Barbara Hemforth} } @article {7483, title = {Voice mismatch and contrast in French RNR}, journal = {Journal of Linguistics}, year = {2023}, pages = {1-28}, abstract = {

Right-Node Raising is generally considered to impose stricter identity conditions than other kinds of ellipsis, such as VP ellipsis, according to Hankamer \& Sag 1976 and Hardt 1993. In this paper, we investigate voice mismatch in French Right-Node Raising (RNR) through a corpus study and two experiments. We show that RNR with voice mismatch can be found in a written corpus (frTenTen 2012) and that many examples involve coordination of a reflexive active and a short passive form. We suggest this is because semantic contrast (here, between self and external agent) plays a role according to Hartmann (2000) and Abeillé and Mouret (2010). We ran two acceptability judgement experiments to test voice mismatch and semantic contrast. We did not find any penalty for voice mismatch with VP ellipsis but an interaction with semantic contrast. We also found an effect of semantic contrast when coordinating an active and a passive VP without participle ellipsis. We conclude that voice mismatch is acceptable with RNR and propose a Head-driven Phrase-Structure Grammar (HPSG) ana- lysis, following Chaves (2014) and Shiraïshi et al. (2019).

}, keywords = {contrast, ellipsis, French, Passive, reflexive, Right-Node Raising, voice mismatch}, author = {Anne Abeill{\'e} and Aoi Shiraishi and Barbara Hemforth} } @article {7268, title = {Corpus, experimental and modeling investigations of cross-linguistic differences in pronoun resolution preferences}, journal = {Glossa}, volume = {6}, year = {2021}, month = {05/2021}, chapter = {66}, abstract = {

We investigate the impact of syntactic alternatives on pronoun resolution in ambiguous constructions in English and French. Previous research detected language-specific preferences in pronoun resolution in utterances of the type \“The postman met the streetsweeper before he went home\”. These preferences have been attributed to the interaction of information structural and syntactic constraints inducing a subject bias on the one hand, and Gricean reasoning processes taking into account alternative syntactic constructions on the other hand. A corpus study of four English and French corpora shows that an alternative construction which takes a subject antecedent (\“The postman met the streetsweeper before going home\”) is much less frequent in spoken English than French. A Rational Speech Act (RSA) model with corpus frequencies integrated as language-specific costs on the use of each construction makes empirical predictions for pronoun resolution preferences in French and English for sentences with \“avant\”/\“before\” which have been tested before but also for sentences with \“après\”/\“after\” which have not been tested so far. New experimental data show a very good fit of the model predictions for pronoun resolution preferences in English as well as for the differences in antecedent choices between French and English. However, experimental data showing differences in antecedent choices between French sentences with \“après\” and \“avant\” deviate from model predictions, indicating that more factors need to be taken into account. The combination of Bayesian modeling, corpus analyses and experimental data shows that RSA models can make relevant and falsifiable predictions for cross-linguistic variation in processing.

}, issn = {2397-1835}, doi = {https://doi. org/10.5334/gjgl.1142}, author = {Miriam Schulz and Heather Burnett and Barbara Hemforth} } @article {hedier:hal-03506518, title = {S{\oe}urs de M{\^e}me Taille : attachement d{\textquoteright}une phrase relative aux syntagmes nominaux coordonn{\'e}s}, journal = {Langages}, volume = {N{\textdegree} 223}, number = {3}, year = {2021}, pages = {125-141}, publisher = {Armand Colin (Larousse jusqu{\textquoteright}en 2003)}, doi = {10.3917/lang.223.0125}, url = {https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-03506518}, author = {Hedier, Antoine and Su, Peijia and Barbara Hemforth} } @article {6669, title = {The Effect of Semantic and Discourse Features on the Use of Null and Overt Subjects - A Quantitative Study of Third Person Subjects in Brazilian Portuguese. }, journal = {DELTA: Documenta{\c c}{\~a}o de Estudos em Ling{\"u}{\'\i}stica Te{\'o}rica e Aplicada,}, volume = {36}, year = {2020}, doi = {https://dx.doi.org/10.1590/1678-460x2020360107}, author = {Eduardo Correa Soares and Philip Miller and Barbara Hemforth} } @article {6475, title = {Empathy influences how listeners interpret intonation and meaning when words are ambiguous}, journal = {Memory and Cognition}, year = {2020}, doi = {10.3758/s13421-019-00990-w}, author = {Nuria Gibert Esteve and Shafer, Amy and Barbara Hemforth and Cristel Portes and Pozniak, Celine and D{\textquoteright}Imperio, Mariapaola} } @article {6668, title = {Extraction from subjects: Differences in acceptability depend on the discourse function of the construction}, journal = {Cognition}, year = {2020}, abstract = {

In order to explain the unacceptability of certain long-distance dependencies - termed syntactic islands by Ross (1967) - syntacticians proposed constraints on long-distance dependencies which are universal and purely syntactic and thus not dependent on the meaning of the construction (Chomsky, 1977; Chomsky, 1995 a.o.). This predicts that these constraints should hold across constructions and languages. In this paper, we investigate the \"subject island\" constraint across constructions in English and French, a constraint that blocks extraction out of subjects. In particular, we compare extraction out of nominal subjects with extraction out of nominal objects, in relative clauses and wh-questions, using similar materials across constructions and languages. Contrary to the syntactic accounts, we find that unacceptable extractions from subjects involve (a) extraction in wh-questions (in both languages); or (b) preposition stranding (in English). But the extraction of a whole prepositional phrase from subjects in a relative clause, in both languages, is as good or better than a similar extraction from objects. Following Erteschik-Shir (1973) and Kuno (1987) among others, we propose a theory that takes into account the discourse status of the extracted element in the construction at hand: the extracted element is a focus (corresponding to new information) in wh-questions, but not in relative clauses. The focus status conflicts with the non-focal status of a subject (usually given or discourse-old). These results suggest that most previous discussions of islands may rely on the wrong premise that all extraction types behave alike. Once different extraction types are recognized as different constructions (Croft, 2001; Ginzburg \& Sag, 2000; Goldberg, 2006; Sag, 2010), with their own discourse functions, one can explain different extraction patterns depending on the construction.

}, doi = {10.1016/j.cognition.2020.104293}, author = {Anne Abeill{\'e} and Barbara Hemforth and Winckel, Elodie and Gibson, Edward} } @article {6409, title = {The effect of verbal agreement marking on the use of null and overt subjects: a quantitative study of first person singular in Brazilian Portuguese}, journal = {F{\'o}rum Lingu{\'\i}stico}, volume = {16}, year = {2019}, pages = {3579-3600}, chapter = {3579}, abstract = {

In a corpus study and two acceptability experiments, we investigated whether there is a preference for null or overt subjects with ambiguous (syncretic) and exclusive (unambiguous) verbs in Brazilian Portuguese (BP). Previous literature has proposed that BP (i) is deactivating the \“Avoid Pronoun Principle\” and (ii) is a partially pro-drop language, whose morphosyntactic contexts for null subjects are restricted. The corpus study and the acceptability experiments show that there is an effect of person syncretism in the verbal paradigm on the relative frequency of null subjects and on the acceptability of sentences with null subjects in the first-person singular: there is a tendency to avoid ambiguity due to null subjects with ambiguous verb forms, but only in contexts with competing antecedents. These results are analyzed in the light of a general theory of anaphora resolution (ARIEL, 1990, etc.), as resulting from a calculation taking into account the accessibility of potential antecedents and the cost of the anaphoric form (ALMOR, 1996).

}, issn = {ISSNe 1984-8412}, doi = { }, url = {https://periodicos.ufsc.br/index.php/forum/article/view/1984-8412.2019v16n1p3579}, author = {Eduardo Correa Soares and Philip Miller and Barbara Hemforth} } @article {6149, title = {Seeing events vs. entities: The processing advantage of Pseudo Relatives over Relative Clauses}, journal = {Journal of Memory and Language}, year = {2019}, month = {08/2019}, pages = {128-151}, abstract = {

We present the results of three offline questionnaires (one attachment preference study and two acceptability judgments) and two eye-tracking studies in French and English investigating the resolution of the ambiguity between Relative Clause and Pseudo Relative interpretations. This structural and interpretive ambiguity has recently been shown to play a central role in the explanation of apparent cross-linguistic asymmetries in Relative Clause attachment (Grillo \& Costa,\ 2014;\ Grillo et al.,\ 2015). This literature has argued that Pseudo Relatives are preferred to Relative Clauses because of their structural and interpretive simplicity. This paper adds to this growing body of literature in two ways. First we show that, in contrast to previous find- ings, French speakers prefer to attach Relative Clauses to the most local antecedent once Pseudo Relative availability is controlled for. We then provide a direct test for the Pseudo Relatives pref- erence, showing that Relative Clause disambiguation of strings that are initially compatible with a Pseudo Relative interpretation leads to degraded acceptability and longer fixation durations.

}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2019.04.001}, url = {https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0749596X19300415}, author = {Pozniak, Celine and Barbara Hemforth and Yair Haendler and Andrea Santi and Nino Grillo} } @article {6492, title = {Verbal mismatch in Right-Node Raising}, journal = {Glossa}, volume = {4}, year = {2019}, month = {10/2019}, pages = {1-26}, chapter = {1}, abstract = {

Right-Node Raising (RNR, Ross 1967; Chaves 2014) has been claimed to require phonological identity between the missing material and the shared element. Our corpus investigations provide examples of RNR with verb form mismatch with and without syncretism in English and French. Two acceptability experiments show that lack of phonological identity does not affect the acceptability of RNR. We argue further that RNR without phonological identity cannot be taken to be a case of cataphoric VP-ellipsis in French and that it should not be analyzed as such in English. As regards the status of RNR with verb form mismatch, two positions are available: either it is considered to be grammatical, in which case the phonological resolution principle of Pullum \& Zwicky (1986) does not hold, or it is considered to be ungrammatical but repaired (or \“recycled\”, Arregui et al. 2006; Frazier 2013). The high acceptability of cases with mismatch compared with ungrammatical controls casts doubt on the applicability of the recycling hypothesis in such cases. In order to account for the broader range of data established by our corpus and experimental results, we propose a new analysis of RNR based on lexeme identity rather than form identity.

}, issn = {E-ISSN: 2397-1835}, url = {https://www.glossa-journal.org/articles/10.5334/gjgl.843/}, author = {Aoi Shiraishi and Anne Abeill{\'e} and Barbara Hemforth and Philip Miller} } @article {6060, title = {Adaptation in Pronoun Resolution: Evidence from Brazilian and European Portuguese}, journal = {Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition}, year = {2018}, abstract = {

Previous research accounting for pronoun resolution as a problem of probabilistic inference has not explored the phenomenon of adaptation, whereby the processor constantly tracks and adapts, rationally, to changes in a statistical environment. We investigate whether Brazilian (BP) and European Portuguese (EP) speakers adapt to variations in the probability of occurrence of ambiguous overt and null pronouns, in two experiments assessing resolution towards subject and object referents. For each variety (BP, EP), participants were faced with either the same number of null and overt pronouns (equal distribution), or with an environment with fewer overt (than null) pronouns (unequal distribution). We find that the preference for interpreting overt pronouns as referring back to an object referent (object-biased interpretation) is higher when there are fewer overt pronouns (i.e., in the unequal, relative to the equal distribution condition). This is especially the case for BP, a variety with higher prior frequency and smaller object-biased interpretation of overt pronouns, suggesting that participants adapted incrementally and integrated prior statistical knowledge with the knowledge obtained in the experiment. We hypothesize that comprehenders adapted rationally, with the goal of maintaining, across variations in pronoun probability, the likelihood of subject and object referents. Our findings unify insights from research in pronoun resolution and in adaptation, and add to previous studies in both topics: They provide evidence for the influence of pronoun probability in pronoun resolution, and for an adaptation process whereby the language processor not only tracks statistical information, but uses it to make interpretational inferences.

}, doi = {http://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037\%2Fxlm0000569}, author = {Eunice Fernandes and Paula Luegi and Eduardo Correa Soares and Israel de la Fuente and Barbara Hemforth} } @article {6363, title = {Cross-Domain Priming From Mathematics to Relative-Clause Attachment: A Visual-World Study in French}, journal = {Frontiers in Psychology}, year = {2018}, month = {Nov. 2018}, abstract = {

Human language processing must rely on a certain degree of abstraction, as we can produce and understand sentences that we have never produced or heard before. One way to establish syntactic abstraction is by investigating structural priming. Structural priming has been shown to be effective within a cognitive domain, in the present case, the linguistic domain. But does priming also work across different domains? In line with previous experiments, we investigated cross-domain structural priming from mathematical expressions to linguistic structures with respect to relative clause attachment in French (e.g., la fille du professeur qui habitait \à Paris/the daughter of the teacher who lived in Paris). Testing priming in French is particularly interesting because it will extend earlier results established for English to a language where the baseline for relative clause attachment preferences is different form English: in English, relative clauses (RCs) tend to be attached to the local noun phrase (low attachment) while in French there is a preference for high attachment of relative clauses to the first noun phrase (NP). Moreover, in contrast to earlier studies, we applied an online-technique (visual world eye-tracking). Our results confirm cross-domain priming from mathematics to linguistic structures in French. Most interestingly, different from less mathematically adept participants, we found that in mathematically skilled participants, the effect emerged very early on (at the beginning of the relative clause in the speech stream) and is also present later (at the end of the relative clause). In line with previous findings, our experiment suggests that mathematics and language share aspects of syntactic structure at a very high-level of abstraction.

}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02056}, author = {Pozniak, Celine and Barbara Hemforth and Scheepers, Christoph} } @article {5851, title = {Effects of exposure and information structure in native and non-native pronoun resolution in French.}, journal = {Linguistic Vanguard}, year = {2018}, month = {2018-03-09}, abstract = {

The present study investigated pronoun resolution strategies in French native speakers and in German- speaking learners of French. French and German differ in antecedent preferences in ambiguous constructions such as The postman hit the pirate before he went home: while French shows a N2-preference, German shows a N1-preference. This difference is explained by effects of exposure to an unambiguous alternative construction referring to N1 that exists in French, but not in German (Hemforth et al. 2010, Language specific preferences in anaphor resolution: Exposure or gricean maxims? In Steallan Ohlsson and Richard Catarambone (eds.), 32nd Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society, 2218\–2223. Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society). In question- naires, we tested French active and passive sentences to investigate (a) whether the L2-learners would apply the same strategy as natives in the active condition (i.e. N2-preference), and (b) whether the explicit topicalization of a referent as a consequence of passivization influences interpretation preferences in both groups (result- ing in more N1 choices). The results show that German learners prefer the N1 more often than the French natives in the active condition. Crucially, the number of N1 choices increased in both groups in the passive condition. These results suggest that L2-learners might have difficulties acquiring strategies based on the fre- quency and availability of alternative constructions in the L2, and provide further evidence for the importance of information-structure-based strategies in L1 and L2 pronoun resolution.

}, doi = { https://doi.org/10.1515/lingvan-2016-0093}, author = {Colonna, Saveria and Schimke, Sarah and Israel de la Fuente and Sascha Kuck and Barbara Hemforth} } @article {6073, title = {First language influence on second language offline and online ambiguous pronoun resolution}, journal = {Language Learning}, year = {2018}, abstract = {

This study looks at L1 influence on L2 ambiguous pronoun resolution and investigates a) whether L1 influence takes place on the level of the pronominal form (form-dependent influence), and/or on the level of the construction in which the form appears \ (construction-dependent influence) and b) whether effects differ in online compared to offline data. In Experiment 1, we replicated previously observed construction-dependent cross-linguistic differences between French and German (Hemforth et al., 2010), and provided new data on Spanish. In Experiment 2, we assessed offline and online interpretation preferences of intermediate L1 French and L1 Spanish learners of German. Our results provide evidence of form-dependent L1 influence, in that learners transferred a generalized antecedent bias associated with overt pronouns. Moreover, our results extend previous findings (Roberts, Gullberg \& Indefrey, 2008) in showing that L1 influence on L2 pronoun resolution can occur during online processing.

}, doi = { http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/lang.12293}, author = {Schimke, Sarah and Israel de la Fuente and Barbara Hemforth and Colonna, Saveria} } @article {6150, title = {Processing of ellipsis with garden-path antecedents in French and German: Evidence from eye tracking}, journal = {PlosOne}, year = {2018}, month = {06/2018}, abstract = {

In a self-paced reading study on German sluicing, Paape (Paape, 2016) found that reading times were shorter at the ellipsis site when the antecedent was a temporarily ambiguous garden-path structure. As a post-hoc explanation of this finding, Paape assumed that the antecedent\’s memory representation was reactivated during syntactic reanalysis, making it easier to retrieve. In two eye tracking experiments, we subjected the reactivation hypothesis to further empirical scrutiny. Experiment 1, carried out in French, showed no evidence in favor in the reactivation hypothesis. Instead, results for one out of the three types of garden-path sentences that were tested suggest that subjects sometimes failed to resolve the temporary ambiguity in the antecedent clause, and subsequently failed to resolve the ellipsis. The results of Experiment 2, a conceptual replication of Paape\’s (Paape, 2016) original study carried out in German, are compatible with the reactivation hypothesis, but leave open the possibility that the observed speedup for ambiguous antecedents may be due to occasional retrievals of an incorrect structure.

}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0198620}, url = {http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0198620}, author = {Paape, Dario and Barbara Hemforth and Vasishth, Shravan} } @article {5547, title = {Don{\textquoteright}t underestimate the benefits of being misunderstood}, journal = {Psychological Science}, year = {2017}, abstract = {

Being a non-native speaker of a language poses challenges. Individuals often feel embarrassed by the errors they make when talking in their second language (L2). However, here we report an advantage of being an L2 speaker: native speakers give foreign-accented speakers the benefit of the doubt when interpreting their utterances, such that apparently implausible utterances delivered in a foreign accent are more likely to be interpreted in a plausible way. Across three replicated experiments, we demonstrate that native English speakers are more likely to interpret implausible utterances such as \“the mother gave the candle the daughter\” as similar plausible utterances (\“the mother gave the candle to the daughter\”) when those utterances are produced with a foreign accent. This result follows from the general model of language interpretation in a noisy channel (Gibson et al., 2013), under the hypothesis that listeners assume a higher error rate in foreign-accented speech.

}, url = {http://journals.sagepub.com/eprint/5IResZSFhWjyHkAk4a8n/full}, author = {Gibson, Edward and Tana, Caitlin and Futrella, Richard and Mahowalda, Kyle and Lars Konieczny and Barbara Hemforth and Fedorenko, Evelina} } @article {4716, title = {Acquisition des pronoms objets en fran{\c c}ais langue seconde}, journal = {Discours}, year = {2016}, abstract = {

Abstract

Acquisition of object pronouns in L2 French is always a source of problems for every learners regardless of their L1. Based on a study from Gr\üter \& Crago (2012), we ran an elicited production experiment as well as a Reading Span task with two groups of learners whose L1 is German and Mandarin Chinese. A control of French native speakers was added as a control group. We looked at the acquisition of object pronouns in different contexts and depending on the verb type. Our results showed that the two groups of learners have a similar pattern of production. Moreover, reflexive pronouns seem to be the most difficult type of pronouns to master for both groups of Mandarin Chinese and German, which supposes that this form is especially different from other object pronouns and difficult. Our findings suggest that influence of the L1 and level in L2 French are not the major factors for explaining Second Language Acquisition of object pronouns, but that Working Memory does play a role as well.

Key words : acquisition, bilingualism, working memory, production, object pronoun, French.

R\ésum\é

L\&$\#$39;acquisition des pronoms objets en fran\çais L2 est une r\éelle difficult\é pour tous les apprenants de diff\érentes L1. En s\&$\#$39;inspirant de l\&$\#$39;\étude de Gr\üter \& Crago (2012), nous avons r\éalis\é une exp\érience de production ainsi qu\&$\#$39;un test de m\émoire de travail avec deux groupes d\&$\#$39;apprenants dont la L1 est respectivement l\&$\#$39;allemand et le chinois mandarin. Un groupe de fran\çais a \ét\é inclus \également en tant que groupe de contr\ôle. Notre exp\érience permet d\&$\#$39;approfondir la recherche sur les pronoms objets notamment en regardant leur ma\îtrise par les apprenants dans diff\érents contextes et selon diff\érents types de verbes. Les r\ésultats montrent le m\ême pattern pour les deux groupes d\&$\#$39;apprenants. Egalement, on constate que les pronoms objets semblent \être mieux ma\îtris\és dans les contextes appropri\és que les r\éfl\échis, que ce soit pour le groupe allemand ou le groupe chinois, ce qui indiquerait une difficult\é sp\écifique de cette forme. Nous envisagerons finalement le fait que le facteur d\éterminant ne serait pas uniquement la langue maternelle ou la comp\étence en L2 mais \également la m\émoire de travail.

Mots-cl\és : acquisition, bilinguisme, m\émoire de travail, production, clitique objet, fran\çais.

}, url = {https://discours.revues.org/9120}, author = {Pozniak, Celine and Barbara Hemforth} } @article {4542, title = {Different effects of focus in intra- and intersentential pronoun resolution in German.}, journal = {Language, Cognition, and Neuroscience}, year = {2015}, month = {08/2015}, abstract = {

It is widely assumed that focused entities are more salient than non-focused ones and consequently, that an antecedent should be particularly available for a pronoun when it is foregrounded in a cleft construction. Contrary to this assumption, however, some studies observed that an antecedent focused by a cleft was less accessible than a non-focused one. We claim that the influence of clefting depends on the position of the ambiguous pronoun: clefted antecedents are only preferred as antecedents of a pronoun when the pronoun and its antecedent are in different discourse units. In order to test this hypothesis, we conducted a questionnaire and a visual world experiment in German in which we manipulated inter- vs. intra-sentential pronoun resolution. Results showed that clefting had different effects depending on the position of the pronoun. We will discuss why these results are consistent with the claim that pronouns preferentially co-refer with the sentence topic.

}, keywords = {eye-tracking, focus, information structure, language comprehension, pronoun resolution, visual world paradigm}, doi = {10.1080/23273798.2015.1066510}, author = {Colonna, Saveria and Schimke, Sarah and Barbara Hemforth} } @article {4541, title = {Dislocation clitique de l{\textquoteright}objet {\`a} gauche en fran{\c c}ais {\'e}crit}, journal = {Discours}, volume = {16}, year = {2015}, month = {09/2015}, abstract = {

Cet article porte sur l\’acceptabilit\é des constructions syntaxiques \à la lumi\ère de la distinction entre fran\çais oral et fran\çais \écrit. Nous pr\ésentons cette distinction comme un facteur appartenant \à une approche multifactorielle. Ladite approche inclut les contraintes pragmatiques, stylistiques, et syntaxiques qui influencent l\’acceptabilit\é d\’un \énonc\é. Nous argumentons qu\’il est possible d\’am\éliorer l\’acceptabilit\é d\’une construction associ\ée au fran\çais oral, la dislocation clitique de l\’objet \à gauche, dans un contexte \écrit en modifiant la structure informationnelle du discours. Nous pr\ésentons une s\érie d\’exp\ériences testant l\’acceptabilit\é de la construction \à l\’\écrit sous diverses contraintes informationnelles. Nous proposerons un mod\èle incluant les m\êmes contraintes pour le fran\çais parl\é et \écrit en int\égrant la modalit\é comme pr\édicteur.

}, keywords = {dislocation clitique {\`a} gauche, fran{\c c}ais {\'e}crit, jugement d{\textquoteright}acceptabilit{\'e}, linguistique exp{\'e}rimentale, structure informationnelle}, doi = {DOI : 10.4000/discours.9037}, author = {Etienne Riou and Barbara Hemforth} } @article {4543, title = {Neurodynamics of executive control processes in bilinguals: Evidence from ERP and source reconstruction analyses}, journal = {Frontiers in Psychology}, volume = {6}, year = {2015}, month = {06/2015}, abstract = {

The present study was designed to examine the impact of bilingualism on the neuronal activity in different executive control processes namely conflict monitoring, control implementation (i.e., interference suppression and conflict resolution) and overcoming of inhibition. Twenty-two highly proficient but non-balanced successive French\–German bilingual adults and 22 monolingual adults performed a combined Stroop/Negative priming task while event-related potential (ERP) were recorded online. The data revealed that the ERP effects were reduced in bilinguals in comparison to monolinguals but only in the Stroop task and limited to the N400 and the sustained fronto-central negative-going potential time windows. This result suggests that bilingualism may impact the process of control implementation rather than the process of conflict monitoring (N200). Critically, our study revealed a differential time course of the involvement of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and the prefrontal cortex (PFC) in conflict processing. While the ACC showed major activation in the early time windows (N200 and N400) but not in the latest time window (late sustained negative-going potential), the PFC became unilaterally active in the left hemisphere in the N400 and the late sustained negative-going potential time windows. Taken together, the present electroencephalography data lend support to a cascading neurophysiological model of executive control processes, in which ACC and PFC may play a determining role.

}, doi = {DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00821}, author = {Heidlmayr, Karin and Barbara Hemforth and Moutier, Sylvain and Isel, Fr{\'e}d{\'e}ric} } @article {4511, title = {Relative clause attachment in German, English, Spanish and French: Effects of position and length}, journal = {Lingua}, year = {2015}, abstract = {

German, English, Spanish, and French versions of short (ia) and long (ib) relative clauses were tested in written questionnaire studies. The noun phrases containing the clauses appeared in either object position (as in i) or in subject/topic position, and the relative clauses ambiguously modified the first or the second noun of the noun phrase.

(i). a. The doctor met the son of the colonel who died.
b. The doctor met the son of the colonel who tragically died of a stroke.

In the first experiment, German, English and Spanish were tested. In all three languages, more high attachment (first noun modification) interpretations were observed for long relative clauses than for short ones, perhaps reflecting differences in implicit prosodic phrasing provided by participants when they read the questionnaire. Across languages, more high attachment was observed in object position than in subject/topic position, but this effect was larger for German and Spanish than for English. In addition, although more low attachment than high attachment was observed in every case except German object position, German showed more high attachment than Spanish or English. A second questionnaire indicated that the preference for high attachment in German object position relative clauses cannot be attributed to readers taking these relative clauses to be extraposed. In a third questionnaire in French, we found a generally higher preference for high attachments as in German, but no position effect, as observed in English. We provide an account of these data, which does not require any special theory of relative clause attachment or parameterization for languages. It requires only general processing principles together with independently required grammatical differences among the languages studied involving the focus properties of object vs. non-object position and the availability in Spanish and German, but not English and French, of separate positions for topical vs. nontopical subjects.\ 

}, doi = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.lingua.2015.08.010}, author = {Barbara Hemforth and Susana Fernandez and Charles Clifton Jr. and Lyn Frazier and Lars Konieczny and Michael Walter} } @article {4371, title = {Information structure cues for 4-year-olds and adults: Tracking eye movements to visually presented anaphoric referents}, journal = {Language, Cognition, and Neurosciences}, volume = {29}, year = {2014}, pages = {877-892}, author = {J{\"a}rvikivi, Juhani and Pyykk{\"o}nen-Klauck, Pirita and Schimke, Sarah and Colonna, Saveria and Barbara Hemforth} } @article {4368, title = {Successive bilingualism and executive functions: The effect of second language use on inhibitory control in a behavioural Stroop Colour Word task}, journal = {Bilingualism: Language and Cognition}, volume = {17}, year = {2014}, pages = {630{\textendash}645}, abstract = {

Here we examined the role of bilingualism on cognitive inhibition using the Stroop Colour Word task. Our hypothesis was that the frequency of use of a second language (L2) in the daily life of successive bilingual individuals impacts the efficiency of their inhibitory control mechanism. Thirty-three highly proficient successive French\–German bilinguals, living either in a French or in a German linguistic environment, performed a Stroop task on both French and German words. Moreover, 31 French monolingual individuals were also tested with French words. We showed that the bilingual advantage was (i) reinforced by the use of a third language, and (ii) modulated by the duration of immersion in a second language environment. This suggests that top\–down inhibitory control is most involved at the beginning of immersion. Taken together, the present findings lend support to the psycholinguistic models of bilingual language processing that postulate that top\–down active inhibition is involved in language control.

}, author = {Heidlmayr, Karin and Moutier, Sylvain and Barbara Hemforth and Courtin, Cyril and Tanzmeister, Robert and Isel, Fr{\'e}d{\'e}ric} } @article {4369, title = {Length Matters: Informational Load in Ambiguity Resolution}, journal = {Discours}, volume = {12}, year = {2013}, abstract = {

Dans cet article, nous comparons une approche prosodique avec une approche pragmatique pour rendre compte des effets de la longueur des constituants dans les ambig\üit\és d\’attachement. Augmenter la longueur d\’un constituant a des cons\équences sur l\’information qu\’il v\éhicule\ : plus un constituant est long et moins il est pr\édictible (Levy et Florian, 2007) et plus son co\ût de traitement augmente (Almor, 1999). Suivant les principes n\éo-gric\éens (Levinson, 1987 et\ 1991), augmenter le poids informationnel doit \être justifi\é. Cette justification est plus facilement satisfaite lorsqu\’un constituant long v\éhicule une information nouvelle et/ou qui se rapporte aux \él\éments centraux de l\’\énonc\é. Le co\ût informationnel ne se r\ésume cependant pas \à une simple question de longueur en termes de nombre de caract\ères ou de syllabes mais plus probablement \à la quantit\é d\’information v\éhicul\ée. Dans trois questionnaires, nous comparons l\’effet de l\’augmentation de la longueur d\’un syntagme pr\épositionnel ambigu comme dans [1a/b/c], soit en allongeant le nom de la ville, soit en ajoutant de l\’information au sujet de la ville. Nous observons que seul l\’ajout d\’information augmente la proportion d\’attachement du syntagme pr\épositionnel au constituant central de l\’\énonc\é. Ces r\ésultats sont discut\és \à la lumi\ère des facteurs prosodiques et pragmatiques qui peuvent rendre compte des effets de longueur observ\és sur les pr\éf\érences d\’attachement.
[1] Pierre a rencontr\é le docteur de l\’avocat a.\ d\’Apt. /\ b.\ d\’Aix-en-Provence /\ c.\ de la magnifique ville d\’Apt.

}, issn = {ISSN {\'e}lectronique 1963-1723}, doi = {DOI : 10.4000/discours.8780}, author = {Barbara Hemforth and Colonna, Saveria and Petrone, Caterina and D{\textquoteright}Imperio, Mariapaola} } @article {4370, title = {Information structure effects on anaphora resolution in German and French: A cross-linguistic study of pronoun resolution}, journal = {Linguistics}, volume = {55}, year = {2012}, pages = {991-1013}, author = {Colonna, Saveria and Schimke, Sarah and Barbara Hemforth} }