Native (L1) and nonnative (L2) speakers sometimes misinterpret temporarily ambiguous sentences like “When Mary dressed the baby laughed happily.” Recent studies suggest that the initially assigned misinterpretation (“Mary dressed the baby”) may persist even after disambiguation, and that L2 speakers may have particular difficulty discarding initial misinterpretations. The present study investigated whether L2 speakers are more persistent with misinterpretation compared with L1 speakers during sentence processing, using the structural priming and eye tracking while reading tasks. In the experiment, participants read prime followed by target sentences. Reading times revealed that unambiguous but not ambiguous prime sentences facilitated processing of the globally correct interpretation of ambiguous target sentences. However, this priming effect was only observed when the prime and target sentence shared the same verb. Comprehension accuracy rates were not significantly influenced by priming effects but did provide evidence of lingering misinterpretation. We did not find significant L1/L2 differences in either priming effects or persistence of misinterpretation. Together, these results suggest that initially assigned misinterpretations linger in both L1 and L2 readers during sentence processing and that L1 and L2 comprehension priming is strongly lexically mediated.

中文翻译：

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母语和非母语句子处理中挥之不去的误解：来自结构启动的证据

母语 (L1) 和非母语 (L2) 的人有时会误解暂时模棱两可的句子，例如“当玛丽穿好衣服时，婴儿开心地笑了”。最近的研究表明，即使在消除歧义之后，最初指定的误解（“玛丽给婴儿穿衣服”）可能仍然存在，并且说 L2 的人可能特别难以消除最初的误解。本研究在阅读任务时使用结构启动和眼动追踪，调查了在句子处理过程中，与 L1 说话者相比，L2 说话者是否更持久地出现误解。在实验中，参与者先阅读主要句子，然后阅读目标句子。阅读时间表明，明确但不模糊的主要句子促进了对模糊目标句子的全局正确解释的处理。然而，这种启动效应仅在主要句子和目标句子共享相同动词时才观察到。理解准确率不受启动效应的显着影响，但确实提供了挥之不去的误解的证据。我们在启动效应或误解的持续性方面没有发现显着的 L1/L2 差异。总之，这些结果表明，在句子处理过程中，最初指定的误解在 L1 和 L2 阅读器中挥之不去，并且 L1 和 L2 理解启动在词汇上是强烈介导的。我们在启动效应或误解的持续性方面没有发现显着的 L1/L2 差异。总之，这些结果表明，在句子处理过程中，最初指定的误解在 L1 和 L2 阅读器中挥之不去，并且 L1 和 L2 理解启动在词汇上是强烈介导的。我们在启动效应或误解的持续性方面没有发现显着的 L1/L2 差异。总之，这些结果表明，在句子处理过程中，最初指定的误解在 L1 和 L2 阅读器中挥之不去，并且 L1 和 L2 理解启动在词汇上是强烈介导的。