Department of French and Italian

• Department of Second Language Studies
• Department of Linguistics
• Germanic Studies

• Development of interpretive knowledge: phrasal semantics, lexical semantics and grammatically computed pragmatic inferences
• Sentence processing: information integration in L2 processing

I am interested in second language learners’ knowledge of the interpretations available to a sentence that are not grammatical in the learner's native language and in the precise manner in which second language learners interpret sentences of the target language input, with special interest in the integration of information from context, pragmatics, prosody, semantics and syntax.

Not all ways of combining words together have the same interpretive consequences. Aspects of one’s semantic intuitions results from the way in which one goes about building the sentence. A string of experiments suggests that second language acquisition is channeled by the type of constraints that determine interpretation in native systems.The reason for the focus on processing is that not all ways of combining information together have the same consequences for language understanding.

In a string of experiments, I have investigated the extent to which context can override syntactic information in the manner in which second language learners perceive sentences. Results so far suggest a deep structural reflex in second language acquirers of French. This threatens the notion that second language learners do not process sentences as deeply as natives, relying on lexical and contexual information instead.

Articles

• Dekydtspotter, L., Miller, A. K., Iverson, M., Cha, J-H., Gilbert, J., A., Ahn, J. H., Meinert, K., Yang, L., & Zhang, H. (2025). A γ Operational Workspace for Syntax in L1 and L2 Processing: Evidence from Recursive Re-representations of Wh-fillers in French.  Journal of Neurolinguistics, Elsevier Science.
  ***Free access (for 50 days) to thus new publication on a γ operational workspace for syntax in L1 and L2 processing that could invite more L2 research across linguistic programs to address the nature of the language faculty. We provide evidence for a γ operational workspace enabling basic operations across syntax semantics features, elements, and objects and argue that such an operational workspace is central to the ability to recruit cell ensembles in L2 circuit development in the parsing of new language inputs during and after L1 consolidation, offering a biological basis for a parsing-to-learn L2 acquisition model. https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1lSZn3FHbnxOMt
• Dekydtspotter, L., Miller, K., Swanson, K., Cha, J.-H. Xiong, Y., Ahn, J.-H., Gilbert, J., Pope, D., Iverson, M., Meinert, K. (2024). Hierarchical neural processing in γ oscillations for syntactic and semantic operations accounts for a single epistemology in native and nonnative French. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience.
• Dekydtspotter, L., Miller, A. K., Iverson, M., Xiong, Y., Swanson, K., and Gilbert, C. (2023). The timing versus resource problem in nonnative sentence processing: evidence from a time-frequency analysis of anaphora resolution in successive wh-movement in native and nonnative speakers of French. PLoS One 18:e0275305. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0275305
• Frimu, R.& Dekydtspotter, L. (2022). Inference-based form selection in native and non-native speakers: Evidence from subject-verb agreement error detection in French. Lingua, 103216, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lingua.2021.103216
• Frimu, R.& Dekydtspotter, L. (2021). On feature-based vocabulary selection mechanisms in late insertion: third person number agreement in the French future tense. Glossa: A Journal of General Linguistics, 6, 1–31. DOI: https://doi.org/10.16995/glossa.5760
• Dekydtspotter, L and A. Kate Miller, Mike Iverson, Yanyu Xiong, Kyle Swanson, Charlène Gilbert. (2021) Minimal brain adaptation for representational prioritization in non-native parsing: Evidence from a time-frequency analysis of recursion in Wh-dependencies in French. Journal of Neurolinguistics, Volume 59, 101002
• Xiong, Y., Dekydtspotter, L. and Newman, S. (2019) When Embeddedness Matters: Electrophysiological Evidence for the Role of Head Noun Position in Chinese Relative Clause Processing. Journal of Neurolinguistics, 51, 236-257.
• Dekydtspotter, L. and Seo, H-K. (2016) Transitivity in the processing of intransitive clauses: a category-based prediction in low-intermediate learners of English. Studies in Second Language Acquisition.
• Dekydtspotter, L. and Renaud, C. (2014) On second language processing and grammatical development: The parser in second language acquisition. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism, 4(2), 131–165.
• Dekydtspotter, L. and A. K. Miller. (2013) Inhibitive and facilitative priming induced by traces in the processing of wh-dependencies in a second language. Second Language Research, 29
• Dekydtspotter, L. Wang, Y.-T. Kim, B., Kim, H-J., Kim, H.-K. and Lee, J.-K. (2012) Anaphora under Reconstruction during Processing in English as a Second Language. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 34, 561–590.
• Darcy, I., Dekydtspotter, L., Sprouse, R. A., Scott, J. H.G., Glover, J., McGuire, M., and Kaden, C. (2012) Direct Mapping of Acoustics to Phonology: On the lexical encoding of front round vowels in L1 English-L2 French acquisition. Second Language Research, 28, 1–36.
• Dekydtspotter, Laurent (2009) Second Language Epistemology, Take Two. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 31,291-321.
• Dekydtspotter, Laurent and Claire Renaud. (2009) On the contrastive analysis of features in second language acquisition: Uninterpretable gender on past participles in English–French processing. Second Language Research, 25, 251–263.
• Dekydtspotter, Laurent, Bryan. Donaldson, Amanda. C. Edmonds, Audrey Liljestrand Fultz and Rebecca A. Petrush (2008) Syntax and prosodic computations in the resolution of relative clause attachment ambiguity by English-French learners. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 30, 453–480.
• Dekydtspotter, Laurent and Jon Hathorn (2005) Quelque chose (...) de remarquable in English-French Acquisition: Mandatory, Informationally Encapsulated Computations in Second Language Interpretation. Second Language Research, 21, 291-323.
• Dekydtspotter, Laurent and Samantha Outcalt (2005) A Syntactic Bias in Scope Ambiguity Resolution in the Processing of English-French Cardinality Interrogatives: Evidence for Informational Encapsulation. Language Learning,1, 1-37.

• Introduction to French Semantics
• Introduction to French Phonology
• Advanced French Syntax
• Introduction to French Syntax
• Advanced Grammar and Composition
• Phonetics and Pronunciation
• Structure and Development of French
• Topics in the Learning and Teaching of French: Issues of Acquisition

• Teaching Excellence Recognition Award (TERA), 1999