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Syntactic Priming As a Test of Argument Structure: A Self-paced Reading Experiment
Using data from a behavioral structural priming experiment, we test two competing theoretical approaches to argument structure, which attribute different configurations to (in)transitive structures. These approaches make different claims about the relationship between unergatives and transitive stru...
Autores principales: | , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Frontiers Media S.A.
2017
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5559723/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28861010 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01311 |
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author | Oltra-Massuet, Isabel Sharpe, Victoria Neophytou, Kyriaki Marantz, Alec |
author_facet | Oltra-Massuet, Isabel Sharpe, Victoria Neophytou, Kyriaki Marantz, Alec |
author_sort | Oltra-Massuet, Isabel |
collection | PubMed |
description | Using data from a behavioral structural priming experiment, we test two competing theoretical approaches to argument structure, which attribute different configurations to (in)transitive structures. These approaches make different claims about the relationship between unergatives and transitive structures selecting either a DP complement or a small clause complement in structurally unambiguous sentences, thus making different predictions about priming relations between them. Using statistical tools that combine a factorial 6 × 6 within subjects ANOVA, a mixed effects ANCOVA and a linear mixed effects regression model, we report syntactic priming effects in comprehension, which suggest a stronger predictive contribution of a model that supports an interpretive semantics view of syntax, whereby syntactic structures do not necessarily reflect argument/event structure in semantically unambiguous configurations. They also contribute novel experimental evidence that correlate representational complexity with language processing in the mind and brain. Our study further upholds the validity of combining quantitative methods and theoretical approaches to linguistics for advancing our knowledge of syntactic phenomena. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-5559723 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2017 |
publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-55597232017-08-31 Syntactic Priming As a Test of Argument Structure: A Self-paced Reading Experiment Oltra-Massuet, Isabel Sharpe, Victoria Neophytou, Kyriaki Marantz, Alec Front Psychol Psychology Using data from a behavioral structural priming experiment, we test two competing theoretical approaches to argument structure, which attribute different configurations to (in)transitive structures. These approaches make different claims about the relationship between unergatives and transitive structures selecting either a DP complement or a small clause complement in structurally unambiguous sentences, thus making different predictions about priming relations between them. Using statistical tools that combine a factorial 6 × 6 within subjects ANOVA, a mixed effects ANCOVA and a linear mixed effects regression model, we report syntactic priming effects in comprehension, which suggest a stronger predictive contribution of a model that supports an interpretive semantics view of syntax, whereby syntactic structures do not necessarily reflect argument/event structure in semantically unambiguous configurations. They also contribute novel experimental evidence that correlate representational complexity with language processing in the mind and brain. Our study further upholds the validity of combining quantitative methods and theoretical approaches to linguistics for advancing our knowledge of syntactic phenomena. Frontiers Media S.A. 2017-08-15 /pmc/articles/PMC5559723/ /pubmed/28861010 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01311 Text en Copyright © 2017 Oltra-Massuet, Sharpe, Neophytou and Marantz. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. |
spellingShingle | Psychology Oltra-Massuet, Isabel Sharpe, Victoria Neophytou, Kyriaki Marantz, Alec Syntactic Priming As a Test of Argument Structure: A Self-paced Reading Experiment |
title | Syntactic Priming As a Test of Argument Structure: A Self-paced Reading Experiment |
title_full | Syntactic Priming As a Test of Argument Structure: A Self-paced Reading Experiment |
title_fullStr | Syntactic Priming As a Test of Argument Structure: A Self-paced Reading Experiment |
title_full_unstemmed | Syntactic Priming As a Test of Argument Structure: A Self-paced Reading Experiment |
title_short | Syntactic Priming As a Test of Argument Structure: A Self-paced Reading Experiment |
title_sort | syntactic priming as a test of argument structure: a self-paced reading experiment |
topic | Psychology |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5559723/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28861010 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01311 |
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