The processing of Negative Polarity Items in Turkish-German bilingual speakers
Résumé
This study investigates the processing of Turkish negative polarity items (NPIs) using a self-paced reading experiment with end-of-sentence acceptability judgements. Our participants included adult Turkish monolinguals, as well as Turkish-German early (i.e. heritage speakers) and late bilinguals. We explored whether intrusion effects from illusory NPI licensors extended to bilingual Turkish speakers who had acquired German either early or late in their lives. Stimuli included 30 sets of sentences in six experimental conditions, with the presence of both an NPI and of a suitable licenser (verb negation) systematically manipulated. Our results indicate that bilingual Turkish readers show intrusion effects in their processing of NPIs. Our findings suggest that the structural conditions for NPI licensing in Turkish might be degraded or less stable in heritage bilinguals.