The Role of German Particles in Questions

本项目研究德语中的话语助词（DiP）（例如，'denn'，'souls'，'schon'）修饰疑问句所实施的以言行事行为。结合形式化工具和心理/神经语言学研究，它努力识别和成分推导的句法，语义和语用约束，支配这种修改，并探讨认知机制的加工和授权的话语粒子的问题。在项目第一阶段研究结果的基础上，这一目标分为三个目标：第一，第一阶段建立了各种DiP许可违规行为的相关性，第二阶段旨在详细评估这些相关性背后的心理语言学过程，并将其整合到句子理解文献中。在两个系列的实验中，我们将（1）从虚幻的许可过程中分离出严格的语言过程的贡献，并将（2）区分语义和语用处理路径。所有的实验将监测处理的DiPs和负极性项目（NPIs），让一个直接的比较和更好地理解长距离的许可过程中的接口的句法，语义和pragmatics.Second，而第一阶段集中在原位话语粒子附加到动词脊柱，第二阶段扩展我们的调查，以异位粒子形成一个组成部分的wh-短语。从语用学的角度看，非原位而非原位的助词必然带有隐喻的意味。这就提出了关于强调的形式特征及其与wh短语的组合的有趣问题。从语义上看，非原位小品词比原位小品词具有更大的范围自由度。确定粒子的范围如何与多个短语的范围相互作用，为当前竞争的方法提供了新的测试基础。第三，我们将应用高端方法来分析P1和P6中收集的现有和新的神经语言数据。第一阶段集中于神经语言学数据分析的传统方法，第二阶段将系统地研究特定时间-频率带的振荡脑动力学，以探索问题处理的认知机制。

This project investigates how discourse particles (DiPs) in German (e.g., 'denn', 'bloss', 'schon') modify the illocutionary act carried out by a question. Combining formal tools and psycho/neurolinguistic research, it strives to identify and compositionally derive the syntactic, semantic and pragmatic constraints that govern this modification and to explore the cognitive mechanisms that underlie the processing and licensing of discourse particles in questions. Building on findings from the first phase of the project, this goal is articulated in three objectives.First, while the first phase established correlates of various DiP-licensing violations, the second phase aims for a detailed assessment of the psycholinguistic processes underlying these correlates, and for their integration into the sentence comprehension literature. In two series of experiments, we will (1) disentangle the contribution of strictly linguistic processes from illusory licensing processes, and will (2) distinguish semantic and pragmatic processing pathways. All experiments will monitor the processing of DiPs and negative polarity items (NPIs) to allow a direct comparison and a better understanding of long-distance licensing processes at the interface of syntax, semantics and pragmatics.Second, while the first phase concentrated on in situ discourse particles attached to the verbal spine, the second phase extends our investigations to ex situ particles forming a constituent with the wh-phrase. Pragmatically, ex situ but not in situ particles mandatorily carry an emphatic undertone. This raises interesting issues concerning the formal characterization of emphasis and its composition with wh-phrases. Semantically, ex situ particles have more scope freedom than in situ particles. Determining how the scope of the particles interacts with that of how many-phrases provides novel testing ground for current competing approaches.Third, we are going to apply high-end methods for the analysis of neurolinguistic data to existing and new data collected in P1 and P6. While the first phase concentrated on traditional methods of neurolinguistic data analyses, the oscillatory brain dynamics in specific time-frequency bands will be systematically studied during the second phase to explore the cognitive mechanisms that underlie the processing of questions.