Processing of Causal Discourse Connectives in a Second Language: Dutch Want versus Omdat

This is a proposal of a study which aims to investigate the way advanced
English-speaking learners of Dutch process subjective and objective backward
causal relations marked by want and omdat. An eye-tracking study is proposed to
examine this. Although both English and Dutch native speakers show a slowdown
in processing when reading subjective backward causal relations in their native
language, this slowdown is observed at a dif ferent position. In English, it is observed
at the main verb, while in Dutch, it occurs earlier, directly af ter reading the connective
want. It is hypothesized that English-speaking learners of Dutch show L1 transfer
when processing backward causal relations. Thus, it is expected that the data will
show a slowdown in processing at the main verb, which indicates that Englishspeakinglearners of Dutch are unable to use the subtle dif ferences between want and
omdat immediately during processing.