Language dependency in parsing: Evidence from monolingual and bilingual processing

Language dependency in parsing results when the parsing strategies used by bilinguals depend on the language of the input, in the case that cross-ling uistic differences in processing exist. If bilingual parsing is language in dependent, on the other hand, bilinguals will process all input using the s ame strategies-those of L1, those of L2, or an amalgamated or compromised s et of L1 and L2 strategies. This discussion evaluates existing research on bilingual processing, regarding how well it addresses questions related to the language dependency issue, as well as recent research on cross-linguist ic differences in parsing. As a preview into the future of bilingual senten ce processing research, this paper also reports preliminary evidence on bil ingual sentence processing which shows thar language history strongly influ ences strategy use in the second language of bilinguals.