Arild Hestvik

On-Line Comprehension of VP-Ellipsis: Syntactic Reconstruction and Semantic Influence

We describe two experiments that explored the on-line processing of coordinated (e.g.,The policeman defended himself and the fireman did [e] too, according to someone who was there) and subordinated VP-ellipsis (e.g.,The policeman defended himself because the fireman did [e], according to someone who was there). Such constructions have two possible interpretations: The “sloppy” reading is thatthe fireman defended himself, wherehimself corefers withthe fireman. The “strict” reading is thatthe fireman defended him, wherehim corefers withthe policeman. In our experiments we examined the strict reading, and found different time courses of processing the coordinated and subordinated structures. In coordination we found immediate reaccess of the nonlocal subject at the gap. In subordinated structures we found the reaccess effect only downstream from the gap. We interpret these patterns as reflecting the automatic nature of gap filling in coordinated ellipsis, but in subordinated ellipsis a causal relation must be computed between the two clauses, “drawing out” reaccess of the filler.

Subjectless binding domains

A proposal by Bresnan that binding domains for pronouns should not contain subjects is incorporated into the binding theory of Chomsky (1986a). Coupled with BT-compatibility, this predicts non-complementary distribution in any subjectless category. The article focuses on examining the predictions for PPs as subjectless binding domains, as seen in examples like Johnilooked behind himi/himselfi. Bresnans insight that only PPs with “semantic content” function as binding domains is predicted by using results in theta-theory in conjunction with defining CFC in terms of theta-role assignment, as in Freidin (1986) and Giorgi (1987). Subjectless VPs and NPs are discussed, as well as the effect of Specificity on binding domains.

Reflexives and ellipsis

This paper concerns the question whether reflexives can have strict readings in VP-ellipsis. It is argued that the possibility for strict interpretation is determined by a syntactic factor: subordination of the elided clause relative to the antecedent clause facilitates strict interpretation, whereas coordination disfavors it. This contrast is shown to be predictable by theories of syntactic reconstruction which assume that a surface reflexive corresponds to a bound variable at the point of ellipsis reconstruction, and where the binder has scope over a subordinated ellipsis but not over a coordinated ellipsis. One possibility is that the binder is the reflexive itself, moved at LF. A further factor, namely the possibility of speakers reinterpreting the ellipsis as a deep anaphor, accounts for why strict readings are in fact weakly acceptable in coordinated ellipsis. Previous accounts of ellipsis and reflexives are evaluated in light of the new data.

Brain responses to filled gaps

An unresolved issue in the study of sentence comprehension is whether the process of gap-filling is mediated by the construction of empty categories (traces), or whether the parser relates fillers directly to the associated verbs argument structure. We conducted an event-related potentials (ERP) study that used the violation paradigm to examine the time course and spatial distribution of brain responses to ungrammatically filled gaps. The results indicate that the earliest brain response to the violation is an early left anterior negativity (eLAN). This ERP indexes an early phase of pure syntactic structure building, temporally preceding ERPs that reflect semantic integration and argument structure satisfaction. The finding is interpreted as evidence that gap-filling is mediated by structurally predicted empty categories, rather than directly by argument structure operations.

Processamento linguístico e processamento auditivo temporal em crianças com distúrbio específico de linguagem

BACKGROUND: several studies suggest the association of specific language impairment (SLI) to deficits in auditory processing.It has been evidenced that children with SLI present deficit in brief stimuli discrimination. Such deficit would lead to difficulties in developing phonological abilities necessary to map phonemes and to effectively and automatically code and decode words and sentences. However, the correlation between temporal processing (TP) and specific deficits in language disorders - such as syntactic comprehension abilities - has received little or no attention. AIM: to analyze the correlation between: TP (through the Frequency Pattern Test - FPT) and Syntactic Complexity Comprehension (through a Sentence Comprehension Task). METHOD: Sixteen children with typical language development (8;9 ± 1;1 years) and seven children with SLI (8;1 ± 1;2 years) participated on the study. RESULTS: Accuracy of both groups decreased with the increase on syntactic complexity (both p < 0.01). On the between groups comparison, performance difference on the Test of Syntactic Complexity Comprehension (TSCC) was statistically significant (p = 0.02).As expected, children with SLI presented FPT performance outside reference values. On the SLI group, correlations between TSCC and FPT were positive and higher for high syntactic complexity (r = 0.97) than for low syntactic complexity (r = 0.51). CONCLUSION: Results suggest that FPT is positively correlated to syntactic complexity comprehension abilities.The low performance on FPT could serve as an additional indicator of deficits in complex linguistic processing. Future studies should consider, besides the increase of the sample, longitudinal studies that investigate the effect of frequency pattern auditory training on performance in high syntactic complexity comprehension tasks.

Binding and Coreference in Norwegian Child Language.

Four experimental studies were designed to test, in Norwegian, the hypothesis that childrens nonadultlike interpretations of pronouns may be partly attributable to a lexical factor interacting with the A-Chain Condition (Philip and Coopmans (1996), Sigurjonsdotir and Coopmans (1996)). Analyzing the antisubject orientation of pronouns in adult Norwegian as an A-Chain Condition effect at Logical Form, we predicted that, due to imperfect representation of the lexical features of pronouns, Norwegian children would significantly more often show nonadultlike understanding of antisubject-oriented pronouns than of pronouns whose adult interpretation is also constrained by Principle B. These predictions were confirmed, providing evidence for the independent effects of the A-Chain Condition and the Binding Principles on the distribution of pronouns and identifying lexical interactive effects with the A-Chain Condition as a potential locus of development and variation across child languages.

Relative Clause Gap-Filling in Children with Specific Language Impairment.

Children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) have been observed to have production and perception difficulties with sentences containing long-distance dependencies, but it is unclear whether this is due to impairment in grammatical knowledge or in processing mechanisms. The current study addressed this issue by examining automatic on-line gap-filling in relative clauses, as well as off-line comprehension of the same stimulus sentences. As predicted by both knowledge impairment and processing impairment models, SLI children showed lack of immediate gap-filling after the relative clause verb, in comparison to a control group of typically developing children. However, on the off-line measure of comprehension of the same stimuli sentences, SLI children and TD children did not differ qualitatively. This finding is incompatible with knowledge impairment. We interpret the results to show that SLI children have impaired processing mechanisms (such as temporally delayed gap-filling) but are not impaired in their grammatical knowledge.

Neurobiological evidence for voicing underspecification in English

In long-term memory, the phoneme units that make up words are coded for the distinctive features and feature values that are necessary to distinguish between words in the mental lexicon. Underspecification theory says that the phonemes that have unmarked feature values are even more abstract in that the feature is omitted from the representation altogether. This makes phoneme representations in words more sparse than the fully specified phonetic representations of the same words. Eulitz and Lahiri (2004) demonstrated that this theory predicts certain asymmetries in the Mismatch Negativity (MMN) response to phoneme contrasts. We expand on this research by demonstrating underspecification-driven asymmetry in the brain response to laryngeal feature contrasts in English (i.e. what makes /d/ and /t/ different). We add a new test by showing that the asymmetry disappears if the MMN paradigm is modified to encourage the formation of phonetic memory traces instead of phonemic memory traces. This result adds further neurobiological evidence that long-term phonological representations are more sparsely represented than phonetic representations.

Perception and Bias in the Processing of Compound versus Phrasal Stress: Evidence from Event-related Brain Potentials

Previous research using picture/word matching tasks has demonstrated a tendency to incorrectly interpret phrasally stressed strings as compounds. Using event-related potentials, we sought to determine whether this pattern stems from poor perceptual sensitivity to the compound/phrasal stress distinction, or from a post-perceptual bias in behavioral response selection. A secondary aim was to gain insight into the role played by contrastive stress patterns in online sentence comprehension. The behavioral results replicated previous findings of a preference for compounds, but the electrophysiological data suggested a robust sensitivity to both stress patterns. When incongruent with the context, both compound and phrasal stress elicited a sustained left-lateralized negativity. Moreover, incongruent compound stress elicited a centro-parietal negativity (N400), while incongruent phrasal stress elicited a late posterior positivity (P600). We conclude that the previous findings of a preference for compounds are due to response selection bias, and not a lack of perceptual sensitivity. The present results complement previous evidence for the immediate use of meter in semantic processing, as well as evidence for late interactions between prosodic and syntactic information.

Syntactic Vs. Logophoric Binding: Evidence From Norwegian Child Language

This chapter presents experimental evidence from Norwegian child language that binding into locative pps and of possessive reflexives constitute cases of core binding and not logophoric binding, whereas binding into picture NPs is indeed logophoric binding. It reviews what are widely assumed to be the distinctive semantic and syntactic properties of logophoric reflexives. Then we consider how two alternative binding frameworks deal with such reflexives. It considers how two alternative binding frameworks deal with such reflexives. After this theoretical discussion, the chapter reviews a recent psycholinguistic study which has bearing on the central theoretical questions in that it sheds light on the logophoric status in child English of a reflexive in the object position of a locative PP. Finally, it presents our own experimental evidence from Norwegian child language and discu. Keywords: logophoric binding; long distance reflexives; Norwegian Child Language