Grammar overrides frequency: evidence from the online processing of flexible word order

Bornkessel, Ina; Schlesewsky, Matthias; Friederici, Angela D.

doi:10.1016/s0010-0277(02)00076-8

Cited by 100 publications

(72 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…However, this is consistent with previous studies reporting that while production frequency is often correlated with processing difficulty/preference (e.g. Levy, 2008), not all word order preferences are mirrored by differences in corpus frequency, and frequency is sometimes overridden by grammar (Bornkessel, Schlesewsky, & Friederici, 2002;Crocker & Keller, 2006;Kempen & Harbusch, 2005;see Bornkessel-Schlesewsky & Schlesewsky, 2009b, 7.2.3 and 9.3.3. for a review).…”

supporting

confidence: 92%

Is the subject-before-object preference universal? An event-related potential study in the Kaqchikel Mayan language

Yasunaga

Yano

Yasugi

et al. 2015

Language, Cognition and Neuroscience

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The processing load of sentences with different word orders in the Kaqchikel Mayan language was investigated using eventrelated potentials. We observed a P600 for subject-verb-object and verb-subject-object sentences as compared to verb-objectsubject (VOS) sentences, suggesting that VOS order is easier to process than the other orders. This is consistent with the traditional interpretation in Mayan linguistics that the syntactically determined basic word order is VOS in Kaqchikel, as in many other Mayan languages. More importantly, the results revealed that the preference for subject-object word order in sentence comprehension observed in previous studies may not be universal; rather, processing load in sentence comprehension is greatly affected by the syntactic nature of individual languages.

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supporting

confidence: 92%

Is the subject-before-object preference universal? An event-related potential study in the Kaqchikel Mayan language

Yasunaga

Yano

Yasugi

et al. 2015

Language, Cognition and Neuroscience

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“…This effect was observable between 300 and 450 ms postonset of the determiner den ("the ACC "), the initial positioning of which unambiguously signals a noncanonical word order in a neutral context. A similar ERP pattern is obtained in embedded sentences introduced by the complementizer dass ("that"; Bornkessel et al, 2002), thus indicating that the left negativity between 300 and 450 ms is a general effect elicited by clause-medial word-order variations. On the basis of the behavioral experiments showing a sentence-final influence of context on word order, psycholinguistic models assuming an initial influence of context on syntactic parsing operations would predict a modulation of the local negativity elicited by word-order variations in a facilitating context.…”

Section: Electrophysiological Measures Of Processing Difficulties In supporting

confidence: 68%

Contextual information modulates initial processes of syntactic integration: The role of inter- versus intrasentential predictions.

Bornkessel¹,

Schlesewsky²,

Friederici³

2003

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cogni

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The authors demonstrate that intersentential context may influence syntactic integration processes during online sentence comprehension, although this influence appears to be restricted to cases in which a contextual requirement must be fulfilled. By applying event-related brain potentials to the processing of clause-medial word order variations in German, the authors show that the local processing difficulty (a negativity from 300 to 450 ms) observed for object-initial sentences in a neutral context is also obtained in a (behaviorally) facilitating context in which the object is contextually given. By contrast, the processing pattern for a focused (questioned) initial object does not differ from that for a focused subject: both elicit a parietal positivity (280 -480 ms) postonset of the focused phrase. The authors interpret this early positivity as a general marker of focus integration, a process that appears to briefly supersede sentence-internal requirements.A recurring interest in language processing research has been the examination of possible influences of intersentential context on sentence internal parsing mechanisms. Within this line of research, most studies have focused on the question of whether contextual information may influence on-line processes of ambiguity resolution during sentence comprehension (e.g

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“…A counterexample to the PDC would be any case in which low frequency does not result in comprehension difficulties, or in which high frequency induces difficulties, and such cases are not rare in the literature. Using event-related brain potentials, Bornkessel, Schlesewsky, and Friederici (2002) demonstrated how difficulties in the online processing of German accusative-marked objects, as compared to subjects and dative-marked objects, do not correspond to their frequency distributions, but can be predicted by syntactic distinctions. Pickering, Traxler, and Crocker (2000) reported an eyetracking experiment investigating verbs that can take either an NP object or a clausal object.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Givenness, complexity, and the Danish dative alternation

Kizach

Balling²

2013

Mem Cogn

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In this study, we investigated the interaction between givenness and complexity on the choice of syntactic structure, via two experiments using speeded acceptability judgments. Experiment 1 showed that for the Danish dative alternation, given-new orders are only easier to process for double-object or NP constructions, whereas PP constructions are unaffected. This replicates previous findings for the English dative alternation. Experiment 2 revealed that when a long NP precedes a short NP-a suboptimal complexity relation-the effect of givenness is neutralized, whereas givenness remains influential when the complexity relation between the NPs in the sentence is optimal. This is consistent with the view that in online parsing, the actual syntactic structure-building process is primary, whereas any higher-order computations such as discourse linking are secondary. The relative complexity of the NPs in the double-object construction directly affects the structurebuilding process, whereas the decoding of the discourse structure is a later and less crucial phenomenon, resulting in neutralization of the givenness effect in cases in which the complexity relation is suboptimal.

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Grammar overrides frequency: evidence from the online processing of flexible word order

Cited by 100 publications

References 11 publications

Is the subject-before-object preference universal? An event-related potential study in the Kaqchikel Mayan language

Is the subject-before-object preference universal? An event-related potential study in the Kaqchikel Mayan language

Contextual information modulates initial processes of syntactic integration: The role of inter- versus intrasentential predictions.

Givenness, complexity, and the Danish dative alternation

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