Doctoral Dissertation Research: Focus Association in Superlative Expressions

在看似毫不费力地使用语言来传达信息的背后，隐藏着极其复杂的编码和提取意义的过程。句子通过语序和韵律将信息标记为旧的，由说话者和听话者共享，或标记为新的，因此具有焦点。到目前为止，理解单词和句子结构的一些实时过程已经相当清楚，但涉及句子结构、韵律和意义之间相互作用的过程才刚刚开始研究。研究人员将获得实验证据，通过韵律和语序来标记焦点在最高级表达(例如，最昂贵的蛋糕)的解释中的作用。在英语中，通过重音(用大写字母表示)来表达韵律焦点会导致对具有相同词序的句子的不同解释：比较一下‘John给Mary最昂贵的蛋糕’和‘John给Mary最昂贵的蛋糕’。在其他语言中，语序的变化对最高级表达的句子的意义也有类似的影响。该项目旨在获得通过韵律或语序表达的焦点在实时理解文本过程中指导加工的证据。理解焦点在最高级表达中的作用，对于句子结构、意义、韵律以及它们之间的相互作用等语言学理论具有重要意义。理解韵律焦点的作用可能会在自然语言处理和语音技术中得到应用。这一发现也将对心理学和神经科学等研究认知功能的其他学科产生影响。研究人员此前已经发现，最高级表达的句子在可用解释的范围内存在跨语言差异。他们通过这样的概括解释了这些差异，即某些语法环境排除了焦点影响的解释。在一定的构型中，最高级的意义由焦点决定，这一新颖的提议可以在实验中得到检验。研究人员将调查，在波兰语实时处理句子的过程中，是否计算出了假想的导致最高级句子特定阅读的“焦点联想”效应。与英语不同，波兰语在带有最高级的句子中既显示了更广泛的解释，也显示了一种句法方式来操纵可用的解释，允许操纵词序和无声韵律。(研究表明，在无声阅读中，隐含重音的放置是必须的。)研究人员将测试假设的焦点联想效应是否与众所周知的只涉及副词的焦点联想案例获得类似的方式(例如在自定节奏的阅读实验(实验1)和事件相关电位实验(实验2)中，约翰只给了玛丽一块蛋糕。自定进度阅读方法和ERP方法相辅相成，解决了以英语为母语的人理解带有最高级的句子的认知操作的时间进程问题。

Behind the seemingly effortless use of language for conveying information lie extremely complex processes of encoding and extracting meaning. Sentences mark information as old, shared by speaker and listener, or as new, and thus in focus, through word order and prosody. Some of the real-time processes underlying the comprehension of words and sentence structure are fairly well understood by now, but processes involving the interaction between the structure, prosody and meaning of a sentence are just beginning to be studied. The researchers will obtain experimental evidence concerning the role of focus, marked through prosody and word order, in the interpretation of superlative expressions (e.g. 'the most expensive cake'). In English, prosodic focus expressed through the placement of accent (indicated by capitals) results in the different interpretation of sentences with identical word order: compare 'John gave MARY the most expensive cake' and 'JOHN gave Mary the most expensive cake'. In other languages, changes in word order have similar effect on the meaning of sentences with superlative expressions. The project aims to obtain evidence that focus, expressed through prosody or word order, guides processing during real-time comprehension of text. Understanding the role of focus in superlative expressions is important for linguistic theories of sentence structure, meaning, prosody and the interactions among them. Understanding the role of prosodic focus may have applications in natural language processing and speech technology. The findings will also have implications for other disciplines that study cognitive function such as psychology and neuroscience. The researchers have previously identified cross-linguistic differences in the range of interpretations available to sentences with superlative expressions. They have explained these differences through the generalization that certain grammatical environments preclude focus-affected interpretation. The novel proposal that in a certain configuration the meaning contributed by the superlative is determined by focus can be tested experimentally. The researchers will investigate whether the hypothesized "focus association" effect, which results in a particular reading of a superlative sentence, is computed during real-time sentence processing in Polish. Polish, unlike English, shows both a wider range of interpretations in sentences with superlatives, and a syntactic way to manipulate the available interpretations, allowing manipulation of word order and silent prosody. (It has been shown that implicit accent placement is obligatory in silent reading.) The researchers will test whether the hypothesized focus association effect obtains in a parallel way to well-known cases of focus association involving the adverb 'only' (e.g. 'John only gave Mary a CAKE', 'John only gave MARY a cake'), in a self-paced reading experiment (Experiment 1) and in an ERP experiment (Experiment 2). The self-paced reading and ERP methodologies complement each other, and address the issue of the time-course of the cognitive operations that underlie native speakers' comprehension of sentences with superlatives.