Processing ambiguous Spanish se in a minimal chain

The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology : QJEP
Enrique MeseguerManuel Carreiras

Abstract

The recovery of pieces of information that are not linguistically expressed is a constant feature of the process of language comprehension. In the processing literature, such missing information is generally referred to as "gaps". Usually, one resolves gaps by finding "fillers" in either the sentence or the context. For instance, in Peter seemed to be upset, Peter is really the subject of being upset but appears as surface subject of seems. Sometimes constituents move, leaving gaps behind. Various Romance languages such as Spanish or Italian have a grammatical particle se/si, which, as it is extremely ambiguous, licenses different sorts of gaps. In Spanish, se can encode at least reflexive, impersonal, and passive meanings. In an eye-tracking experiment we contrast reflexive structures containing postverbal subjects with impersonal structures with no subjects (GAP se vendó apresuradamente el corredor/"the runner bandaged himself hurriedly" vs. GAP se vendó apresuradamente al corridor/"(someone) bandaged the runner hurriedly"). In a second manipulation we contrast the presence of an extra argument with se-passives (GAP se vendó el tobillo el corredor/"the runner bandaged his ankle" vs. GAP se vendó el tobillo al corridor/"the ru...Continue Reading

References

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Mar 10, 2000·Journal of Psycholinguistic Research·S FeatherstonH Clahsen
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Aug 20, 2002·Memory & Cognition·Enrique MeseguerCharles Clifton
Dec 12, 2003·Cognition·Roger P G van Gompel, Asifa Majid
Mar 6, 2007·Cognition·Sükrü Bariş DemiralIna Bornkessel-Schlesewsky
Jan 23, 2008·Journal of Memory and Language·Julie A Van Dyke, Brian McElree

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