Effects of markedness in gender processing in Italian as a heritage language: A speed accuracy tradeoff
This study examined potential sources of grammatical gender variability in heritage speakers (HSs) of Italian with a focus on morphological markedness. Fifty-four adult Italian HSs living in Germany and 40 homeland Italian speakers completed an online Self-Paced Reading Task and an offline Grammatic...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Frontiers Media S.A.
2022-10-01
|
| Series: | Frontiers in Psychology |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.965885/full |
| _version_ | 1828105654332555264 |
|---|---|
| author | Grazia Di Pisa Maki Kubota Jason Rothman Jason Rothman Theodoros Marinis Theodoros Marinis |
| author_facet | Grazia Di Pisa Maki Kubota Jason Rothman Jason Rothman Theodoros Marinis Theodoros Marinis |
| author_sort | Grazia Di Pisa |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This study examined potential sources of grammatical gender variability in heritage speakers (HSs) of Italian with a focus on morphological markedness. Fifty-four adult Italian HSs living in Germany and 40 homeland Italian speakers completed an online Self-Paced Reading Task and an offline Grammaticality Judgment Task. Both tasks involved sentences with grammatical and ungrammatical noun-adjective agreement, manipulating markedness. In grammatical sentences, both groups showed a markedness effect: shorter reading times (RTs) and higher accuracy for sentences containing masculine nouns as compared to sentences with feminine nouns. In ungrammatical sentences, although both groups were sensitive to ungrammaticality, only HSs showed a markedness effect, that is, they had significantly longer RTs and higher accuracy when violations were realized on feminine adjectives. Proficiency in the HL was a significant predictor of accuracy and RTs at the individual level. Taken together, results indicate that HSs acquire and process gender in a qualitatively similar way to homeland native speakers. However, RT evidence seems to suggest that at least under particular experimental methods, markedness considerations are more prevalent for HSs resulting in a speed-accuracy tradeoff. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-11T10:06:22Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-7fc02e0dde4f476581fa31607d7e9532 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-1078 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-11T10:06:22Z |
| publishDate | 2022-10-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Psychology |
| spelling | doaj.art-7fc02e0dde4f476581fa31607d7e95322022-12-22T04:30:13ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782022-10-011310.3389/fpsyg.2022.965885965885Effects of markedness in gender processing in Italian as a heritage language: A speed accuracy tradeoffGrazia Di Pisa0Maki Kubota1Jason Rothman2Jason Rothman3Theodoros Marinis4Theodoros Marinis5Department of Linguistics, University of Konstanz, Konstanz, GermanyDepartment of Language and Culture, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, NorwayDepartment of Language and Culture, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, NorwayDepartment of Language and Education, Universidad Nebrija, Madrid, SpainDepartment of Linguistics, University of Konstanz, Konstanz, GermanySchool of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading, Reading, United KingdomThis study examined potential sources of grammatical gender variability in heritage speakers (HSs) of Italian with a focus on morphological markedness. Fifty-four adult Italian HSs living in Germany and 40 homeland Italian speakers completed an online Self-Paced Reading Task and an offline Grammaticality Judgment Task. Both tasks involved sentences with grammatical and ungrammatical noun-adjective agreement, manipulating markedness. In grammatical sentences, both groups showed a markedness effect: shorter reading times (RTs) and higher accuracy for sentences containing masculine nouns as compared to sentences with feminine nouns. In ungrammatical sentences, although both groups were sensitive to ungrammaticality, only HSs showed a markedness effect, that is, they had significantly longer RTs and higher accuracy when violations were realized on feminine adjectives. Proficiency in the HL was a significant predictor of accuracy and RTs at the individual level. Taken together, results indicate that HSs acquire and process gender in a qualitatively similar way to homeland native speakers. However, RT evidence seems to suggest that at least under particular experimental methods, markedness considerations are more prevalent for HSs resulting in a speed-accuracy tradeoff.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.965885/fullgrammatical genderheritage languagesItalianmarkednessspeed-accuracy tradeoff |
| spellingShingle | Grazia Di Pisa Maki Kubota Jason Rothman Jason Rothman Theodoros Marinis Theodoros Marinis Effects of markedness in gender processing in Italian as a heritage language: A speed accuracy tradeoff Frontiers in Psychology grammatical gender heritage languages Italian markedness speed-accuracy tradeoff |
| title | Effects of markedness in gender processing in Italian as a heritage language: A speed accuracy tradeoff |
| title_full | Effects of markedness in gender processing in Italian as a heritage language: A speed accuracy tradeoff |
| title_fullStr | Effects of markedness in gender processing in Italian as a heritage language: A speed accuracy tradeoff |
| title_full_unstemmed | Effects of markedness in gender processing in Italian as a heritage language: A speed accuracy tradeoff |
| title_short | Effects of markedness in gender processing in Italian as a heritage language: A speed accuracy tradeoff |
| title_sort | effects of markedness in gender processing in italian as a heritage language a speed accuracy tradeoff |
| topic | grammatical gender heritage languages Italian markedness speed-accuracy tradeoff |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.965885/full |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT graziadipisa effectsofmarkednessingenderprocessinginitalianasaheritagelanguageaspeedaccuracytradeoff AT makikubota effectsofmarkednessingenderprocessinginitalianasaheritagelanguageaspeedaccuracytradeoff AT jasonrothman effectsofmarkednessingenderprocessinginitalianasaheritagelanguageaspeedaccuracytradeoff AT jasonrothman effectsofmarkednessingenderprocessinginitalianasaheritagelanguageaspeedaccuracytradeoff AT theodorosmarinis effectsofmarkednessingenderprocessinginitalianasaheritagelanguageaspeedaccuracytradeoff AT theodorosmarinis effectsofmarkednessingenderprocessinginitalianasaheritagelanguageaspeedaccuracytradeoff |