SYNTAX 7ON-LINE PROCESSINGDAY 36 – NOV 20, 2013

Brain & Language

LING 4110-4890-5110-7960

NSCI 4110-4891-6110

Harry Howard

Tulane University

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Course organization• The syllabus, these slides and my recordings are

available at http://www.tulane.edu/~howard/LING4110/.• If you want to learn more about EEG and neurolinguistics,

you are welcome to participate in my lab. This is also a good way to get started on an honor's thesis.

• The grades are posted to Blackboard.

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REVIEW

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Center embedding• 8a) The dog chased the cat.• 8b) The cat hunted the rat.• 8c) The rat nibbled the cheese.• 9) The rat the cat hunted nibbled the cheese.• 10) The rat the cat the dog chased hunted nibbled the

cheese.

11/20/13 Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University

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How might this be processed?

11/20/13 Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University

thematic role for ‘the rat’

thematic role for ‘the cat’

thematic role for ‘the dog’

The parser encounters …

the rat > look for a predicate to supply a thematic role …

the cat > wait, put the previous search on hold & look for another predicate to supply a thematic role …

the dog > wait, put the previous search on hold & look for yet another predicate to supply a thematic role …

Ok, now I am lost.

push-down stack

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Is the following a good way to describe the grammar of English?1. Mary bought a book for John.

• The direct object THEME follows the verb in English.

2. Which book did Mary buy for John?• The direct object THEME follows the verb in English or precedes

the clause when it is introduced by which.

3. John asked Mary about a student.• TOPIC tends to be the object of the preposition about.

4. Which student did John ask Mary about?• TOPIC tends to be the object of the preposition about, or it

precedes the clause when it is introduced by which.

• Is there a principle of science that can help us out here?

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SENTENCE COMPREHENSION AND SYNTACTIC PARSINGIngram I, §13 On-line processing, working memory and modularity

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Leprechauns!

• Think of an explanation for something:1. The Earth spinning on its axis

makes day and night.

2. The Earth spinning on its axis or leprechauns pushing it, makes day and night.

3. Rain falls when water condenses in the atmosphere.

4. Rain falls when water condenses in the atmosphere or leprechauns piss from clouds.

• Does adding leprechauns to all our explanations make them better?

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Ockham’s razor, simplicity, economylex parsimoniae

• Ockham’s razor is a principle that generally recommends selecting from among competing hypotheses the one that makes the fewest new assumptions.

• Einstein-ish: “Make things as simple as possible, but not simpler.”

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Back to our sentences• The sentences and their leprechauns

a. Mary bought a book for John.

b. Which book did Mary buy for John?

c. John asked Mary about a student.

d. Which student did John ask Mary about?

• How to get rid of the leprechaunsa. Mary bought a book for John.

b. Which booki did John buy ____i for Mary?

c. John asked Mary about a student.

d. Which studenti did John ask Mary about ____i ?

• (b, d) are called filler-gap constructions, though the gap is also called a trace.

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Cross-modal priming & trace reactivationsentence presented auditorily; prime & probe visually

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16) Which booki did the harassed parent almost purchase ti for her child?

prime

probe:library/vehicle

faster for related same for both faster for related

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Gaps/traces in relative clauses• The dog chased the cat.• Subject relative clause

• The dog that chased the cat … =• The dogi that ti chased the cat …

• Object relative clause• The cat that the dog chased … =• The cati that the dog chased ti …

• Which one should be harder to process?• The object relative clause, because the relationship between the

real filler (the cat) and the gap has to ignore the potential filler (the dog).

• I am ignoring Ingram’s discussion of Gibson’s load/capacity theory of parsing, which is very interesting, but we don’t have time.

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Self-paced reading & subject-object• The data: reading time for us20a) My brother wanted to know if Ruth will bring us home to Mom at Xmas.

20b) My brother wanted to know who will bring us home to Mom at Xmas. =

20b) My brother wanted to know whoi ti will bring us home to Mom at Xmas.

20c) My brother wanted to know who Ruth will bring us home to at Xmas. =

20c) My brother wanted to know whoi Ruth will bring us home to ti at Xmas.

• Which one should be slowest?• (20c) because us is a possible site for the gap/trace of who.

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NEXT TIMEIngram §14, Agrammatism revisited

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