Doctoral Dissertation Research: Active assignment of quantifier scope guides language processing

该奖项的全部或部分资金来自《2021年美国救援计划法案》(公法117-2)。语言处理通常看起来很容易，因为人类迅速解码语言信号，形成对刚刚听到或阅读的内容的有意义的表达。虽然在人类语言处理过程中观察到的大部分内容都被语言学理论很好地预测到了，但一些语法上非法的句子被认为是可以接受的。这些语言错觉，其中观察到的行为与成熟的语法理论的预测并不一致，为观察语言结构和语言处理方式之间的差异提供了机会。这个博士论文项目解决了其中的一个错觉，负极项目错觉，并开发了一个新的框架，其中错觉遵循独立的处理量化和范围原则的结果。为驱动这些语言错觉的过程开发框架对于我们的语法理论和语言相关行为理论都是至关重要的。除了对语言学和语言处理研究的好处外，这些模型还为人机交互和神经语言学等领域的工作提供了重要的理论支撑。该项目使用阅读时的眼动跟踪以及其他在线和离线测量来观察各种句子的处理。这些句子包括与负极性项错觉相关的句子，旨在分离不同的因素，如极性、配价和句法环境如何影响观察到的错觉效果。被研究的其他句子被设计来检验在线加工中范围是如何计算的，这是负极项目错觉的一个关键但未被研究的因素。基于现有的研究和新获得的数据，该项目的主要目标是开发一种新的范围和量化处理模型，称为鲁莽范围处理，它重新塑造了一个有问题的错觉，作为必要的语言处理程序的预期结果。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2).Language processing often appears to be effortless as humans rapidly decode linguistic signals to form meaningful representations of what they have just heard or read. While much of what has been observed in human language processing is well predicted by linguistic theory, some grammatically illicit sentences are perceived as acceptable. These linguistic illusions, where observed behavior does not align neatly with predictions of well-established grammatical theories, provide opportunities to observe differences between the structure of language and how language is processed. This doctoral dissertation project addresses one of these illusions, the negative polarity item illusion, and develops a new framework in which the illusion follows as a consequence of independent principles for processing quantification and scope. Developing frameworks for the processes that drive these linguistic illusions is critical for both our grammatical theories and theories of language related behavior. Beyond the benefits to linguistic and language processing research, these models also provide critical theoretical scaffolding for work in domains such as human computer interaction and neurolinguistics.This project uses eye-tracking while reading along with other online and offline measures to observe the processing of various kinds of sentences. These include sentences which are related to the negative polarity item illusion and are designed to isolate how different factors such as polarity valence and the syntactic environment contribute to the observed illusion effect. Additional sentences investigated are designed to examine how scope is computed in online processing, a critical but understudied factor in the negative polarity item illusion. Based on existing research and the newly acquired data, the primary goal of the project is the development of a new model for the processing of scope and quantification called reckless scope processing, which recasts a problematic illusion as an expected consequence of a necessary language processing procedure.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.