Universität zu Köln

Büyükyıldırım, Nisa, Özceçelik, Özce, Uygun, Serkan and Özsoy, Onur ORCID: 0000-0003-3617-4697 (2025). Individual differences in verb aspect processing in monolinguals and bilingual heritage speakers of Turkish. Journal of cultural cognitive science, 9. pp. 291-308. Springer Nature. ISSN 2520-1018

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Abstract

Language processing in monolingual and heritage speakers shows variation when the concept of aspect processing, an understudied phenomenon in the literature, is taken into consideration. In this regard, this study focuses on grammatical aspect (i.e., imperfective and perfective) in monolingual and heritage speakers of Turkish, and aims to uncover Turkish monolinguals’ and heritage speakers’ processing of perfective aspect for completed events and imperfective aspect for ongoing events. Furthermore, the study also aims to explore whether language proficiency and processing speed capacity have an effect on language processing in heritage speakers’ eye-tracking data. The data have been collected by employing a comprehension experiment with 28 monolingual speakers and 25 heritage speakers. The heritage speakers participated in an additional sociolinguistic survey, a language proficiency tests (i.e., self-rating and C-Test), and a cognitive speed index test (i.e., WAIS-4). The results indicate that both groups demonstrate greater sensitivity to the imperfective aspect than to the perfective aspect. The accuracy rates were higher in the imperfective condition, and the effect emerged earlier in this condition compared to the perfective condition. Additionally, the findings suggest that language proficiency and processing speed significantly influence grammatical aspect processing and comprehension. Specifically, participants who achieved higher scores on the linguistic and cognitive tests exhibited correspondingly higher accuracy rates. To conclude, the study highlights how linguistic structures differentially affect comprehension in monolinguals and heritage speakers, and how individual differences shape heritage speakers’ language processing abilities.

Item Type:	Article
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID ORCID Put Code Büyükyıldırım, Nisa UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED Özceçelik, Özce UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED Uygun, Serkan UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED Özsoy, Onur UNSPECIFIED https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3617-4697 UNSPECIFIED
URN:	urn:nbn:de:hbz:38-746210
Identification Number:	10.1007/s41809-025-00173-x
Journal or Publication Title:	Journal of cultural cognitive science
Series Name at the University of Cologne:	boasblogs papers
Volume:	9
Page Range:	pp. 291-308
Number of Pages:	80
Date:	8 July 2025
Publisher:	Springer Nature
ISSN:	2520-1018
Language:	English
Faculty:	Faculty of Arts and Humanities
Divisions:	Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Fächergruppe 3: Deutsche Sprache und Literatur > Institut für Deutsche Sprache und Literatur I
Subjects:	Social sciences Language, Linguistics
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Keywords Language Turkish ; Heritage speakers ; Heritage language ; Grammatical aspect ; Language processing ; Individual differences English
['eprint_fieldname_oa_funders' not defined]:	Publikationsfonds UzK
Refereed:	Yes
URI:	http://kups.ub.uni-koeln.de/id/eprint/74621