The semantic structure of a verb is determined by the number and the type of case-relations in its case-frame. Three experiments examined the effect these two factors had on the retrievalspeed of case-relations in some Japanese verb-noun pairs. In Exp. 1, 56 undergraduate and graduate students responded more rapidly to the verbs with less number of case-relations, but detailed analysis suggested that the type rather than the number of case-relations could explain the variance of data more adequately. In Exps. 2 and 3, 64 undergraduate and graduate students responded more rapidly to the verb-noun pairs of Objective case-relation than to those of Agentive or Instrumental case-relations; this confirmed the importance of the type of case-relations, especially of Objective case-relation in the semantic structure of verbs. As Agentive and Instrumental case-relations presuppose the participation of an animate agent in the action whereas Objective does not, the dominance of the Objective case-relation may imply that the understanding of a causal relation involving an animate agent is secondary to the process of the understanding of descriptive phenomena.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
customersupport@researchsolutions.com
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.