This thesis explores the mental representation of subject-verb agreement, and the factors that can affect the determination of agreement in language production. It reports nine experiments that used a task in which participants produced sentence completions for visually presented complex subjects such as “The greyhound which two lively rabbits were tempting”. Such completions typically agree with the head noun (greyhound) as in “A greyhound which two lively rabbits were tempting is jumping” but sometimes agree with the local noun (rabbits) as in “A greyhound which two lively rabbits were tempting are jumping”. The first experiments examined the value of the concept of markedness in subject verb number agreement to see whether it has explanatory power for languages like Slovene with more than two number values. Results from two experiments employing complex sentence preambles including a head noun post modified by a prepositional phrase or a relative clause (e.g., “The nudist(s) near the sand dune(s)”) show that Slovene number agreement differs from number agreement in languages with no dual, but that it is not possible to simply state that the singular is the least marked and the dual the most. I argue that using languages with more complex number systems allows greater insight into the processes of correct and erroneous subject-verb agreement, and shows that it is necessary to dissociate susceptibility to agreement from error-causing status. To conclude, the concept of markedness seems unable to explain my results. Semantic effects in agreement are then examined using two comparison experiments in English. Experiment 3 shows that although English has only a two value system, speakers are sensitive to semantic differences in number. Experiment 4 explores the possible influence of speakers’ native language three-value number system on their two-value second language system. It shows that native speakers of English are more sensitive to semantic number differences in English than Slovene speakers of English. Experiment 5 explores gender agreement in Slovene (which has three genders) and shows that there is a complex pattern of agreement. As with number, there is not just one number value which is problematic: neuter and masculine are most confusable, but masculine errors are also common when feminine agreement would be expected, thus suggesting that speakers revert to two different defaults, masculine and neuter. Finally, the results of four experiments examining number and gender agreement in coordinated phrases are presented. Agreement in such phrases may be resolved (i.e. the verb agrees with the whole subject) but may instead agree with one conjunct. Agreement with one conjunct is affected byword order (agreement with the nearest conjunct is most common), coordinator (e.g., single-conjunct agreement is more common after “or” than “and”) and the gender or number of the conjuncts (e.g., dual number is associated with single-conjunct agreement). Taken together, my results suggest that agreement is affected by a complex interplay of semantic and syntactic factors, and that the effects of a three-valued system are quite distinct from those of a two-valued system.

No contexto de ensino e aprendizagem de uma língua estrangeira, o dicionário bilíngue aparece como um instrumento linguístico que se propõe a auxiliar os aprendizes na construção do conhecimento em relação à língua de aprendizagem. No entanto, esse instrumento tem apresentado muitas lacunas, o que resulta em dificuldades aos aprendizes no que concerne à compreensão e, sobretudo, à expressão em língua estrangeira. Tais lacunas se referem ao conteúdo informacional contido na sua microestrutura, que apresenta geralmente uma quantidade reduzida de definições, as quais não são acompanhadas de exemplos de uso na maioria dos casos. Por isso, este trabalho considera a descrição do item lexical BEM em obras lexicográficas, tanto monolíngues como bilíngues, com o objetivo de verificar se os conteúdos informacionais, sua estruturação e organização são funcionais para os consulentes em contextos de ensino e aprendizagem. Além disso, propõe uma descrição baseada em corpora do mesmo item lexical realizada com auxílio do instrumental da Linguística de Corpus, utilizada como metodologia neste trabalho. Consideramos a hipótese de que a descrição lexicográfica baseada em corpora pode se constituir num diferencial para a compreensão de uso de itens lexicais em situação de ensino e aprendizagem de uma língua estrangeira. Este estudo se justifica pela necessidade que observamos na prática docente de fornecer aos estudantes instrumentos linguísticos que possam lhes melhor auxiliar na compreensão do uso das lexias em francês, especialmente em situações de produção oral e escrita. / In the context of teaching and learning a foreign language, bilingual dictionaries appear as a linguistic tool that aims to assist learners in constructing knowledge related to language learning. However, this instrument shows many gaps, which results in difficulties for learners to understand and speak in a foreign language. Such gaps generally refer to the informational content contained in its microstructure, which offers a reduced amount of definitions that, in the majority of cases, are not followed by examples of their use. Therefore, this work considers the description of the lexical item BEM in lexicographical works, both monolingual and bilingual, with the goal of checking whether the informational content, its structure and its organization are functional for users in the context of teaching and learning. It also proposes an approach based on corpora of the same lexical item performed by using the tools of Corpus Linguistics, which comprises the methodology of this work. We consider the hypothesis that the lexicographical description based on corpora may constitute an increase in the understanding of the use of lexical items when teaching and learning a foreign language. This study was justified by the need to provide students with linguistic tools that can help them better understand the use of words in French, especially in speaking and writing situations.

<p>This essay attempts to investigate the use of lexical chunks in an empirical way. It tries to probe into the possible relationship between L2 learners competence of lexical chunks and their language production through analysing results from a multiple-choice chunk test and a writing test.</p>

<p>Denna studie undersöker om dold språkförståelse i ett andraspråk kan synliggöras vid återberättande på förstaspråket. Det kan vara svårt att skilja språkutvecklingen hos barn med typisk språkutveckling med svenska som andraspråk från språkutvecklingen hos flerspråkiga språkstörda barn om man testar dem på andraspråket. Därför behövs det referensdata för normalspråkiga barn. Sexton barn i femårsåldern med normal språkutveckling, åtta enspråkiga barn med svenska som första språk och åtta flerspråkiga barn med arabiska som första språk och svenska som andraspråk, testades med <em>Buss-sagan</em> (<em>Buss Story Test</em>, BST) och TROG (<em>Test for Reception of Grammar</em>). De flerspråkiga barnen fick sagan uppläst på svenska och återberättade först på svenska och sedan på arabiska. Resultatet i den kvantitativa analysen visade att de enspråkiga barnen fick signifikant bättre resultat för parametern information på BST och bättre resultat på TROG. Däremot skiljde sig resultatet för parametern information i berättelserna på arabiska inte signifikant från resultatet i de flerspråkiga barnens berättelser på svenska. Den kvalitativa analysen visade att de flerspråkiga barnens återberättelser på svenska och arabiska jämfört med de enspråkiga barnens framför allt lexikalt och diskursivt var mindre komplexa och korrekta. Detta kan till viss del bero på testsituationen, men också på brister i språkförståelse och uttrycksmedel. Slutsatsen man kan dra är att man som logoped behöver vara medveten om att olika språkliga strukturer utvecklas i olika takt både i första- och andraspråket, och att det behövs anpassat inflöde på alla språk för att underlätta språkförståelsen och den lexikala utvecklingen.</p> / <p>This study examines if language comprehension which may be concealed in a second language can be made visible by retelling in the first language. It can be difficult to separate the language development of typically developed children with Swedish as their second language from that of multilingual children with language impairment. Therefore, reference data for multilingual children with typical language development are needed. Sixteen five-year-old children with normal language development, eight monolingual children with Swedish as their first language and eight multilingual children with Arabic as their first language and Swedish as their second language, were tested with <em>Buss Story Test</em> (BST) and TROG (<em>Test for Reception of Grammar</em>). The multilingual children got the story of <em>Buss Story Test</em> read to them in Swedish and then retold the story first in Swedish and then in Arabic. The result of the quantitative analysis showed that monolingual children achieved significantly better results for the parameter information on BST and better results on TROG. On the other hand, the result of the parameter information in the children’s Arabic retellings did not differ significantly from that in the multilingual children’s Swedish retellings. The qualitative analysis showed that the multilingual children’s retellings in Swedish and Arabic compared with the monolingual children’s retellings were less complex and correct in regard mostly to lexical and narrative structure. This can, to a certain extent, be due to the testing situation, but also due to deficiencies in language comprehension and means of expression. The authors conclude that speech therapists need to be aware of the fact that different linguistic structures develop at a different rate both in the first and the second language, and that tailored input in all the children’s languages is needed in order to facilitate comprehension and lexical development.</p>

Denna studie undersöker om dold språkförståelse i ett andraspråk kan synliggöras vid återberättande på förstaspråket. Det kan vara svårt att skilja språkutvecklingen hos barn med typisk språkutveckling med svenska som andraspråk från språkutvecklingen hos flerspråkiga språkstörda barn om man testar dem på andraspråket. Därför behövs det referensdata för normalspråkiga barn. Sexton barn i femårsåldern med normal språkutveckling, åtta enspråkiga barn med svenska som första språk och åtta flerspråkiga barn med arabiska som första språk och svenska som andraspråk, testades med Buss-sagan (Buss Story Test, BST) och TROG (Test for Reception of Grammar). De flerspråkiga barnen fick sagan uppläst på svenska och återberättade först på svenska och sedan på arabiska. Resultatet i den kvantitativa analysen visade att de enspråkiga barnen fick signifikant bättre resultat för parametern information på BST och bättre resultat på TROG. Däremot skiljde sig resultatet för parametern information i berättelserna på arabiska inte signifikant från resultatet i de flerspråkiga barnens berättelser på svenska. Den kvalitativa analysen visade att de flerspråkiga barnens återberättelser på svenska och arabiska jämfört med de enspråkiga barnens framför allt lexikalt och diskursivt var mindre komplexa och korrekta. Detta kan till viss del bero på testsituationen, men också på brister i språkförståelse och uttrycksmedel. Slutsatsen man kan dra är att man som logoped behöver vara medveten om att olika språkliga strukturer utvecklas i olika takt både i första- och andraspråket, och att det behövs anpassat inflöde på alla språk för att underlätta språkförståelsen och den lexikala utvecklingen. / This study examines if language comprehension which may be concealed in a second language can be made visible by retelling in the first language. It can be difficult to separate the language development of typically developed children with Swedish as their second language from that of multilingual children with language impairment. Therefore, reference data for multilingual children with typical language development are needed. Sixteen five-year-old children with normal language development, eight monolingual children with Swedish as their first language and eight multilingual children with Arabic as their first language and Swedish as their second language, were tested with Buss Story Test (BST) and TROG (Test for Reception of Grammar). The multilingual children got the story of Buss Story Test read to them in Swedish and then retold the story first in Swedish and then in Arabic. The result of the quantitative analysis showed that monolingual children achieved significantly better results for the parameter information on BST and better results on TROG. On the other hand, the result of the parameter information in the children’s Arabic retellings did not differ significantly from that in the multilingual children’s Swedish retellings. The qualitative analysis showed that the multilingual children’s retellings in Swedish and Arabic compared with the monolingual children’s retellings were less complex and correct in regard mostly to lexical and narrative structure. This can, to a certain extent, be due to the testing situation, but also due to deficiencies in language comprehension and means of expression. The authors conclude that speech therapists need to be aware of the fact that different linguistic structures develop at a different rate both in the first and the second language, and that tailored input in all the children’s languages is needed in order to facilitate comprehension and lexical development.

During the production of language, speakers tend to use the same structural patterns from one utterance to the next if it is possible to do so. For example, if a speaker uses a passive or dative construction, he/she is relatively more likely to use the same construction again in the next utterance (e.g., Bock, 1986; Bock & Loebell, 1990; Hartsuiker & Kolk, 1998): the sentence structure "persists".The current study investigates syntactic persistence in first and second language speakers of English and Korean using within-language primes (Experiments 1A, 1B, and 2) and across-language primes (Experiment 3). The target structures were transitive alternate structures (active and passive) and dative alternate structures (double object dative/DAT-ACC dative and prepositional dative/ACC-DAT dative). The experimental paradigm involved repetition of an auditory stimulus, followed by picture description. Overall, syntactic priming effects were found, although various magnitudes were observed as a function of structure; strong effects were found for "shared" syntactic constructions across languages (e.g., active vs. passive) and weak priming effects were found for syntactic constructions not shared (e.g., double object dative vs. prepositional dative) between English and Korean. Other asymmetrical priming effects were observed, reflecting differences between Korean and English such that reliable priming effects were found from L1 to L2, but not from L2 to L1 for Korean-as-L2 speakers (English-as-L1) These patterns of asymmetrical priming imply that cross-linguistic differences might interfere with syntactic persistence in production process unless speakers are highly advanced proficient bilinguals. Also, the present study showed that syntactic priming appears to be sensitive to the order of case-marked phrases in the cross-language priming condition. This finding indicates that the order of case-marked arguments is involved in syntactic repetition. It shed lights on further universal accounts of syntactic priming.

The discourse of older healthy adults is commonly described as lengthy and off-topic and thought to be associated with a general cognitive decline that occurs in healthy aging. This study investigated the overall decline in attention associated with healthy aging and its relationship to instances of off-topic speech (OTS) in a constrained and unconstrained language production task. Ninety cognitively healthy adults participated and comprised three age cohorts (40 – 75+). Participants completed cognitive measures of attention and two discourse tasks that included recounting personal events and describing a procedure. Older adults exhibited poorer scores on measures of selective and shifting attention, and elderly adults produced more OTS as compared to middle-aged (40s) and older (60s) adults in the unconstrained task only. Poorer scores of shifting attention were significantly correlated with more OTS in the older adults (60s) only. Overall, a marked increase in variability of language production was observed with advancing age. Results indicated the need for further research on the relationships between age, attention, OTS, and task type in healthy aging to determine an underlying cause for increasing variability of language production with age.

Eye movements during picture description were used to investigate the time course for structuring embedded clauses. According to the frame-based model of language production (e.g., Garrett, 1975; Ferreira, 2000) speakers make decisions about syntactic structure using structural frames corresponding to clauses or verb phrases. On-line theories allow structure to be built piecemeal corresponding to individual words and phrases (e.g., Kempen & Hoenkamp, 1987). These predictions were tested in two studies where speakers answered questions based on scenes that depicted someone communicating or thinking about an embedded event, eliciting descriptions like A woman is thinking about (a man being chased by a bear/a bear chasing a man). Based on previous eye movement studies (e.g., Meyer & Van Der Meulen, 2000), gaze shifts between agents (bear) and patients (man) were expected to occur less often after hearing biased questions, which provided multiple structural cues, than after unbiased ones. The timing of a difference in gaze shifts would then reflect when speakers considered order of mention and committed to an active or passive structure. Study 1 partially supports a frame-based theory of the syntactic planning while study 2 did not provide evidence for either model. Results are discussed in terms of models of language production and reiterate the need for experimental paradigms that use on-line methods in the investigation of the time-course structuring spoken utterances.

This essay attempts to investigate the use of lexical chunks in an empirical way. It tries to probe into the possible relationship between L2 learners competence of lexical chunks and their language production through analysing results from a multiple-choice chunk test and a writing test.

No contexto de ensino e aprendizagem de uma língua estrangeira, o dicionário bilíngue aparece como um instrumento linguístico que se propõe a auxiliar os aprendizes na construção do conhecimento em relação à língua de aprendizagem. No entanto, esse instrumento tem apresentado muitas lacunas, o que resulta em dificuldades aos aprendizes no que concerne à compreensão e, sobretudo, à expressão em língua estrangeira. Tais lacunas se referem ao conteúdo informacional contido na sua microestrutura, que apresenta geralmente uma quantidade reduzida de definições, as quais não são acompanhadas de exemplos de uso na maioria dos casos. Por isso, este trabalho considera a descrição do item lexical BEM em obras lexicográficas, tanto monolíngues como bilíngues, com o objetivo de verificar se os conteúdos informacionais, sua estruturação e organização são funcionais para os consulentes em contextos de ensino e aprendizagem. Além disso, propõe uma descrição baseada em corpora do mesmo item lexical realizada com auxílio do instrumental da Linguística de Corpus, utilizada como metodologia neste trabalho. Consideramos a hipótese de que a descrição lexicográfica baseada em corpora pode se constituir num diferencial para a compreensão de uso de itens lexicais em situação de ensino e aprendizagem de uma língua estrangeira. Este estudo se justifica pela necessidade que observamos na prática docente de fornecer aos estudantes instrumentos linguísticos que possam lhes melhor auxiliar na compreensão do uso das lexias em francês, especialmente em situações de produção oral e escrita. / In the context of teaching and learning a foreign language, bilingual dictionaries appear as a linguistic tool that aims to assist learners in constructing knowledge related to language learning. However, this instrument shows many gaps, which results in difficulties for learners to understand and speak in a foreign language. Such gaps generally refer to the informational content contained in its microstructure, which offers a reduced amount of definitions that, in the majority of cases, are not followed by examples of their use. Therefore, this work considers the description of the lexical item BEM in lexicographical works, both monolingual and bilingual, with the goal of checking whether the informational content, its structure and its organization are functional for users in the context of teaching and learning. It also proposes an approach based on corpora of the same lexical item performed by using the tools of Corpus Linguistics, which comprises the methodology of this work. We consider the hypothesis that the lexicographical description based on corpora may constitute an increase in the understanding of the use of lexical items when teaching and learning a foreign language. This study was justified by the need to provide students with linguistic tools that can help them better understand the use of words in French, especially in speaking and writing situations.