Complement Coercion as the Processing of Aspectual Verbs: Evidence from Self-paced Reading and fMRI

Lai, Ying–Cheng; Lacadie, Cheryl; Constable, R. Todd; Deo, Ashwini; Piñango, Maria Mercedes

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-45977-6_8

Cited by 47 publications

(15 citation statements)

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“…The eye-movement results show that processing aspectual-verb sentences engendered more cost as compared to controls, replicating previous studies on this verb class (Katsika et al, 2012;Lai et al, 2017a;Zarcone et al, 2017). The cost revealed itself in the regions containing the critical verb, the complement head, and a few words following it.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 86%

“…According to the Structured Individual Hypothesis (SIH, Lai et al, 2017a), semantic analysis of aspectual-verb sentences presented above is implemented over two sub-processes during real-time comprehension: (1) exhaustive retrieval of the aspectual verb's lexical functions and (2) subsequent resolution of dimension ambiguity. Previous evidence for this processing implementation comes from Lai et al's (2017a) self-paced reading and fMRI study.…”

Section: Hypothesis Of Processing Sentences With Aspectual Verbsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Whereas previous studies have shown that comprehension of sentences containing aspectual verbs (as compared to sentences containing psychological verbs, such as enjoy and love) engenders addi-tional processing cost and localizable cortical activity (DiNardo, 2015;Katsika et al, 2012;Lai et al, 2017a), the process by which context interacts with the comprehension process for the purposes of disambiguation is not well understood. 1 Regarding the time-course of context e↵ect during comprehension of underspecified meaning manifested by aspectualverb sentences, we consider three distinct possibilities: (i) immediate interaction indicated by absence of cost under biasing context, (ii) delayed interaction indicated by presence of cost under biasing context that disappears soon after the verb and the complement have been retrieved, and (iii) extrasentential interaction indicated by presence of cost under biasing context that remains well after the complement has been retrieved.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%

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The time-course of context modulation for underspecified meaning: an eye-movement study

Lai¹,

Braze²,

Mm³

2019

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Sentences such as “The pop singer began the album” are ambiguous between an agentive reading (The pop singer began recording/listening to/etc. the album) and a constitutive reading (The pop singer’s song was contained in the first track of the album). The ambiguity is rooted in the meaning specification of a semantic class, the “aspectual verb class.” This semantic verb class demands that its complement be construed as a structured individual along a dimension (e.g., spatial, informational, eventive...). In the case of “begin the album,” the complement “the album” can be construed as a set of singing eventualities (a structured individual construed along the eventive dimension) or as a set of songs (a structured individual construed along the informational dimension). Previous work has shown that real-time sentence composition profile of these verbs is consistent with the implementation of two processes (a) exhaustive lexical-function retrieval and (b) construal of multiple dimension-specific structured individuals, leading to agentive and constitutive readings. Which dimension-specific structured individual is chosen ultimately depends on which dimension biases are present in the context. Understanding the real-time behavior of aspectual-verb composition under different contexts (agentive vs. constitutive) provides a glimpse into the time-course of context modulation during real-time sentence comprehension. Results from an eye-tracking study comparing agentive vs. constitutive readings of these sentences show not only the standard effect of the aspectual-verb composition, previously reported for the agentive readings, but also a comparable processing profile for the constitutive readings, a novel finding supporting the unified linguistic analysis and corresponding processing implementation of the two readings. Results also show that regardless of reading, the aspectual-verb composition effect is observable even after the complement has been retrieved, and interpretation has been disambiguated, thus indicating that the above two-step process is a nonnegotiable component of the interpretation of the verb+complement composition and therefore must take place before preceding context can serve as a sentence-external constraining force. Moreover, the sustained nature of the cost suggests that all possible dimension-specific structured individuals are being construed at least immediately after the complement has been retrieved, consistent with comprehenders’ intuitions. This suggests that although not directly relevant for the interpretation at issue those meaning construals are not incompatible with the complement’s conceptual representation, and therefore need not be “pruned.” Overall, the pattern observed suggests a model of comprehension whereby context is allowed to modulate sentence interpretation once the fundamental lexico-semantic compositional processes of the sentence have taken place.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 86%

Section: Hypothesis Of Processing Sentences With Aspectual Verbsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%

See 1 more Smart Citation

The time-course of context modulation for underspecified meaning: an eye-movement study

Lai¹,

Braze²,

Mm³

2019

Preprint

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“…This, in combination with the minimal contrasts in the linguistic manipulation between conditions, presence/absence of GAP and presence/absence of direct antecedent-GAP link, allows us to isolate simple phrase-structure building from active GAP-search and from GAP-completion , respectively. The details of the experimental design and data analysis are presented directly below (see Lai et al, in press for a similar use of event-related design in the context of semantic composition).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Localization of Long-Distance Dependency Components: Integrating the Focal-lesion and Neuroimaging Record

et al. 2016

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In the sentence “The captain who the sailor greeted is tall,” the connection between the relative pronoun and the object position of greeted represents a long-distance dependency (LDD), necessary for the interpretation of “the captain” as the individual being greeted. Whereas the lesion-based record shows preferential involvement of only the left inferior frontal (LIF) cortex, associated with Broca's aphasia, during real-time comprehension of LDDs, the neuroimaging record shows additional involvement of the left posterior superior temporal (LPST) and lower parietal cortices, which are associated with Wernicke's aphasia. We test the hypothesis that this localization incongruence emerges from an interaction of memory and linguistic constraints involved in the real-time implementation of these dependencies and which had not been previously isolated. Capitalizing on a long-standing psycholinguistic understanding of LDDs as the workings of an active filler, we distinguish two linguistically defined mechanisms: GAP-search, triggered by the retrieval of the relative pronoun, and GAP-completion, triggered by the retrieval of the embedded verb. Each mechanism is hypothesized to have distinct memory demands and given their distinct linguistic import, potentially distinct brain correlates. Using fMRI, we isolate the two mechanisms by analyzing their relevant sentential segments as separate events. We manipulate LDD-presence/absence and GAP-search type (direct/indirect) reflecting the absence/presence of intervening islands. Results show a direct GAP-search—LIF cortex correlation that crucially excludes the LPST cortex. Notably, indirect GAP-search recruitment is confined to supplementary-motor and lower-parietal cortex indicating that GAP presence alone is not enough to engage predictive functions in the LIF cortex. Finally, GAP-completion shows recruitment implicating the dorsal pathway including: the supplementary motor cortex, left supramarginal cortex, precuneus, and anterior/dorsal cingulate. Altogether, the results are consistent with previous findings connecting GAP-search, as we define it, to the LIF cortex. They are not consistent with an involvement of the LPST cortex in any of the two mechanisms, and therefore support the view that the LPST cortex is not crucial to LDD implementation. Finally, results support neurocognitive architectures that involve the dorsal pathway in LDD resolution and that distinguish the memory commitments of the LIF cortex as sensitive to specific language-dependent constraints beyond phrase-structure building considerations.

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“…This approach follows the methodological blueprint shown to be fruitful with other potentially related semantic compositional phenomena such as complement and aspectual coercion (Lai, Lacadie, Constable, Deo, & Piñango, 2014;, 2015; see also Piñango & Zurif, 2015, for a summary of main results). 4.…”

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confidence: 97%

Metonymy as Referential Dependency: Psycholinguistic and Neurolinguistic Arguments for a Unified Linguistic Treatment

et al. 2016

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We examine metonymy at psycho- and neurolinguistic levels, seeking to adjudicate between two possible processing implementations (one- vs. two-mechanism). We compare highly conventionalized systematic metonymy (producer-for-product: "All freshmen read O'Connell") to lesser-conventionalized circumstantial metonymy ("[a waitress says to another:] 'Table 2 asked for more coffee."'). Whereas these two metonymy types differ in terms of contextual demands, they each reveal a similar dependency between the named and intended conceptual entities (e.g., Jackendoff, 1997; Nunberg, 1979, 1995). We reason that if each metonymy yields a distinct processing time course and substantially non-overlapping preferential localization pattern, it would not only support a two-mechanism view (one lexical, one pragmatic) but would suggest that conventionalization acts as a linguistic categorizer. By contrast, a similar behavior in time course and localization would support a one-mechanism view and the inference that conventionalization acts instead as a modulator of contextual felicitousness, and that differences in interpretation introduced by conventionalization are of degree, not of kind. Results from three paradigms: self-paced reading (SPR), event-related potentials (ERP), and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), reveal the following: no main effect by condition (metonymy vs. matched literal control) for either metonymy type immediately after the metonymy trigger, and a main effect for only the Circumstantial metonymy one word post-trigger (SPR); a N400 effect across metonymy types and a late positivity for Circumstantial metonymy (ERP); and a highly overlapping activation connecting the left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex and the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (fMRI). Altogether, the pattern observed does not reach the threshold required to justify a two-mechanism system. Instead, the pattern is more naturally (and conservatively) understood as resulting from the implementation of a generalized referential dependency mechanism, modulated by degree of context dependence/conventionalization, thus supporting architectures of language whereby "lexical" and "pragmatic" meaning relations are encoded along a cline of contextual underspecification.

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Complement Coercion as the Processing of Aspectual Verbs: Evidence from Self-paced Reading and fMRI

Cited by 47 publications

References 57 publications

The time-course of context modulation for underspecified meaning: an eye-movement study

The time-course of context modulation for underspecified meaning: an eye-movement study

The Localization of Long-Distance Dependency Components: Integrating the Focal-lesion and Neuroimaging Record

Metonymy as Referential Dependency: Psycholinguistic and Neurolinguistic Arguments for a Unified Linguistic Treatment

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