Second Language Processing of Korean Floating Numeral Quantifiers

This study investigated whether Chinese–Korean bilinguals can use structure-based information to interpret Korean sentences containing floating numeral quantifiers during online processing. A numeral quantifier in Korean can be stranded from its modified noun through scrambling as long as the quantifier forms a constituent with the noun. For Chinese–Korean bilinguals, acquiring this structural knowledge gives rise to a learnability problem because this ability cannot be derived from the L1, not easily induced from Korean input and is not obtained through classroom instruction. In acceptability judgment, highly proficient Chinese–Korean bilinguals demonstrated target-like knowledge of this structural constraint. Results from a self-paced reading task showed that the bilinguals showed sensitivity to the violation of the mismatch between an NQ and its modified NP, both in local and non-local dependency conditions. Our findings suggest that structure-based processing is possible for highly proficient bilinguals even when the target structure is not instantiated in bilinguals’ L1.     

Effects of Long-Term Language Use Experience in Sentence Processing: Evidence from Korean

Journal of Psycholinguistic Research - Attraction effects arise when a comprehender erroneously retrieves a distractor instead of a target item during memory retrieval operations. In Korean,...     

The Distress of Citizen-Children with Detained and Deported Parents

In immigration enforcement, many undocumented immigrants with children are often detained and deported. But it is their US-born citizen-children that have been overlooked in immigration debates and enforcement policies and practices. Citizen-children are at risk for negative psychological outcomes when families are fractured and destabilized by arrest, detention, and deportation. The children risk being torn from their parents and, often, their undocumented siblings. To add to the small but growing empirical base on the effects of living under the threat of deportation and actual deportation of parents, we compared the psychological status of three groups of citizen-children: (1) a group living in Mexico with their deported parents; (2) a group in the US with parents affected by detention or deportation; and (3) a comparison group of citizen-children whose undocumented parents were not affected by detention or deportation. We compared children on self-report and parent-report measures of behavioral adjustment, depression, anxiety, and self-concept. Across the three groups we found elevated levels of distress, and differences between children who had experienced a parent’s detention or deportation and those who had not. We discuss findings in the context of children’s clinical needs, future research, and implications for immigration enforcement policy and practices.