Event Date: Thursday, 28 April, 2016
Location: Via Santa Maria, 36, Pisa, PI, Italia [2nd floor seminar room]
Speaker: Anna Siyanova (Victoria University of Wellington)
Title: Frequency and predictability of multi-word expressions in L1 and L2: Evidence from eye movements and ERPs
Abstract: Are native speakers and second language learners sensitive to the frequency and predictability of phrases? Are frequent phrases represented in our mental lexicon? How are such phrasal units processed in the brain? The talk will aim to answer these and other questions by looking at a series of experiments that have employed the eye movement paradigm and event-related brain potentials (ERPs) with native and non-native speakers. It will be argued that proficient language users are sensitive to frequency and predictability at the phrase level and that distinct neural correlates underlie the processing of familiar phrases and novel language.