It has been proposed that second language (L2) learners differ from native speakers in processing due to either influence from their native language or an inability to integrate information from multiple linguistic domains in a second language. To shed new light on the underlying mechanism of L2 processing, we used an event-related potentials (ERP) paradigm to examine the processing of sentences with only in English by native speakers of English and advanced Dutch learners of English. Successful processing of sentences with only requires rapid integration of prosodic information with semantic and syntactic information. We found that L2 listeners showed native-like processing of the acoustics of contrastive pitch accents when adjacent to only. However, they needed more cues than L1 listeners to perform native-like in forming expectations for focus placement. Our results thus provide first ERP-based evidence for difficulty in the integration of information for focus expectation in difficult L2 constructs.

有人提出，第二语言（L2）学习者在处理过程中与母语者有所不同，因为要么受到母语的影响，要么无法用第二语言整合来自多个语言领域的信息。为了揭示第二语言处理的潜在机制，我们使用事件相关电位（ERP）范式来检查英语母语者和高级荷兰英语学习者对英语句子的处理。成功地处理句子只需要韵律信息与语义和句法信息的快速整合。我们发现，当 L2 听众与 only 相邻时，对对比音高重音的声学效果表现出类似母语的处理。然而，他们需要比 L1 听众更多的线索才能像母语人士一样形成对焦点放置的期望。因此，我们的结果提供了第一个基于 ERP 的证据，证明在困难的 L2 结构中难以整合焦点期望的信息。