Syntactic reanalysis and lingering misinterpretations in L2 sentence processing

Abstract

Readers often misinterpret sentences and reanalyze them, but their initial misinterpretations sometimes linger even after they finish reading the sentences. This lingering effect has been argued as evidence that comprehenders create interpretations to some extent that it seems good enough for them to understand the meaning (Christianson, Hollingworth, Halliwell, and Ferreira 2001). This study examined L2 learners' processing of garden path sentences, investigating whether they show a lingering effect as L1 speakers do by employing the gender mismatch paradigm (Sturt 2003). In the self-paced reading experiment, participants read garden path sentences such as While Mary washed the boxer who was tall coughed and warmed herself with a blanket. If participants correctly rule out an initial misinterpretation from the temporary ambiguity, the reflexive herself would create a gender mismatch effect (i.e., reading times are slowed in the gender mismatch condition). After reading the sentences, participants were asked to answer follow-up comprehension questions such as Did Mary wash the boxer? The results showed that L2 learners were able to notice the temporary local ambiguity in a sentence and reanalyze the structure as L1 readers do. However, the rate of accurate responses for comprehension questions was significantly lower in the ambiguous condition than in the unambiguous condition, indicating that the L2 learners' initial misinterpretations lingered. L2 learners do not seem to lack detailed syntactic representation, and their lingering misinterpretation could be explained by the good enough approach as for L1 readers. Participants eventually recovered from the garden path, showing the gender mismatch effect, but their global comprehension was significantly influenced by the initial misinterpretation, since they gave more incorrect answers when they read garden path sentences.