Abstract
Sentence processing is known to be highly incremental. Speakers make incremental commitments as the sentence unfolds, dynamically updating their representations based on the smallest pieces of information from the incoming speech stream. Less is known about linguistic processing on the sub-word level, especially with regard to abstract grammatical information. This study employs the Visual World Paradigm to investigate the processing of grammatical aspect by Russian-speaking adults (n = 124). Aspectual information is encoded relatively early within the Russian verb which makes this an ideal testing ground to investigate the incrementality of grammatical processing on the sub-word level. Participants showed preference for pictures of ongoing events when they heard sentences involving Imperfective verbs, and for pictures of completed events when they heard sentences involving Perfective verbs. Crucially, the analysis of the participants’ eye-movements showed that they exhibited preference for the target picture already before they heard the end of the verb. Moreover, the latency of this effect depended on where the aspectual information was encoded within the verb. These results indicate that the processing and integration of grammatical aspect information can happen rapidly and incrementally on a fine-grained word-internal level. Methodologically, the study draws together a set of analytical techniques which can be fruitfully applied to the analysis of effect latencies in a wide range of studies within the Visual World eye-tracking paradigm.
Highlights
Converging evidence from psycholinguistic research suggests that sentence processing happens in a highly incremental manner, and that the information from the incoming speech stream is rapidly integrated [1–6]
In this study we employed the Visual World Paradigm to investigate how quickly listeners are able to integrate grammatical information encoded within the word, focusing on the processing of grammatical aspect in Russian
We were interested in whether the participants would show different offline and online preferences for the Ongoing and Completed Event pictures depending on the grammatical aspect of the verb in the test sentence
Summary
Converging evidence from psycholinguistic research suggests that sentence processing happens in a highly incremental manner, and that the information from the incoming speech stream is rapidly integrated [1–6]. Less is known about linguistic processing on the sub-word level, especially with regard to abstract grammatical information. In this study we employed the Visual World Paradigm to investigate how quickly listeners are able to integrate grammatical information encoded within the word, focusing on the processing of grammatical aspect in Russian. Tanenhaus et al [6] showed that participants don’t wait until the end of temporarily ambiguous sentences to assign an interpretation, but make incremental. Analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
