Watching subtitled video requires attention distribution between moving images, speech, and written text, yet little is known about the earliest stages of subtitle processing. This study examines how viewer (L1 vs L2) and subtitle length influence subtitle skipping, two latency measures (time to first fixation and processing latency, the latter indexing the initiation of reading after initial corrective saccades), and early saccadic eye movements at subtitle onset (refixations, regressions, standard and corrective forward saccades, and vertical corrective saccades). In an eye-tracking experiment, ninety-five hearing participants (37 L1-English and 58 L2-English) watched English-language clips with same-language subtitles. Subtitles shorter than 15 characters were more likely to be skipped in both language groups, raising concerns about their readability. Both latency measures increased with subtitle length. Additionally, L2 viewers moved their gaze to longer subtitles more slowly than L1 viewers. L2 viewers also produced fewer corrective forward saccades and more refixations than L1 viewers. Finally, longer subtitles reduced the likelihood of refixations and vertical corrective saccades in both groups. These findings demonstrate that the earliest stages of subtitle processing are constrained by both subtitle length and viewer language, with implications for subtitling guidelines, accessibility, and language-learning applications.

The present paper provides an overview of articulatory complexity and articulatory difficulty in speech production, with a focus on their relevance to acquisition, sound change, and disordered speech. These constructs are important because structures described as articulatorily complex often show distinct production patterns: they may be acquired later, produced less accurately by speakers with speech disorders, or be more susceptible to diachronic change. However, understanding when articulatory complexity has an explanatory role in speech production requires not only assessing degrees of complexity but also determining when complex movements result in articulatory consequences. Researchers have operationalized articulatory complexity in several ways, but existing metrics do not always yield the same predictions. This paper reviews major approaches to establishing articulatory complexity and evaluates commonly used complexity scales. Particular attention is given to the limitations of these scales, especially when they are interpreted as measures of articulatory difficulty. The review concludes by examining experimental methods for assessing articulatory difficulty more directly. I argue that such methods provide a more reliable basis for establishing the relationship between complexity, difficulty, and observed production patterns.

Research has shown a processing advantage for multiword sequences (MWS) in both first language (L1) and second language (L2) speakers over novel word combinations. However, whether this advantage holds for different types of MWS for both groups is not known. We used a self-paced reading paradigm combined with a stop-making-sense task to investigate the processing of idioms used figuratively (e.g., “gray area”), idioms used literally, collocations (e.g., “vast area”), and novel combinations (e.g., “rare area”), in both L1 and L2 speakers. In line with previous findings, both L1 and L2 speakers read collocations faster than novel word combinations. Only L1 speakers showed a processing advantage for idioms used figuratively over collocations after controlling for distributional factors (e.g., phrase-level frequency, familiarity, and contextual predictability), suggesting that semantic conventionality facilitates direct retrieval of idiomatic meanings. L2 speakers with lower proficiency did not show an advantage for idioms used figuratively but exhibited faster reading for idioms used literally over idioms used figuratively. While the meaning dominance of idioms did not exert an effect, greater idiom decomposability facilitated processing. Together, these findings indicate that, while frequency effects broadly support MWS processing, L2 speakers rely on compositional analysis in idiom comprehension more than L1 speakers.