Sentence processing and the mental representation of verbs

Abstract

This study examines verb processing during sentence comprehension. We describe two experiments that assess whether or not a verb's representational complexity affects real-time sentence processing in normal listeners. Complexity is defined in terms of the kinds of structural information arrayed against verbs in their lexical entries—syntactic subcategorization and argument structure. Subjects had to perform a complex secondary task presented in the immediate vicinity of the verb while listening to a sentence for meaning. Reaction times to this secondary task show that the relevant verb complexity metric for sentence processing involves the argument structure of verbs and not syntactic subcategorization, and that it is the number of different argument structure possibilities for a verb that counts in this respect. These data reflect the operation of a processing device that momentarily activates all argument structures for a verb in the verb's immediate temporal vincinity during sentence comprehension.