Florida State University Libraries Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations The Graduate School 2013 Native and Non-Native Processing of Spanish SE in a Self-Paced Reading Task Estrella Rodriguez Follow this and additional works at the FSU Digital Library. For more information, please contact [email protected] THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES NATIVE AND NON-NATIVE PROCESSING OF SPANISH SE IN A SELF-PACED READING TASK By ESTRELLA RODRIGUEZ A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Modern Languages in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Degree Awarded: Summer Semester, 2013 Copyright © 2013 Estrella Rodríguez All Rights Reserved Estrella Rodríguez defended this dissertation on April 19th, 2013. The members of the supervisory committee were: Michael Leeser Professor Directing Dissertation Lara Reglero Professor Co-Directing Dissertation Michael Kaschak University Representative Gretchen Sunderman Committee Member Carolina González Committee Member The Graduate School has verified and approved the above-named committee members, and certifies that the dissertation has been approved in accordance with university requirements. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The completion of this project would not have been possible without the guidance and patience of Dr. Michael Leeser and Dr. Lara Reglero of the Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics. I am not able to thank them enough for their assistance and encouragement, as well as for their valuable suggestions when the idea of undertaking this project was first conceived. I would also like to thank Dr. Michael Kaschak of the Department of Psychology, Dr. Gretchen Sunderman and Dr. Carolina González of the Department of Modern Languages for their active participation on my dissertation committee. They were also valuable mentors all along. I thank my colleagues Dr. Anel Brandl, Raquel Prieta, and Patricia Atchley for their help and support during the data collection stage of this project. I appreciate the help of Mr. Nikolai Mountian of the Deparment of Modern Languages and Linguistics for his valuable assistance in the Computer Lab during data collection. This project is dedicated to my loving family; especially to my mom for the confidence she gave me from a very early age in pursuing my dearest dreams, and making them come true. I am who I am every day because of her. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Tables ................................................................................................................................. vi List of Figures .............................................................................................................................. viii Abstract ............................................................................................................................................x 1. A SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC DESCRIPTION OF THE PARTICLE SE ....................1 1.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................................1 1.2 Generative Perspectives on Acquisition: FFFH vs FAFT .............................................2 1.3 A Contrast between Spanish and English Verb Morphology as to SE ..........................6 1.4 Most Common Uses of SE .............................................................................................9 1.4.1 Reflexive SE ...................................................................................................12 1.4.2 Impersonal SE ................................................................................................18 1.4.3 Passive SE ......................................................................................................24 1.5 Summary ..........................................................................................................................32 2. A REVIEW OF L1 AND L2 RELEVANT LITERATURE ON THE PARTICLE SE...….34 2.1 Introduction ..................................................................................................................34 2.2 Motivation of the Study ...............................................................................................35 2.3 L1 Acquisition of SE ...................................................................................................36 2.4 The Manipulation of the Particle SE in GJTs: FAFT vs FFFH ...................................40 2.5 The Manipulation of SE in Grammatical Judgments and Production Tasks ...............55 2.6 The Interpretation of SE in Semantic Tasks ................................................................59 2.7 The Analysis of Spanish SE from a Processing Perspective .......................................65 2.8 Some Limitations on the Analysis of Spanish SE in the SLA Literature ....................69 2.9 Research Questions ......................................................................................................73 2.10 Research Hypotheses ...................................................................................................73 2.11 Summary ......................................................................................................................76 3. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY .................................................................79 3.1 Introduction ..................................................................................................................79 3.2 Research Design...........................................................................................................79 3.3 Participants ...................................................................................................................89 3.4 Materials ......................................................................................................................92 3.5 The Self-Paced Reading Task ......................................................................................93 3.6 Sentence Plausibility ....................................................................................................99 3.7 Summary ....................................................................................................................104 4. RESULTS ............................................................................................................................106 4.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................106 4.2 Comprehension ..........................................................................................................106 4.3 Intermediate Learners ................................................................................................108 iv 4.4 Advanced Learners ....................................................................................................115 4.5 Native Speakers .........................................................................................................123 4.6 Further Analyses: SV Sentences ................................................................................130 4.6.1 Intermediate Learners ...................................................................................131 4.6.2 Advanced Learners .......................................................................................132 4.6.3 Native Speakers ............................................................................................134 4.7 Summary of Results ...................................................................................................137 4.7.1 Native Speakers ............................................................................................137 4.7.2 Advanced Learners .......................................................................................137 4.7.3 Intermediate Learners ...................................................................................137 4.8 Summary ....................................................................................................................140 5. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS ...............................................................................142 5.1 Linking the Experimental Results to Generative Theory .........................................142 5.2 Linking the Experimental Results to Processing Perspectives ..................................149 5.3 Limitations .................................................................................................................157 5.4 Pedagogical Implications ...........................................................................................159 5.5 Conclusions ................................................................................................................162 APPENDICES .............................................................................................................................163 A. EXPERIMENTAL SENTENCES .......................................................................................163 B. LANGUAGE HISTORY QUESTIONNAIRE ...................................................................169 C. INFORMED CONSENT FORM ........................................................................................171 D. VOCABULARY STUDY SHEET ......................................................................................173 E. GRAMMAR AND VOCABULARY PROFICIENCY TEST ............................................174 F. NON-EXPERIMENTAL SENTENCES .............................................................................175