Eye-tracking context formality effects in German and Japanese sentence processing

Context information can rapidly affect language processing. Yet, whether this holds for social information like respect and formality (e.g., talking to a teacher vs. student), and across languages adhering differently to social hierarchy (German vs. Japanese) is unclear. We manipulated (in)congruence of formality (match vs. mismatch) in German and formality-style (matching or mismatching social respect) in Japanese. Participants encountered context-target sentence pairs (mis)matching in formality (German), or within-sentence formality-style (mis)match (Japanese). For Japanese, another factor ‘style’ (exalted vs. humble) created this mismatch (e.g., exalted style matches actions by a teacher but not student). For German, (in)congruence between subject and verb inflection served as a morphosyntactic baseline: we expected rapid effects. Longer first-pass times for mismatches than matches at the first mismatching word would indicate immediate formality processing. In German, formality mismatch effects emerged later, and in later measures, compared to first-pass morphosyntactic mismatch effects. In Japanese, formality-style effects emerged at the first mismatching word in a “late” measure (only for exalted style), in first fixation duration, post-verbally. Our results contribute to characterizing formality effects across languages that differ in their adherence to social hierarchy, and in which social markers in language are (Japanese) versus are not (German) part of grammar.