Language Comprehension and Word-Order Variation Colin Phillips Cognitive Neuroscience of Language Laboratory Department of Linguistics University of Maryland.

Language Comprehension and Word-Order Variation Colin Phillips Cognitive Neuroscience of Language Laboratory Department of Linguistics University of Maryland

Overview of Talks 1. The Unification Problem 2. Building Syntactic Relations 3. Abstraction: Sounds to Symbols 4. Linguistics and Learning どの生徒に …

Outline Long-distance Dependencies: The Issues Active Structure Building Pieces of Long-Distance Dependencies Grammatical Accuracy Timing and Electrophysiology Conclusion

Long-distance Dependencies Many different types of long-distance relationship –wh-movement, topicalization, relative clauses –pronoun-antecedent relations (referential) –ellipsis-antecedent relations Require active computation, hard to reduce to retrieval of stored templates –what are the computational operations –what motivates them –when do they occur –are they the product of the grammar, or of something else

Processing a fronted wh-phrase what did you say t that Mary read How do readers interpret a fronted wh-phrase online? What drives formation of wh- dependencies?

‘Active Filler Effect’ what Processing English wh-questions gap

‘Active Filler Effect’ what did Processing English wh-questions gap

‘Active Filler Effect’ what did you Processing English wh-questions gap

‘Active Filler Effect’ what did you say gap Processing English wh-questions

‘Active Filler Effect’ what did you say gap that Processing English long-distance wh-questions

‘Active Filler Effect’ what did you say gap that Mary Processing English long-distance wh-questions

‘Active Filler Effect’ what did you say gap that Mary read Processing English long-distance wh-questions

‘Active Filler Effect’ what did you say gap Generalization Gap for a wh-phrase is initially posited in the first/highest available position.

Filled Gap Effect My brother wanted to know who Ruth will bring us home to at Christmas My brother wanted to know if Ruth will bring us home to at Christmas Stowe 1986 Readers slow down upon encountering an NP where a gap was expected, relative to a control where no gap was expected. Filled Gap Effect

Argument Structure remind V NP V NP IP (Boland et al. 1995)

Argument Structure Samuel asked whether Mark reminded them to watch the child. Which child did Mark remind them to watch ___? Which movie did Mark remind them to watch ___? remind V NP V NP IP (Boland et al. 1995)

Argument Structure Construction of gaps is guided by verb argument- structure information

Typing Mismatch Effects Edson Miyamoto Shoichi Takahashi

Question Formation Japanese uses question particles (Q-particles) to mark questions. John-nom the book-acc read. John-nom the book-acc read-Q [yes/no question] Sally-top John-nom what-acc read-declC said-Q [root question] ‘What did Sally say that John read?’ Sally-top John-nom what-acc read-Q said[embedded question] ‘Sally said what John read.’

Q-Particles …John-ga hon-o yonda-to (Declarative) yonda-ka (Q-Particle) …John-nom book-acc read

Q-Particles …John-ga hon-o yonda-to (Declarative) yonda-ka (Q-Particle) Normally, a Q-particle is unexpected relative to the high frequency declarative marker. …John-nom book-acc read

Q-Particles …John-ga hon-o yonda-to (Declarative) yonda-ka (Q-Particle) …John-ga nani-o yonda-to (Declarative) yonda-ka (Q-Particle) Normally, a Q-particle is unexpected relative to the high frequency declarative marker. …John-nom what-acc read …John-nom book-acc read

Q-Particles …John-ga hon-o yonda-to (Declarative) yonda-ka (Q-Particle) …John-ga nani-o yonda-to (Declarative) yonda-ka (Q-Particle) Normally, a Q-particle is unexpected relative to the high frequency declarative marker. In a clause in which a wh-phrase is interpreted, the expectations are reversed. …John-nom what-acc read …John-nom book-acc read

Q-Particles Experimental diagnostic for clause where wh-phrase is interpreted in Japanese: declarative marker -to is read more slowly than question marker -ka. [Miyamoto & Takahashi 2001]

Typing Mismatch Effect a. [NP-nom Wh-acc Verb-Q]... Verb. b. [NP-nom Wh-acc Verb-DeclC] … Verb-Q [Miyamoto & Takahashi 2001] Slowdown: TME

Parsing Japanese Wh-Questions Sachiko Aoshima, Colin Phillips Amy Weinberg

Japanese speakers appear to process questions in exactly the opposite way from English speakers…

Two approaches for processing wh- phrases Strategy-based Approach: When a wh-phrase has been identified, rank the option of assigning it to a gap above all other options. (Crain & Fodor 1985, Frazier & Clifton 1989, among others)

Two approaches for processing wh-phrases Strategy-based Approach: Active Filler Strategy When a wh-phrase has been identified, rank the option of assigning it to a gap above all other options. (Crain & Fodor 1985, Frazier & Clifton 1989, among others) Grammatical principle- based Approach Online interpretation of wh- phrases is driven by independently motivated grammatical requirements, e.g. thematic role assignment. (Gibson 1991, Pritchett 1992, among others)

Two approaches for processing wh-phrases: head-initial languages Strategy-based gap WH CP C IP VP NP V … the first possible gap position = complement of the first verb Grammatical principle-based gap WH CP C IP VP NP V … the first possible gap position = complement of the first verb

Two approaches for processing wh-phrases: head-final languages Strategy-basedGrammatical principle-based WH C CP VP IP NP … WH C V CP VP IP NP … gap V CP NP VP The first opportunity to satisfy thematic requirements occurs at the embedded clause. … V the first possible gap position CP

Long-distance Wh-scrambling Japanese wh-phrases are canonically in-situ, but they can be fronted by means of scrambling. Dare-ni Taro-wa [Jiro-ga t atta-ka] itta. Who-dat Taro-top Jiro-nom met-Q said ‘ Taro said who Jiro met. ’

Experiment 1: Stimuli In-situ conditions NP-top [ NP-nom WH-dat NP-acc Verb-DeclC/QP ] AdvP NP-dat Verb-QP/.

Experiment 1: Stimuli Scrambled conditions NP-top [NP-nom WH-dat NP-acc Verb-DeclC/QP] AdvP NP-dat Verb-QP/. WH-dat

Experiment 1: Conditions a. Wh-dat NP-top [NP-nom NP-acc V-DeclC] AdvP NP-dat V-Q b. NP-top [NP-nom Wh-dat NP-acc V-DeclC] AdvP NP-dat V-Q c. Wh-dat NP-top [NP-nom NP-acc V-Q ] AdvP NP-dat V d. NP-top [NP-nom Wh-dat NP-acc V-Q] AdvP NP-dat V

Experiment 1: Examples a. どの生徒に担任は校長が本を読んだと図書室で司書に言いましたか。 'Which student did the class teacher tell the librarian at the library that the principal read a book for?' b. 担任は校長がどの生徒に本を読んだと図書室で司書に言いましたか。 c. どの生徒に担任は校長が本を読んだか図書室で司書に言いました。 'The class teacher told the librarian at the library which student the principal read a book for.' d. 担任は校長がどの生徒に本を読んだか図書室で司書に言いました。

Experiment 1: Self-paced reading task ----- --- --- ---- ---- --- ------ -------

Experiment 1: Self-paced reading task どの子供に --- --- ---- ---- --- ------ -------

Experiment 1: Self-paced reading task ----- 叔母は --- ---- ---- --- ------ -------

Experiment 1: Self-paced reading task ----- --- 母親が ---- ---- --- ------ -------

Experiment 1: Self-paced reading task ----- --- --- ケーキを ---- --- ------ -------

Experiment 1: Self-paced reading task ----- --- --- ---- 焼いたと --- ------ -------

Experiment 1: Self-paced reading task ----- --- --- ---- ---- 台所で ------ -------

Experiment 1: Self-paced reading task ----- --- --- ---- ---- --- お手伝いさんに -------

Experiment 1: Self-paced reading task ----- --- --- ---- ---- --- ------ 知らせましたか。

Experiment 1: Design & Procedure 2 X 2 factorial design 4 lists were created by distributing 24 items in a Latin Square design 48 filler sentences Comprehension questions: matching a subject with a predicate Self-paced reading task -Moving Window - 48 native speakers of Japanese

Experiment 1: Results In-situ Condition b. NP-top [NP-nom Wh-dat NP-acc V-DeclC] … Verb-Q d. NP-top [NP-nom Wh-dat NP-acc V-Q] … Verb

F1 (1, 47) = 5.5, p <.01 F2 (1, 18) = 2.8, p = 0.09 V-DeclC/Q Miyamoto & Takahashi’s observation is replicated.

Experiment 1: Results Scrambled Condition a. Wh-dat NP-top [NP-nom NP-acc V-DeclC] … Verb-Q c. Wh-dat NP-top [NP-nom NP-acc V-Q ] … Verb.

F1 (1, 47) = 6.1, p <.01 F2 (1, 18) = 5.6, p <.01 V-DeclC/Q Readers also exhibit Typing Mismatch effect in Scrambled Condition.

Experiment 1: Results Scrambled Condition Readers create a gap position in the embedded clause. Wh-phrase is associated with the first verb that readers encounter. This finding is expected under the grammatical principle-based approach. NP-top Verb CP gap NP-nom Verb VP WH-dat

Experiment 2: Question NP-top CP gap NP-nom Verb VP WH-dat Is this gap posited before the embedded verb is encountered?

Experiment 2: Question NP-top CP gap NP-nom Verb VP WH-dat Is this gap posited before the embedded verb is encountered? NP-top CP gap NP-nom Verb VP WH-dat Or, is this gap posited after the embedded verb is encountered?

Grammatical Derivations Wh-Questions Englishmen cook wonderful dinners.

Wh-Questions Englishmen cook wonderful dinners. Grammatical Derivations

Wh-Questions Englishmen cook what Grammatical Derivations

Wh-Questions What do Englishmen cook Grammatical Derivations

Wh-Questions What do Englishmen cook gap/trace Grammatical Derivations

Wh-Questions What do Englishmen cook gap/trace  Grammatical Derivations

Competing Theories What do Englishmen cook gap/trace/copy What do Englishmen cook Direct Association HPSG/GPSG Categorial Grammar Dependency Grammar etc. Indirect Association Transformational Grammar (--> Projection Principle)

Competing Theories What do Englishmen cook gap/trace/copy What do Englishmen cook Direct Association HPSG/GPSG Categorial Grammar Dependency Grammar etc. Indirect Association Transformational Grammar (--> Projection Principle) Attempts to distinguish between these theories using evidence from language processing…

1. English Filled-Gap Effect My brother wanted to know who Ruth will bring us home to at Christmas My brother wanted to know if Ruth will bring us home to Mom at Christmas (Stowe 1986)

1. English Filled-Gap Effect My brother wanted to know who Ruth will bring us home to at Christmas My brother wanted to know if Ruth will bring us home to Mom at Christmas (Stowe 1986) Surprise at pronoun following verb is compatible with both theories!

2. Trace Reactivation Studies Which boy did the old man from Osaka meet at the station? (e.g. Nicol & Swinney 1989, Bever & McElree 1988, MacDonald 1989)

2. Trace Reactivation Studies Which boy did the old man from Osaka meet at the station? boy girl boy girl faster decision same speed (e.g. Nicol & Swinney 1989, Bever & McElree 1988, MacDonald 1989)

2. Trace Reactivation Studies Which boy did the old man from Osaka meet at the station? boy girl boy girl faster decision same speed (e.g. Nicol & Swinney 1989, Bever & McElree 1988, MacDonald 1989) Both theories can account for reactivation at or after the verb!

3. Verb Position vs. Trace Position (Pickering & Barry 1991) giveNPPP

3. Verb Position vs. Trace Position (Pickering & Barry 1991) giveNPPP To which child did the teacher give [a long speech about the importance of honesty] ___?

3. Verb Position vs. Trace Position (Pickering & Barry 1991) giveNPPP To which child did the teacher give [a long speech about the importance of honesty] ___? Various diagnostics indicate that the dependency is formed at the verb, not at the trace position.

3. Verb Position vs. Trace Position (Pickering & Barry 1991) giveNPPP To which child did the teacher give [a long speech about the importance of honesty] ___? Various diagnostics indicate that the dependency is formed at the verb, not at the trace position. Still compatible with both theories!

WH CP C IP VP NP V … WH CP C IP VP NP V … Direct AssociationGap-based Approach gap Effects at Verb Position #1 #2

Pre-Verbal Gap Effects The two theories could be distinguished by effects of dependency formation associated with argument positions that precede the verb of a clause. Filled-gap effect expected at pre-verbal position only under indirect association/gap-based theory. start

Parsing Japanese Wh-Questions (continued) Sachiko Aoshima Colin Phillips Amy Weinberg

English Filled-Gap Effect My brother wanted to know who Ruth will bring us home to at Christmas My brother wanted to know if Ruth will bring us home to Mom at Christmas Stowe 1986 Readers slow down upon encountering an NP where a gap was expected, relative to a control where no gap was expected.

Japanese Filled-Gap Effect Position of the unexpected NP is before the verb Second NP-dat is unexpected if the first NP-dat has already been interpreted in embedded clause. WH-dat NP-top CP gap NP-nom Verb VP NP-dat Slowdown upon encountering an NP where a gap was expected.

Experiment 2: Conditions WH-dat NP-top CP NP-nomVP WH-nom NP-dat CP NP-nom Verb VP NP-dat target control Slowdown gap Verb NP-dat

Experiment 2: Conditions a. [Filled] WH-dat NP-top [NP-nom Adv NP-dat NP-acc Verb-DeclC] Verb-Q b. [Non-Filled] WH-nom NP-dat [NP-nom Adv NP-dat NP-acc Verb-DeclC] Verb-Q

Experiment 2: Design & Procedure 2 conditions 2 lists were created by distributing 20 paired items in a Latin Square design 60 filler sentences Comprehension questions: matching a subject with a predicate Self-paced reading task -Moving Window - 34 native speakers of Japanese

Experiment 2: Examples a. Dono-syain-ni senmu-wa syacyoo-ga kaigi-de Which employee-dat managing director-top president-nom meeting-at kacyoo-ni syookyuu-o yakusokusita-to iimasita-ka? assistant manager-dat raise-acc promised-DeclC told-Q ‘To which employee did the managing director tell that the president promised a raise to the assistant manager at the meeting?’ b. Dono-syain-ga senmu-ni syacyoo-ga kaigi-de Which employee-nom managing director-dat president-nom meeting-at kacyoo-ni syookyuu-o yakusokusita-to iimasita-ka? assistant manager-dat raise-acc promised-DeclC told-Q ‘Which employee told the managing director that the president promised a raise to the assistant manager at the meeting?’

Japanese readers exhibit Filled Gap effect. Confirms that they interpret a sentence-initial wh-phrase in the embedded clause, before reaching the embedded verb. F1 (1, 33) = 11.9, p <.01 F2 (1, 19) = 6.4, p <.05 NP-dat Verb

From Experiment 1& 2, Readers create a gap position in the embedded clause. Gap creation takes place before the verb is processed. This finding is expected under the grammatical principle-based approach. NP-top Verb CP gap NP-nom Verb VP WH-dat

Summary Verb gap CP who Taro These findings are unexpected if objective is to posit gap as early as possible.  Strategy-based account does not properly predict the time course of gap creation.

Summary who Taro Verb CP gap Jiro Verb VP These findings are expected if objective is to satisfy thematic role assignment as early as possible.  This supports the grammatical principle-based approach start

Summary: Experiment 2 and 3 NP-top Verb CP gap NP-nom Verb VP WH NP-nom Verb HIS-WH gap Structures are built incrementally even when critical lexical heads (i.e. verbs) are delayed.

Processing wh-interrogatives NP-top Verb CP gap NP-nom Verb VP WH NP-nom Verb WH gap The gap is posited in a simple clause. The gap is posited in the mostly deep embedded clause. Successive attempts to posit a gap

Processing wh-interrogatives Dare-ni Taro-wa Jiro-ga atta-ka itta. Who-dat Taro-top Jiro-nom met-Q said ‘Taro said who Jiro met.’ Assumption Wh-phrases: Two types of features need to be satisfied as soon as possible. 1. θ-feature (Theta role assignment) 2. Wh-feature (Wh-scope licensing)

Processing wh-interrogatives who Dare-ni Taro-wa Jiro-ga atta-ka itta. Who-dat Taro-top Jiro-nom met-Q said ‘Taro said who Jiro met.’ {  } {wh}

Processing wh-interrogatives gap who Taro Dare-ni Taro-wa Jiro-ga atta-ka itta. Who-dat Taro-top Jiro-nom met-Q said ‘Taro said who Jiro met.’ Verb {  } {wh} {  } {wh}? ?

Processing wh-interrogatives gap who Taro Dare-ni Taro-wa Jiro-ga atta-ka itta. Who-dat Taro-top Jiro-nom met-Q said ‘Taro said who Jiro met.’ CP Jiro VP Verb = gap Reanalysis is allowed. {  } {wh}? ? {  } {wh} start

Processing Long-Distance Dependencies in Two Varieties of Spanish Leticia Pablos Colin Phillips

Two Varieties of Spanish A estas chicas, mi hermana dijo que las conoce. A estas chicas, mi hermana dijo que conoce. to these girls my sister said that (them) knows ‘These girls, my sister said that she knows them.’

Two Varieties of Spanish A estas chicas, mi hermana dijo que las conoce. A estas chicas, mi hermana dijo que conoce. to these girls my sister said that (them) knows ‘These girls, my sister said that she knows them.’ Spain Latin Am. Spain Latin Am.    

Two Varieties of Spanish Castilian subjects have a more restricted dialect where, if a subject intervenes, the prediction of a clitic pronoun after encountering the fronted phrase is obligatory. A estas chicas, mi hermana dijo que las conoce. Clitic predicted

Two Varieties of Spanish Latin subjects have the two options available and even if there is an intervening subject, they don’t necessarily predict the clitic. A estas chicas, mi hermana dijo que las conoce. A estas chicas, mi hermana dijo que conoce. Clitic not necessarily predicted

A estas chicas, mi hermana mayor más tarde dijo que ya lo cree que las conoce desde hace tiempo ‘These girls, my old sister later said that she indeed thinks she knows them for a long time’ A estas chicas, mi hermana mayor más tarde les dijo que ya lo cree que las conoce desde hace tiempo ‘These girls, my old sister later told them that she indeed thinks she knows them for a long time’ Topic-Clitic Dependencies  Clitic mismatch

Pre-verbal Gap Effects in Spanish WH CP C IP NP … WH CP C IP NP … V V’ clitic VP V V’ clitic VP Direct Association Indirect Association

Pre-verbal Gap Effects in Spanish Topic-Clitic Dependencies Design: –Manipulation of the clitic pronoun at the matrix verb to control for the expected effect at the clitic in the embedded verb. Predictions: –There should be a longer reading time at the first embedded clitic if there’s a mismatch. –The interpretation of the long-distance dependency should be mediated by the clitic.

Pre-verbal Gap Effects in Spanish Design and Procedure 2 conditions 2 lists were created by distributing 24 paired items in a Latin Square design 72 filler sentences Context sentence preceded its item(identical in both conditions) Comprehension questions Self-paced reading task-Moving Window- 24 Spanish subjects (16 Latin; 8 Castilian)

Pre-verbal Gap Effects in Spanish Results: Castilian Subjects First embedded verb Longer RT at no-clitic condition (spillover effect from region 12) F1(1,7)=6.36,p<.05 F2(1,23)=1.51,p=.2 Clitic

Pre-verbal Gap Effects in Spanish Results: Latin Subjects First embedded verb No effect F< 1 Clitic

Interim Conclusion In both Japanese and Spanish: long-distance dependencies formed by constructing argument positions before the verb. Supports –(i) very active structure-building (-> analysis-by-synthesis) –(ii) gap-based approaches

Island Constraints and a Look-Ahead Problem Colin Phillips Beth Rabbin Kaia Wong Leticia Pablos

If there is no distinction between real-time processors and the grammar, then the real-time processors should show immediate grammatical precision; delay not possible Good testing ground: constraints on wh-movement –described in great detail by linguistic theories –real-time processing literature presents apparently conflicting results

Grammatical Accuracy in Parsing What did the plan to remove gap ultimately destroy the building  Subject Island Constraint A wh-phrase cannot be moved out of a subject.

Island Constraints in Real-Time A number of studies report that island constraints are respected in real-time –Stowe (1986): subject islands (PP) –Traxler & Pickering (1996): subject islands (finite RC) –McElree & Griffith (1998) A number of studies suggest that island constraints are violated in real-time –Freedman & Forster (1985): complex NP islands –Kluender & Kutas (1993): wh-islands Previous discussions attribute differing results to technique used - alternative is that the structures are critical

Island Constraints in Real-Time It is an over-simplification to say that the grammar excludes creation of dependencies into islands

Parasitic Gaps which school did the proposal to expand the school ultimately overburdened the teachers. (Phillips, Rabbin, et al. 2002)

Parasitic Gaps which people did the proposal to expand the school ultimately overburdened the teachers. (Phillips, Rabbin, et al. 2002)

Parasitic Gaps which school did the proposal to expand the school ultimately overburdened the teachers. (Phillips, Rabbin, et al. 2002)

Parasitic Gaps which school did the proposal to expand the school ultimately overburdened the teachers. Generalization (Subject Island Constraint) No long-distance dependencies across subject boundaries (Phillips, Rabbin, et al. 2002)

Parasitic Gaps which school did the proposal to expand the school ultimately overburdened the teachers. (Phillips, Rabbin, et al. 2002) Generalization (informal) Violations can be rescued by subsequent well-formed gaps.

Parasitic Gaps which school did the proposal to expand the school ultimately overburdened the teachers. which school did the proposal that expanded the school ultimately overburdened the teachers. Updated Generalization (informal) A subclass of violations can be rescued by subsequent gaps. (Phillips, Rabbin, et al. 2002)

Parasitic Gaps Acceptability Ratings (n=32) (Phillips, Rabbin, et al. 2002)

Parasitic Gaps which school did the proposal to expand the school ultimately overburdened the teachers. which school did the proposal that expanded the school ultimately overburdened the teachers. The challenge for incremental parsing: Which verbs can the wh-phrase be interpreted with? Lookahead problem. (Phillips, Rabbin, et al. 2002)

Parasitic Gaps which school did the proposal to expand the school ultimately overburdened the teachers. which school did the proposal that expanded the school ultimately overburdened the teachers. The challenge for incremental parsing: Which verbs can the wh-phrase be interpreted with? Lookahead problem. (i)avoid islands: conservative, but non-incremental (ii)infinitival subject islands only: incremental, but risky (iii)all subject islands: reckless (Phillips, Rabbin, et al. 2002)

Parasitic Gaps which school did the proposal to expand the school ultimately overburdened the teachers. which school did the proposal that expanded the school ultimately overburdened the teachers. Technique: plausibility manipulation (Garnsey 1989, Boland et al. 1991, Traxler & Pickering 1996) which students… (Phillips, Rabbin, et al. 2002)

Parasitic Gaps which school did the proposal to expand the school ultimately overburdened the teachers. which school did the proposal that expanded the school ultimately overburdened the teachers. Technique: plausibility manipulation (Garnsey 1989, Boland et al. 1991, Traxler & Pickering 1996) which students… implausible at ‘expand’ plausible at ‘overburden’ plausible at ‘expand’ plausible at ‘overburden’ (Phillips, Rabbin, et al. 2002)

Materials: 4 conditions (a) The chief executive knew which building the plan to expand upon the architect’s design would improve. (infinitival, plausible)  PG possible (b) The chief executive knew which carpenters the plan to expand upon the architect’s design would require. (infinitival, implausible)  PG possible (c)The chief executive knew which building the plan that expanded upon the architect’s design would require. (finite, plausible)  PG impossible (d) The chief executive knew which carpenters the plan that expanded upon the architect’s design would require. (finite, implausible)  PG impossible (Phillips, Rabbin, et al. 2002)

embedded verb

Parasitic Gaps Results –plausibility effect inside infinitival subject island, i.e., when the island violation can be ‘rescued’ –no plausibility effect inside finite subject island –indicates extreme grammatical precision of on-line interpretive processes A problem for attempts to treat island constraints as epiphenomena of parsing, memory, etc. (many different incarnations in both formal and functional literature) (Phillips, Rabbin, et al. 2002)

Outline Long-distance Dependencies: The Issues Active Structure Building Pieces of Long-Distance Dependencies Grammatical Accuracy Timing and Electrophysiology Conclusion wh elan

Electrophysiology Can use electrophysiological techniques to investigate different aspects of syntactic dependency formation –incomplete dependencies (e.g. wh …) –completion of dependencies (e.g. wh … verb)

Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) s1s2s3 John islaughing.

ERP Sentence Processing Developing understanding of N400 is informative Response to ‘violations’ N400 I drink my coffee with cream and sugar I drink my coffee with cream and socks Kutas & Hillyard (1980)

Morpho-Syntactic violations Every Monday he mows the lawn. Every Monday he *mow the lawn. The plane brought us to paradise. The plane brought *we to paradise. (Coulson et al., 1998) (Slide from Kaan (2001)

he mows he *mow P600 Left Anterior Negativity (LAN) (Slide from Kaan (2001)

ERP Sentence Processing LAN, P600 Sie bereist das neuter Land neuter … Sie bereist den masculine Land neuter … she travels the land... Gunter et al. (2000)

Kaan et al. (2000) ERP Sentence Processing P600 Emily wondered who the performer in the concert had imitated for the audience’s amusement. Emily wondered whether the performer in the concert had imitated a pop star for the audience’s amusement. P600 reflects normal structure- building processes.

How fast is Structural Computation? Silke Urban Colin Phillips

Background Early Left Anterior Negativity (Angela Friederici, Anja Hahne, et al.)

Neville et al., 1991 The scientist criticized a proof of the theorem. The scientist criticized Max’s of proof the theorem.

500ms/word

Hahne & Friederici, 1999  Das Baby wurde gefüttert The baby was fed  Das Baby wurde im gefüttert The baby was in-the fed Question: are the brain responses to violations automatic?

Hahne & Friederici, 1999 P600

Hahne & Friederici, 1999 ELAN

Very fast: 150-250ms Automatic Left anterior (= frontal) scalp distribution Elicited by a subclass of syntactic violations “ Phase 1 (100–300 ms) represents the time window in which the initial syntactic structure is formed on the basis of information about the word category.” (Friederici 2002)

Questions about ELAN How plausible is it that ELAN reflects syntactic structure building? –Speed: 150ms is faster than lexical access! –Generality: ELAN is not elicited by most violations; almost all studies on ELAN involve one construction (for each of German, English) –Localization…

Brodmann Areas

160 SQUID whole-head array pickup coil & SQUID assembly Magnetoencephalography (MEG)

(Friederici et al. 2000)

Two regions of interest (Friederici et al. 2000)

Anterior Temporal Lobe? Why is anterior temporal lobe so important in ELAN? How does it differ from Broca’s area (BA 44 etc.) that are implicated so often in other studies? Friederici: both responsible for ‘structure building’; BA44 also responsible for ‘syntactic working memory’; ‘the inferior portion of BA44 is selectively activated when syntactic processes are in focus.’ Anterior temporal lobe associated with –lexical information –activated in fMRI by comparisons of sentences with word lists

Alternative Interpretation ELAN reflects violation/suppression of automatic lexical prediction –accounts for localization to anterior temporal lobe –accounts for very early timing –might account for automaticity –accounts for very limited distribution

Neville et al., 1991 The scientist criticized a proof of the theorem. The scientist criticized Max’s of proof the theorem. NP Max’s N

Hahne & Friederici, 1999  Das Baby wurde gefüttert The baby was fed  Das Baby wurde im gefüttert The baby was in-the fed NP the N in PP

Prediction If ELAN reflects violation of lexical prediction, rather than syntactic structure-building, then… –change lexical predictions –keep syntactic violation the same –should ‘turn off’ ELAN brain response

Neville et al., 1991 The scientist criticized a proof of the theorem. The scientist criticized Max’s of proof the theorem. NP Max’s N Possible to block the automatic prediction of an N following a possessor: ellipsis

Ellipsis Possessors may appear alone in ellipsis contexts: Although I like Mary’s theory, I don’t like John’s.

Experimental Conditions Although Erica kissed Mary’s mother, she did not kiss the daughter of the bride. Although Erica kissed Mary’s mother, she did not kiss Dana’s of the bride. Although the bridesmaid kissed Mary, she did not kiss the daughter of the bride. Although the bridesmaid kissed Mary, she did not kiss Dana’s of the bride.

Experimental Conditions Although Erica kissed Mary’s mother, she did not kiss the daughter of the bride. Although Erica kissed Mary’s mother, she did not kiss Dana’s of the bride. Although the bridesmaid kissed Mary, she did not kiss the daughter of the bride. Although the bridesmaid kissed Mary, she did not kiss Dana’s of the bride.  ellipsis possible ellipsis impossible

Experimental Design 384 sentences per session –128 targets (drawn from 128 sets of 4 conditions) –64 items designed to elicit ‘agreement violation’ LAN –192 filler items, designed to hide violations and promote ellipsis Procedure –RSVP (Rapid Serial Visual Presentation), 500ms/word –Grammaticality judgment task Recording: 32-electrode montage 22 subjects (so far)

Although

kissed

Mary’s

mother,

Dana’s

bride.

??? good bad

Preliminary Results a. Although … Mary’s mother … Dana’s of … b. Although … Mary … Dana’s of … b a

Interim Conclusion Preliminary results lend support to our interpretation of the (E)LAN - the anterior negativity is reduced in an ellipsis context –structural violation is identical in both conditions –obligatory lexical prediction of N following possessor (e.g. Mary’s…) is absent in ellipsis context Structure-building may begin ~250-300ms after a word is presented (see next study) start

Electrophysiology of Wh-movement Colin Phillips, Nina Kazanina, Shani Abada, Daniel Garcia-Pedrosa [revision of work done at UDel in 2000] start

Electrophysiology of Wh-movement Objective is to investigate electrophysiological indices of different sub-processes involved in forming long-distance dependencies Manipulation of resource demands of long- distance dependency formation

Experiment Design Materials a. The actress wished that the producers knew that the witty host would tell the jokes during the party. b. The actress wished that the producers knew which jokes the witty host would tell __ during the party. c. The producers knew that the actress wished that the witty host would tell the jokes during the party. d. The producers knew which jokes the actress wished that the witty host would tell __ during the party.

a. The actress wished that the producers knew that the witty host would tell the jokes during the party. b. The actress wished that the producers knew which jokes the witty host would tell during the party. c. The producers knew that the actress wished that the witty host would tell the jokes during the party. d. The producers knew which jokes the actress wished that the witty host would tell during the party. Short wh-dependency Experiment Design Materials

a. The actress wished that the producers knew that the witty host would tell the jokes during the party. b. The actress wished that the producers knew which jokes the witty host would tell during the party. c. The producers knew that the actress wished that the witty host would tell the jokes during the party. d. The producers knew which jokes the actress wished that the witty host would tell during the party. Long wh-dependency Experiment Design Materials

a. The actress wished that the producers knew that the witty host would tell the jokes during the party. b. The actress wished that the producers knew which jokes the witty host would tell during the party. c. The producers knew that the actress wished that the witty host would tell the jokes during the party. d. The producers knew which jokes the actress wished that the witty host would tell during the party. Controls: No wh-dependency Experiment Design Materials

Design as close as possible to regular sentence processing studies … just bigger 160 sets of 4 conditions; Latin Square design 320 fillers (2:1 ratio) --> total of 480 sentences per subject Yes/No comprehension questions after all trials 2 x 2 1/2 hour sessions (2 x ~75 mins. reading) RSVP presentation: 300ms ‘on’, 200ms ‘off’ 32-electrode montage; DC-recordings Experiment Design Materials

+wh -wh Electrode PZ Short Conditionsn=20 Effect of wh-movement significant (p<.01) from 300-400ms onwards Verb

+wh -wh Electrode PZ Long Conditionsn=20 Effect of wh-movement significant (p<.01) from 300-400ms onwards Verb

+wh -wh Electrode PZ All Conditionsn=20 Effect of wh-movement significant (p<.01) from 300-400ms onwards Verb

ERPs & Long-Distance Dependencies ‘P600’ due to completion of wh-dependency, with onset around 300ms Positivity associated with wh-dependencies previously observed by Kaan et al. (2000), Fiebach et al. (2002) Identical amplitude & timing for shorter and longer wh-dependency Conclusion: –The ERP response indexes resource-independent aspects of building wh- dependencies, OR –1 vs. 2 clause dependencies incur identical resource demands

Subprocesses in the Formation of Long-Distance Dependencies Ana Gouvea David Poeppel Colin Phillips Nina Kazanina

which student…case, thematic role ambiguous predicate unknown to which student…case, thematic role clear predicate unknown

(1) The patient met the doctor to whom the nurse with the white dress showed the problem in the meeting. (2) The patient met the doctor to whom the nurse with the white dress show the problem in the meeting. (3) The patient met the doctor while the nurse with the white dress showed the problem in the meeting. (4) The patient met the doctor while the nurse with the white dress show the problem in the meeting. (5) The patient met the doctor and the nurse with the white dress showed the problem in the meeting.

Wh-dependency formation (dative wh-phrase): anterior positivity (300-500ms) Agreement violation: posterior positivity (600ms onwards)

Possible Implication… There may be a difference between the following aspects of wh-dependency completion –specification of predicate –resolution of ambiguous case/thematic information

‘Active’ construction of long-distance dependencies driven by satisfaction of grammatical requirements Dependencies completed before verb in some languages - ‘indirect association’ Real-time structure building is highly accurate, sensitive to detailed constraints on islands, parasitic gaps Electrophysiology allows investigation of timing of different aspects of dependency formation We can learn a lot about real-time computatation - what kind of computational system is this…?

Standard View specialized algorithm speaking understanding grammatical knowledge, competence language

with help from... University of Maryland Shani Abada Sachiko Aoshima Daniel Garcia-Pedrosa Ana Gouvea Nina Kazanina Moti Lieberman Leticia Pablos David Poeppel Beth Rabbin Silke Urban Carol Whitney University of Delaware Evniki Edgar Bowen Hui Baris Kabak Tom Pellathy Dave Schneider Kaia Wong Alec Marantz, MIT Elron Yellin, MIT National Science Foundation James S. McDonnell Foundation Human Frontiers Science Program Japan Science & Technology Program Kanazawa Institute of Technology

Experiment 1: Examples a. Dono kodomo-ni tannin-wa [koocyoo-ga hon-o yonda-to] tosyokan-de sisyo-ni iimasita-ka. 'Which student did the class teacher tell the librarian at the library that the principal read a book for?' b. Tannin-wa [koocyoo-ga dono kodomo-ni hon-o yonda-to] tosyokan-de sisyo-ni iimasita-ka. c. Dono kodomo-ni tannin-wa [koocyoo-ga hon-o yonda-ka ] tosyokan-de sisyo-ni iimasita. 'The class teacher told the librarian at the library which student the principal read a book for.' d. Tannin-wa[koocyoo-ga dono kodomo-ni hon-o yonda-ka] tosyokan-de sisyo-ni iimasita-ka.

Experime5t on Pre-verbal Gap Effects in Spanish (3) Topic-clitic Dependencies NP-top NP-nom Verb CP VP Clitic Verb V’ gap Clitic Verb VP V’  Clitic mismatch !! Target Condition: Slowdown expected (due to mismatch) if the parser is trying to complete the dependency before the first embedded verb

Experiment on Pre-verbal Gap Effects in Spanish (5) Topic-clitic Dependencies NP-top NP-nom CP VP Clitic Verb V’ gap V’ VP V’ Clitic Verb  Control Condition: Clitic ‘les’ licenses to close the dependency at the matrix verb.

Language Comprehension and Word-Order Variation Colin Phillips Cognitive Neuroscience of Language Laboratory Department of Linguistics University of Maryland.

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Language Comprehension and Word-Order Variation Colin Phillips Cognitive Neuroscience of Language Laboratory Department of Linguistics University of Maryland.

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Presentation on theme: "Language Comprehension and Word-Order Variation Colin Phillips Cognitive Neuroscience of Language Laboratory Department of Linguistics University of Maryland."— Presentation transcript:

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