Focus and thematic role assignment: A comparison of Hungarian and German in Child Language Comprehension

这个项目的目的是调查从信息结构到主题角色分配的语用推断。除了句法和形态线索（如词序和格）外，信息结构还有助于角色消歧，这一事实在心理语言学和类型学研究中得到了证实。然而，我们对听者将信息结构类别（如主题和焦点）映射到特定论点及其相应的主题角色的原则知之甚少。本项目将收集经验数据，目的是在语言理解过程中对这一过程进行精确的语用描述。将比较两种理论立场：(a)听者使用信息结构偏好（例如，主题是主体，焦点是客体）作为主题角色分配的默认值；(b)或者，信息结构线索激发语用推理，解释说话人为什么使用规范或非规范词序。为了检验这些假设的预测，我们将在两种语言中进行实验研究（视觉词范式），这两种语言在如何解释焦点方面存在重大差异（在德语中作为客体，在匈牙利语中作为主体）。我们研究了这些语言的语法和韵律差异是如何影响导致不同主题角色分配的推理过程的。通过检查语言发展的几个阶段（两种语言）的数据，该项目将深入了解(a)识别特定线索（如韵律和格）的发展阶段，(b)这些线索对角色分配的语用学的贡献；(c)儿童在此过程中逐渐形成的语用能力。这个项目的结果将被整合到情境语言处理的心理语言学模型中（协调相互作用帐户）。

The aim of this project is to investigate pragmatic inferences from information structure to thematic role assignment. The fact that information structure contributes to role disambiguation, in addition to syntactic and morphological cues (such as word order and case) is established in psycholinguistic and typological research. However, we know very little about listeners principles in mapping information structural categories, such as topic and focus, to particular arguments and their corresponding thematic roles. This project will collect empirical data with the goal of developing a precise pragmatic account of this process during language comprehension. Two theoretical positions will be compared: (a) Hearers use information structural preferences (e.g., topics are subjects and foci are objects) as defaults for thematic role assignment; (b) alternatively, information structural cues motivate pragmatic inferences about why the speaker uses canonical or non-canonical word orders. In order to examine the predictions of these hypotheses, we will conduct experimental studies (visual word paradigm) in two languages that crucially differ with respect to how focus is interpreted (as an object in German, and as a subject in Hungarian). We examine how (differences in) the syntax and prosody of these languages implicate inferential processes that lead to different thematic role assignments. By examining data from several stages of language development (in both languages), the project will gain insights into (a) the developmental stages in the recognition of particular cues (e.g., prosody and case), (b) the contribution of these cues to the pragmatics of role assignment; and (c) children's emerging pragmatic competence in this process. The results of this project will be integrated into a psycholinguistic model of situated language processing (Coordinated Interplay Account).