TY - JOUR
T1 - Investigating thematic roles through implicit learning
T2 - Evidence from light verb constructions
AU - Wittenberg, Eva
AU - Khan, Manizeh
AU - Snedeker, Jesse
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 Wittenberg, Khan and Snedeker.
PY - 2017/6/30
Y1 - 2017/6/30
N2 - The syntactic structure of a sentence is usually a strong predictor of its meaning: Each argument noun phrase (i.e., Subject and Object) should map onto exactly one thematic role (i.e., Agent and Patient, respectively). Some constructions, however, are exceptions to this pattern. This paper investigates how the syntactic structure of an utterance contributes to its construal, using ditransitive English light verb constructions, such as "Nils gave a hug to his brother," as an example of such mismatches: Hugging is a two-role event, but the ditransitive syntactic structure suggests a three-role event. Data from an eye-tracking experiment and behavioral categorization data reveal that listeners learn to categorize sentences according to the number of thematic roles they convey, independent of their syntax. Light verb constructions, however, seem to form a category of their own, in which the syntactic structure leads listeners down an initial incorrect assignment of thematic roles, from which they only partly recover. These results suggest an automatic influence of syntactic argument structure on semantic interpretation and event construal, even in highly frequent constructions.
AB - The syntactic structure of a sentence is usually a strong predictor of its meaning: Each argument noun phrase (i.e., Subject and Object) should map onto exactly one thematic role (i.e., Agent and Patient, respectively). Some constructions, however, are exceptions to this pattern. This paper investigates how the syntactic structure of an utterance contributes to its construal, using ditransitive English light verb constructions, such as "Nils gave a hug to his brother," as an example of such mismatches: Hugging is a two-role event, but the ditransitive syntactic structure suggests a three-role event. Data from an eye-tracking experiment and behavioral categorization data reveal that listeners learn to categorize sentences according to the number of thematic roles they convey, independent of their syntax. Light verb constructions, however, seem to form a category of their own, in which the syntactic structure leads listeners down an initial incorrect assignment of thematic roles, from which they only partly recover. These results suggest an automatic influence of syntactic argument structure on semantic interpretation and event construal, even in highly frequent constructions.
KW - Argument structure
KW - Eye tracking
KW - Implicit learning
KW - Light verb constructions
KW - Semantics
KW - Syntactic alternations
KW - Syntax
KW - Thematic roles
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85021740850&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01089
DO - 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01089
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85021740850
SN - 1664-1078
VL - 8
JO - Frontiers in Psychology
JF - Frontiers in Psychology
IS - JUN
M1 - 1089
ER -