Doctoral Dissertation Research: Telicity and Event Structure in Language Comprehension

博士论文研究：语言理解中的目的性和事件结构

• 批准号: 0132380
• 负责人: Thomas Bever
• 金额: $ 0.63万
• 依托单位: University of Arizona
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2002
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2002-08-01 至 2003-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0132380&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Telicity; Event

Doctoral dissertation research: Telicity and event structure in language comprehensionABSTRACTWith NSF support, Ms. Erin O'Bryan will conduct research under the supervision of Professor Tom Bever for a doctoral dissertation in linguistics. Recent research in the area of lexical semantics has shown that the semantic feature telicity (whether or not an event has a specified endpoint in time) is related to argument structure (the arguments that a verb requires or allows) (van Hout 2000, Jackendoff 1996, Sanz 1996). Recent research in the area of sentence processing has investigated differences in the degree of difficulty in understanding garden path sentences (sentences that are structurally misinterpreted and require reanalysis), such as The horse raced past the barn fell. Bever and Sanz have predicted that reduced relative clause garden path sentences with atelic verbs (verbs without a specified endpoint in time, such as race) should be more difficult than those with telic verbs (verb with a specified endpoint, such as arrive or melt). This prediction follows from the fact that intrinsically telic verbs require a verb phrase-internal object, and hence will facilitate the correct analysis of reduced relative sentences. Gibson (1991) and Pritchett (1992) have predicted that reduced relative clause sentences with transitive verbs that can optionally occur intransitively (without a direct object) should be more difficult than those with obligatorily transitive verbs. This prediction follows from the fact that transitive verbs require an overt direct object, and hence will also facilitate the correct analysis of reduced relative sentences. The thrust of the proposed research is to determine which of these explanations is correct, or if they both are. The predictions made by Bever and Sanz (in preparation), Gibson (1991), and Pritchett (1992) are based on linguistic and psycholinguistic theory, linguistic judgements of acceptability, and computational models. The proposed research will test these predictions with an online sentence comprehension experiment using the speaker change onitoring task (Townsend & Bever 1991). This task has been shown to reflect local processing complexity and has the important virtue of being usable with experimental groups, so that large numbers of participants can be included. In the proposed experiment, participants will listen to reduced relative clause sentences like those in (a) through (d). The experiment will test whether telicity and subcategorization affect the extent of garden pathing and whether either of these factors has a more immediate effect than the other. The first hypothesis is that reduced relatives with atelic verbs, such as (a) and (b), will result in more processing difficulty than reduced relatives with telic verbs, such as (c) and (d). The second hypothesis is that reduced relatives with potentially intransitive verbs, such as (a) and (c), will result in more processing difficulty than those with obligatorily transitive verbs, such as (b) and (d). a. The firefighter led by the marshal waved to the crowd. b. The firefighter escorted by the marshal waved to the crowd. c. The firefighter saluted by the marshal waved to the crowd. d. The firefighter sent by the marshal waved to the crowd. Processing difficulty will be measured as missed detections of speaker-change syllables in the by-phrase, e.g. on marshal, and on the main clause verb, e.g. waved. The speaker-change is a syllable spoken by a different speaker than the rest of the sentence that participants are asked to monitor for. The two speaker-change locations allow the investigation of the question of whether one of the factors has a more immediate effect on comprehension. The expectation is that either telicity or subcategorization will have a relatively larger effect on the early probe position. If telicity has a more immediate effect, it suggests that a verb's lexical semantics, which syntacticians consider to be structural though it also carries meaning, has an earlier and perhaps privileged role in comprehension. If subcategorization has a more immediate effect, it suggests that distributional properties of the verb have an earlier and perhaps more privileged role. The research will clarify the role of semantic variables in comprehension that have not been controlled for in prior research. It will also increase our understanding of the online use of semantic and distributional verb properties. Additionally, the research will reveal information about the true nature of thematic roles, their relationship with subcategorization frames, and their relationship with event structure.

摘要在美国国家科学基金会的支持下，Erin O'Bryan女士将在Tom Bever教授的指导下进行语言学博士论文的研究。最近在词汇语义学领域的研究表明，语义特征的远性（事件是否在时间上有特定的终点）与论点结构（动词要求或允许的论点）有关（van Hout 2000, Jackendoff 1996, Sanz 1996）。最近在句子处理领域的研究调查了理解花园小径句子（在结构上被误解并需要重新分析的句子）的难度差异，例如马跑过谷仓摔倒了。Bever和Sanz预测，带有终点动词（没有指定时间终点的动词，如race）的简化关系从句花园路径句应该比带有终点动词（带有指定终点的动词，如arrive或melt）的句子更难。这一预测是基于这样一个事实，即本质上远距动词需要一个动词短语内部宾语，因此将有助于对简化关系句的正确分析。Gibson（1991）和Pritchett（1992）预测，带有及物动词的简化关系子句可以选择以不及物形式出现（没有直接宾语），应该比带有强制性及物动词的句子更难。这一预测来自于及物动词需要一个明显的直接宾语这一事实，因此也有助于对简化关系句的正确分析。这项研究的主旨是确定哪一种解释是正确的，或者两者都是正确的。Bever和Sanz（准备中）、Gibson（1991）和Pritchett（1992）的预测是基于语言学和心理语言学理论、可接受性的语言判断和计算模型。提出的研究将通过使用说话人变化监测任务的在线句子理解实验来测试这些预测（Townsend & Bever 1991）。该任务已被证明反映了局部处理的复杂性，并且具有可用于实验组的重要优点，因此可以包括大量参与者。在拟议的实验中，参与者将听(a)到(d)中所述的简化关系从句。实验将检验远性和亚分类是否影响园林路径的范围，以及这两个因素中是否有一个比另一个有更直接的影响。第一个假设是，与(a)和(b)等远距动词相关的精简关系，会比(c)和(d)等远距动词相关的精简关系产生更大的处理难度。第二个假设是，与(b)和(d)等强制性及物动词相比，(a)和(c)等具有潜在不及物动词的简化亲属会导致更多的处理困难。由元帅护送的消防队员向人群挥手。被元帅敬礼的消防员向人群挥手致意。元帅派来的消防队员向人群挥手。处理难度将通过忽略短语中的说话人转换音节（如on marshal）和主句动词（如wave）来衡量。说话者的变化是由不同的说话者说出的一个音节，而不是句子的其余部分，参与者被要求监控。这两个说话人转换的地点使得我们可以研究其中一个因素是否对理解有更直接的影响。我们的预期是，无论是远性还是次分类将对早期探针位置产生相对较大的影响。如果目的性有更直接的影响，这表明动词的词汇语义（句法家认为它是结构性的，尽管它也承载着意义）在理解中具有更早的、也许更优越的作用。如果子分类有更直接的影响，这表明动词的分布属性有一个更早的，也许更优越的作用。本研究将澄清语义变量在理解中的作用，这在以往的研究中尚未得到控制。它还将增加我们对在线使用语义和分布动词属性的理解。此外，本研究还将揭示主题角色的真实性质、它们与子分类框架的关系以及它们与事件结构的关系。