Second language (L2) grammar learning is difficult. Two frameworks—the psycholinguistic lexical bottleneck hypothesis and the neurocognitive declarative/procedural model—predict that faster L2 lexical processing should facilitate L2 incidental grammar learning. We tested these predictions in a pretest–posttest syntactic adaptation study of English relative‐clause attachment preferences. First‐language German speakers listened to relative clauses disambiguated to the English low‐attachment preference (secretaries of the professor who is/naps at home)—via either a copula (e.g., is), which should be processed rapidly (copula group; n = 48), or a lexical verb (e.g., naps), which should be processed more slowly (lexical group; n = 48). Only the copula group showed significant pretest‐to‐posttest learning. Moreover, the amount of learning was predicted by procedural learning abilities in the copula group, but by vocabulary size in the lexical group. The results, which are consistent with both frameworks, show that the L2 lexicon impacts L2 grammar learning, and reveal moderating psycholinguistic and neurocognitive variables.

中文翻译：

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词汇对第二语言语法习得的影响：测试心理语言学和神经认知预测


第二语言（L2）语法学习很困难。两个框架——心理语言学词汇瓶颈假说和神经认知陈述/程序模型——预测更快的二语词汇处理应该促进二语附带语法学习。我们在英语关系从句依恋偏好的前后测试句法适应研究中测试了这些预测。以德语为母语的人听到的关系从句消除了英语低依恋偏好的歧义（secretaries of the Professorwhois/napsat home）——通过任何一个系动词（例如，is），应该快速处理（系动词组；n = 48），或词汇动词（例如，naps），应更慢地处理（词汇组；n = 48）。只有联结组表现出显着的前测到后测学习。此外，学习量是通过系词组的程序学习能力来预测的，但在词汇组中是通过词汇量来预测的。结果与两个框架一致，表明二语词典影响二语语法学习，并揭示调节心理语言学和神经认知变量。