ERIC Number: EJ1485727
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2023-Sep
Pages: 37
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0305-0009
EISSN: EISSN-1469-7602
Available Date: 0000-00-00
Online Processing of Which-Questions in Bilingual Children: Evidence from Eye-Tracking
Journal of Child Language, v50 n5 p1082-1118 2023
An emergent debate surrounds the nature of language processing in bilingual children as an extension of broader questions about their morphosyntactic development in comparison to monolinguals, with the picture so far being nuanced. This paper adds to this debate by investigating the processing of morphosyntactically complex which-questions (e.g., Which bear is chasing the camel?) using the visual world paradigm and is the first study to examine the online processing of such questions in bilingual children. For both groups, object which-questions were more difficult than subject which-questions, due to an initial misinterpretation that needed to be reanalysed. Both groups were aided by number mismatch between the two nouns in the sentence, especially in object which-questions. Our findings are in line with previous studies that have shown a slower processing speed in bilingual children relative to monolinguals but qualitatively similar patterns.
Descriptors: Child Language, Bilingualism, Children, Language Processing, Morphology (Languages), Syntax, Cues, Visualization, Eye Movements, Sentences
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Data File: URL: https://osf.io/4w693/
Author Affiliations: 1School of Psychology and Clinical Languages Sciences, University of Reading, Reading, UK; 2Department of Linguistics, University of Konstanz, Germany

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