CiteULike: briordan's theres

Agreement Restrictions

2008-07-07T10:48:50-00:00

(2008)

Type noun uses in the English NP: A case of right to left layering

Kristin Davidse — 2008-06-07T11:25:30-00:00

International Journal of Corpus Linguistics, Vol. 13, No. 2. (2008), pp. 139-168.

There is secondary predication in there-existentials

Dalina Kallulli — 2008-05-22T02:59:00-00:00

(2008), pp. 279-287.

There's two ways to say it: Modeling nonprestige there's

Brian Riordan — 2008-04-08T02:10:25-00:00

Corpus Linguistics and Linguistic Theory, Vol. 3, No. 2. (December 2007), pp. 233-279.

The Syntax of Agreement and Concord

Mark Baker — 2008-03-09T02:19:33-00:00

(2008)

Revisiting Snodgrass and Vanderwart's object pictorial set: The role of surface detail in basic-level object recognition

B Rossion — 2008-02-14T18:03:34-00:00

Perception, Vol. 33, No. 2. (2004), pp. 217-236.

Variation and Morphosyntactic Theory: Competition Fractionated

David Embick — 2007-12-29T01:20:27-00:00

Language and Linguistics Compass, Vol. 0, No. 0. (0), pp. ???-???.

Abstract The study of the ‘dynamic’ aspects of language - variation and change - and the development of grammatical theory are often pursued independently of one another. Concentrating on morphosyntax, this article explores connections between these domains that are centered on the notion of ‘competition’. When the relationship between competition for grammaticality and competition for use is articulated, it is clear that grammar competition models of variation and change are connected directly to specific theoretical approaches to synchronic grammar.

The Grammaticalization of Small Size Nouns: Reconsidering Frequency and Analogy

Lieselotte Brems — 2007-12-27T03:32:44-00:00

Journal of English Linguistics, Vol. 35, No. 4. (1 December 2007), pp. 293-324.

This article discusses the grammaticalized status of low-frequency small size nouns (henceforth SSNs), such as jot of, scrap of, and flicker of, which cannot have engaged in the spiral routinization processes with attrition, decategorialization, and grammatical reanalysis characteristic of "default" grammaticalization. The proposal to account for the grammatical status of low-frequency complex prepositions in terms of grammaticalization by analogy is partially rejected. Corpus studies on nine SSNs show that mere analogy with one highly schematic construction, a+SSN+of, as instantiated by frequent a bit of, cannot be the sole factor involved in the grammaticalization of infrequent SSNs. Instead, more complex analogies with different quantifier models are involved which incorporate polarity sensitivity, similar to some and any, and which seem to serve as distant models in these analogies. However, in contrast to some and any, which can be used generally in quantifying contexts, the infrequent SSNs are further characterized by specific collocational and pragmatic values, and their appearance seems restricted to particular discourse contexts. More generally, the present article supports the claim that grammaticalization as such directly works on and results in (at least partially) substantive constructions, rather than schematic ones. It furthermore makes a claim for caution in describing what serves as a source for analogical extension, both in terms of describing all of the factors that come into play and deciding on the specific level of schematicity at which these need to be described. 10.1177/0075424207307597

"When stones falls": a conceptual-functional account of subject-verb agreement in Persian

Farzad Sharifian — 2007-12-17T01:41:30-00:00

Language Sciences, Vol. 29, No. 6. (November 2007), pp. 787-803.

Most linguistic studies of subject-verb agreement have thus far attempted to account for this phenomenon in terms of either syntax or semantics. Kim (2004) [Kim, J., 2004. Hybrid agreement in English. Linguistics 42 (6), 1105-1128] proposes a `hybrid analysis', which allows for a morphosyntactic agreement and a semantic agreement within the same sentence. In this paper we propose that conceptual-functional views of language may provide a powerful and complementary approach to the `hybrid analysis' approach. Drawing on data from subject-verb agreement in Persian, we show how the choice between plural and singular verb endings may reflect a speaker's construal of an event. In particular it appears that the construal resolution/level of schematicity has a bearing on subject-verb agreement patterns. It is argued that linguistic devices that are often described as `optional' in descriptive grammars may in fact be motivated and sensitive to conceptualisation of experience.

Predicting the dative alternation

Joan Bresnan — 2007-12-14T16:17:56-00:00

pp. 69-94.

Analyzing `visual world' eyetracking data using multilevel logistic regression

Dale Barr — 2007-12-10T12:41:36-00:00

Journal of Memory and Language, Vol. In Press, Corrected Proof

A new framework is offered that uses multilevel logistic regression (MLR) to analyze data from `visual world' eyetracking experiments used in psycholinguistic research. The MLR framework overcomes some of the problems with conventional analyses, making it possible to incorporate time as a continuous variable and gaze location as a categorical dependent variable. The multilevel approach minimizes the need for data aggregation and thus provides a more statistically powerful approach. With MLR, the researcher builds a mathematical model of the overall response curve that separates the response into different temporal components. The researcher can test hypotheses by examining the impact of independent variables and their interactions on these components. A worked example using MLR is provided.

Notional number agreement in English

Karin Humphreys — 2007-12-08T19:29:19-00:00

pp. 689-695.

To investigate the contested role of notional number in English subject–verb agreement, we used a sentence completion task to examine agreement with minimally different subject noun-phrases, such as the gang on the motorcycles and the gang near the motorcycles. These contrasting phrases biased different notional construals of collective nouns, such as gang, which are normally ambiguous between plural (distributed) and singular (collected) construals. With subjects biased toward spatial distribution, such as gang on motorcycles, more plural verbs occurred in speakers' sentence completions than in sentence completions with a bias toward spatial collection, such as gang near motorcycles. This offers strong evidence regarding both the existence and the magnitude of notional effects on subject–verb number agreement in English.

Anticipating Words and Their Gender: An Event-related Brain Potential Study of Semantic Integration, Gender Expectancy, and Gender Agreement in Spanish Sentence Reading

Nicole Wicha — 2007-12-04T21:46:41-00:00

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, Vol. 16, No. 7. (September 2004), pp. 1272-1288.

Linguistic Gender and Spoken-Word Recognition in French

Delphine Dahan — 2007-06-06T17:32:28-00:00

Journal of Memory and Language, Vol. 42, No. 4. (May 2000), pp. 465-480.

Eye movements were monitored as French participants followed spoken instructions to use a computer mouse to click on one of four displayed pictures. Experiment 1 demonstrated that, in the absence of grammatical gender in the context preceding the referent name [e.g., cliquez sur les boutons (click on the(plural neut.) buttons(masc.))], participants fixated pictures with names sharing initial sounds with the target [e.g., bouteilles (bottles(fem.))] more than on pictures with phonologically unrelated names, replicating "cohort" effects previously found with this paradigm. When a gender-marked article immediately preceded the noun [e.g., cliquez sur le bouton (click on the(masc.) button)], the early activation of the gender-inconsistent cohort was completely eliminated (Experiment 2). This demonstrates that the set of candidates initially considered for recognition of the noun is constrained by the gender-marked article. Two alternative accounts of these results, one based on grammatical level of processing and the other based on form-based statistics, are discussed.

Eye Movements and Lexical Access in Spoken-Language Comprehension: Evaluating a Linking Hypothesis between Fixations and Linguistic Processing

Michael Tanenhaus — 2006-08-07T20:46:39-00:00

Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, Vol. 29, No. 6. (November 2000), pp. 557-580.

The role of hierarchical structure in agreement interference

Julie Franck — 2007-12-04T02:27:56-00:00

(2006)

Monitoring of subject-verb agreement errors in comprehension: An ERP study

Els Severens — 2007-12-04T02:25:24-00:00

(2007)

Facilitatory and inhibitory effects of grammatical agreement: Evidence from readers' eye fixation patterns

Seppo Vainio — 2007-12-04T02:22:06-00:00

Brain and Language, Vol. 85, No. 2. (May 2003), pp. 197-202.

The study examined how grammatical agreement affects reading in Finnish. Readers' eye fixation patterns were recorded when they read one of three alternative versions of the same sentences, where the critical difference was the type of preceding word of the target nouns. The preceding word was (a) an agreeing modifier (mainioksi ORKESTERIKSI=`for an excellent orchestra'), (b) a non-agreeing modifier that was grammatical, unambiguous and synonymous to the agreeing modifier (kelpo ORKESTERIKSI=`for an excellent orchestra'), or (c) a baseline condition without a modifier (orkesteriksi=`for an orchestra'). Two different types of agreement were used, a modifier-head agreement and a possessive agreement. The results showed that the agreeing modifiers facilitate and the non-agreeing modifiers inhibit the reading of the target nouns compared to the neutral baseline condition. These effects appeared in the second-pass reading. The pattern was similar between the two agreement structures.

Anticipation of clause-final heads: Evidence from eye-tracking and SRNs

Lars Konieczny — 2007-12-04T02:20:42-00:00

(2003)

Young Children Learning Spanish Make Rapid Use of Grammatical Gender in Spoken Word Recognition

Casey Lew-Williams — 2007-04-17T11:42:44-00:00

Psychological Science, Vol. 18, No. 3. (March 2007), pp. 193-198.

Investigating the Effects of Distance and Number Interference in Processing Subject-Verb Dependencies: An ERP Study

Edith Kaan — 2007-12-04T02:09:32-00:00

Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, Vol. 31, No. 2. (1 March 2002), pp. 165-193.

Event-related potentials (ERPs) were used to investigate whether the processing of subject-verb dependencies is influenced by (1) the linear distance between the subject and the verb and (2) the presence of an intervening noun phrase with interfering number features. Linear distance did not affect integration and diagnosis or revision processes at the verb, as indexed by early negative and P600 components. This is in accordance with hierarchy-based models of reanalysis, but is problematic for distance-based integration models. However, tracking of the subject features is affected by linear factors: more judgment errors were made in the long compared to the short condition. Furthermore, the presence of a plural object between the singular subject and the verb led to more judgment errors, and an enhanced positivity around 250 ms for the grammatical verbs. This suggests that linear factors affect feature tracking, but not integration processes following feature retrieval or repair processes following the detection of a mismatch.

Incremental Effects of Mismatch during Picture-Sentence Integration: Evidence from Eye-tracking

Pia Knoeferle — 2007-12-04T02:04:52-00:00

(2005)

“They” as a gender-unspecified singular pronoun: Eye tracking reveals a processing cost

Anthony Sanford — 2007-12-04T02:02:10-00:00

The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, Vol. 60, No. 2. (2007), pp. 171-178.

The plural pronouns they and them are used to refer to individuals with unknown gender and when a random allocation of gender is undesirable. Despite this apparently felicitous usage, “singular they/them” should raise processing problems under the theory that pronouns seek gender- and number-matched antecedents. Using eye-tracking, we investigated whether there was any processing cost associated with using singular they/them. There was a clear cost of number incompatibility for they/them. Thus, although singular they/them is in current usage, it does not appear that they/them is immediately tolerant of a plural antecedent, though such may be rapidly accommodated. The data are consistent with the search account of pronoun resolution and preserve the semantics of they/them as denoting plurality.

Grammatical Gender and Number Agreement in Spanish: An ERP Comparison

Horacio Barber — 2007-12-04T01:55:58-00:00

J. Cogn. Neurosci., Vol. 17, No. 1. (1 January 2005), pp. 137-153.

The role of grammatical gender and number representations in syntactic processes during reading in Spanish was studied using the event-related potentials (ERPs) technique. The electroencephalogram was recorded with a dense array of 128 electrodes while Spanish speakers read word pairs (Experiment 1) or sentences (Experiment 2) in which gender or number agreement relationships were manipulated. Disagreement in word pairs formed by a noun and an adjective (e.g., faro-alto [lighthouse-high]) produced an N400-type effect, while word pairs formed by an article and a noun (e.g., el-piano [the-piano]) showed an additional left anterior negativity effect (LAN). Agreement violations with the same words inserted in sentences (e.g., El piano estaba viejo y desafinado [the m-s piano m-s was old m-s and off-key]) resulted in a pattern of LAN-P600. This effect was found both when the violation occurred in the middle of the sentence (at the adjective), as well as when this happened at the beginning of the sentence (at the noun), but the last segment of the P600 effect was greater for the middle sentence position, which could indicate differences in the complexity of reanalysis processes. Differences between grammatical gender and number disagreement were found in late measures. In the word pairs experiment, P3 peak latency varied across conditions, being later for gender than for number disagreement. Similarly, in the sentence experiment, the last segment of the P600 effect was greater for gender than for number violations. These event-related potentials (ERPs) effects lend support to the idea that reanalysis or repair processes after grammatical disagreement detection could involve more steps in the case of gender disagreement, as grammatical gender is a feature of the lexical representation in contrast to number, which is considered a morphological feature that combines with the stem of the word.

Number agreement in reading comprehension: Grammatical and conceptual factors in pronoun vs. verb agreement

Hamutal Kreiner — 2007-12-04T01:17:37-00:00

(2007)

Is this a dax which I see before me? Use of the logical argument disjunctive syllogism supports word-learning in children and adults

Justin Halberda — 2006-10-26T18:08:43-00:00

Cognitive Psychology, Vol. 53, No. 4. (December 2006), pp. 310-344.

Many authors have argued that word-learning constraints help guide a word-learner's hypotheses as to the meaning of a newly heard word. One such class of constraints derives from the observation that word-learners of all ages prefer to map novel labels to novel objects in situations of referential ambiguity. In this paper I use eye-tracking to document the mental computations that support this word-learning strategy. Adults and preschoolers saw images of known and novel objects, and were asked to find the referent of known and novel labels. Experiment 1 shows that adults systematically reject a known distractor (e.g. brush) before mapping a novel label (e.g. "dax") to a novel object. This is consistent with the proposal that participants worked through a Disjunctive Syllogism (i.e. Process-of-Elimination) to motivate the mapping of the novel label to the novel object. Experiment 2 shows that processing is similar for adults performing an implicit Disjunctive Syllogism (e.g. "the winner is the dax") and an explicit Disjunctive Syllogism (e.g. "the winner is not the iron"). Experiment 3 reveals that similar processes govern preschoolers' mapping of novel labels. Taken together, these results suggest that word-learners use Disjunctive Syllogism to motivate the mapping of novel labels to novel objects.

Acquisition of English Number Marking: The Singular-Plural Distinction

Sid Kouider — 2007-11-04T03:40:42-00:00

Language Learning and Development, Vol. 2, No. 1. (2006)

Compound words and structure in the lexicon

Robert Fiorentino — 2007-10-17T02:09:00-00:00

Language and Cognitive Processes, Vol. 22, No. 7. (2007), pp. 1-48.

The structure of lexical entries and the status of lexical decomposition remain controversial. In the psycholinguistic literature, one aspect of this debate concerns the psychological reality of the morphological complexity difference between compound words (teacup) and single words (crescent). The present study investigates morphological decomposition in compound words using visual lexical decision with simultaneous magnetoencephalography (MEG), comparing compounds, single words, and pseudomorphemic foils. The results support an account of lexical processing which includes early decomposition of morphologically complex words into constituents. The behavioural differences suggest internally structured representations for compound words, and the early effects of constituents in the electrophysiological signal support the hypothesis of early morphological parsing. These findings add to a growing literature suggesting that the lexicon includes structured representations, consistent with previous findings supporting early morphological parsing using other tasks. The results do not favour two putative constraints, word length and lexicalisation, on early morphological-structure based computation.

The tug of war between phonological, semantic and shape information in language-mediated visual search

Falk Huettig — 2007-10-05T02:21:54-00:00

Journal of Memory and Language, Vol. 57, No. 4. (November 2007), pp. 460-482.

Experiments 1 and 2 examined the time-course of retrieval of phonological, visual-shape and semantic knowledge as Dutch participants listened to sentences and looked at displays of four pictures. Given a sentence with beker, `beaker', for example, the display contained phonological (a beaver, bever), shape (a bobbin, klos), and semantic (a fork, vork) competitors. When the display appeared at sentence onset, fixations to phonological competitors preceded fixations to shape and semantic competitors. When display onset was 200 ms before (e.g.) beker, fixations were directed to shape and then semantic competitors, but not phonological competitors. In Experiments 3 and 4, displays contained the printed names of the previously-pictured entities; only phonological competitors were fixated preferentially. These findings suggest that retrieval of phonological, shape and semantic knowledge in the spoken-word and picture-recognition systems is cascaded, and that visual attention shifts are co-determined by the time-course of retrieval of all three knowledge types and by the nature of the information in the visual environment.

Do you agree? Electrophysiological characterization of online agreement checking during the comprehension of correct French passive sentences

Michel Hoen — 2007-09-24T01:14:44-00:00

Journal of Neurolinguistics, Vol. 20, No. 5. (September 2007), pp. 395-421.

With this research we investigated the real-time electrophysiological correlates of noun-verb agreement checking during the comprehension of correct passive sentences in French. Event-related potentials were acquired while participants read passive sentences that contained covert (singular, masculine) or overt (plural, feminine) noun-verb agreement. Results show that the processing of overtly or covertly agreeing verbs in passive sentences is associated with an asymmetrical electrophysiological response, reflecting former psycholinguistic evidence of markedness and unmarkedness of certain features. The reading of an overtly marked verb agreeing in number and gender with a feminine plural subject was associated with a left anterior negativity (LAN), whereas covertly marked verbs were associated with a negativity presenting a central-posterior distribution, an N400. These results, confirming the lexical status of features and their immediate but asymmetrical checking during sentence comprehension are discussed in the context of current linguistic and psycholinguistic models of agreement checking.

Effects of prosodically modulated sub-phonetic variation on lexical competition.

Anne Pier Salverda — 2007-05-07T16:13:38-00:00

Cognition (1 December 2006)

Eye movements were monitored as participants followed spoken instructions to manipulate one of four objects pictured on a computer screen. Target words occurred in utterance-medial (e.g., Put the cap next to the square) or utterance-final position (e.g., Now click on the cap). Displays consisted of the target picture (e.g., a cap), a monosyllabic competitor picture (e.g., a cat), a polysyllabic competitor picture (e.g., a captain) and a distractor (e.g., a beaker). The relative proportion of fixations to the two types of competitor pictures changed as a function of the position of the target word in the utterance, demonstrating that lexical competition is modulated by prosodically conditioned phonetic variation.

Rhythmic alternation and the optional complementiser in English: New evidence of phonological influence on grammatical encoding

Ming-Wei Lee — 2007-09-22T01:31:47-00:00

Cognition, Vol. 105, No. 2. (November 2007), pp. 446-456.

In a recall-based spoken production experiment, native English-speaking participants' variable use of the complementiser that to introduce the sentential complement in sentences like Henry knew (that) Lucy/Louise washed the dishes was found to be related to whether that inclusion/omission resulted in an alternating sequence of stressed and unstressed syllables between the verb of the main clause and the subject of the complement clause. This finding is discussed in relation to the question of whether and how phonological encoding can influence grammatical encoding in spoken language production.