Eye-Tracking and Corpus-Based Analyses of Syntax-Semantics Interactions in Complement Coercion

Language, Cognition and Neuroscience
Matthew W Lowder, Peter C Gordon

Abstract

Previous work has shown that the difficulty associated with processing complex semantic expressions is reduced when the critical constituents appear in separate clauses as opposed to when they appear together in the same clause. We investigated this effect further, focusing in particular on complement coercion, in which an event-selecting verb (e.g., began) combines with a complement that represents an entity (e.g., began the memo). Experiment 1 compared reading times for coercion versus control expressions when the critical verb and complement appeared together in a subject-extracted relative clause (SRC) (e.g., The secretary that began/wrote the memo) compared to when they appeared together in a simple sentence. Readers spent more time processing coercion expressions than control expressions, replicating the typical coercion cost. In addition, readers spent less time processing the verb and complement in SRCs than in simple sentences; however, the magnitude of the coercion cost did not depend on sentence structure. In contrast, Experiment 2 showed that the coercion cost was reduced when the complement appeared as the head of an object-extracted relative clause (ORC) (e.g., The memo that the secretary began/wrote) compared to ...Continue Reading

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Citations

Nov 19, 2020·Journal of Psycholinguistic Research·Wenting Xue, Meichun Liu
Sep 8, 2021·Cognitive Science·Matthew W Lowder, Peter C Gordon

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