Syntax encodes information structure: Evidence from on-line reading comprehension
Name
Brown, Savova & Gibson 2012[1].pdf
Size
516.59 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
d02fcd04ef710a58f61791f1cc59cf7d
Author(s)
Brown, Meredith
Savova, Virginia
Gibson, Edward A.
Date Issued
September 2011
Journal
Journal of Memory and Language
Publisher
Elsevier
Citation
Brown, Meredith, Virginia Savova, and Edward Gibson. “Syntax Encodes Information Structure: Evidence from on-Line Reading Comprehension.” Journal of Memory and Language 66, no. 1 (January 2012): 194–209.
Version
Author's final manuscript
Abstract
Although sentences are thought to be generally easier to process when given information precedes new information, closer examination reveals that these preferences only manifest within some syntactic structures. Here, we examine the consequences of the relative ordering of given and new information (information structure) for the on-line comprehension of prepositional-object (PO) and double-object (DO) dative sentences. Experiment 1 demonstrated using self-paced reading that the on-line comprehension of DO structures, but not PO structures, is more difficult with new-before-given information structure. Experiment 2 assessed the comprehension of dative sentences with animate themes to evaluate two potential sources of this interaction: information-structural constraints encoded within syntactic representations (argument structure hypothesis) vs. word-to-word contingency statistics (linear position hypothesis). Despite experiment-wise differences in word-to-word contingency statistics, the interaction between syntactic structure and information structure persisted in Experiment 2. Taken together, these results suggest that syntactic representations can include information-structural constraints on their arguments.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Linguistics and Philosophy
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2011.08.006
