Abstract
Two visual-world eyetracking experiments were conducted to investigate whether, how, and when syntactic and semantic constraints are integrated and used to predict properties of subsequent input. Experiment 1 contrasted auditory German constructions such as, The hare-nominative eats ... (the cabbage-acc) versus The hare-accusative eats ... (the fox-nom), presented with a picture containing a hare, fox, cabbage, and distractor. We found that the probabilities of the eye movements to the cabbage and fox before the onset of NP2 were modulated by the case-marking of NP1, indicating that the case-marking (syntactic) information and verbs'' semantic constraints are integrated rapidly enough to predict the most plausible NP2 in the scene. Using English versions of the same stimuli in active/passive voice (Experiment 2), we replicated the same effect, but at a slightly earlier position in the sentence. We discuss the discrepancies in the two Germanic languages in terms of the ease of integrating information across, or within, constituents.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 37-55 |
Number of pages | 19 |
Journal | Journal of Psycholinguistic Research |
Volume | 32 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Jan 2003 |
Keywords
- Sentence processing
- Anticipatory eye movements
- Visual-world paradigm
- Prediction
- Germanic languages