Dear all,
This is a reminder of our next ComSyn lecture on 23rd May by Isabel
Oltra-Massuet from Universitat Rovira I Virgili. The topic is Theories of
argument structure and syntactic priming in comprehension.
Please find more details below (please notice the change of the place!)
In addition, this is the last ComSyn talk of this semester. We are preparing
for the next semester/year. Suggestions of potential speakers would be welcomed
and very much appreciated! Thank you in advance!
We look forward to seeing you all there.
Best wishes,
Astrid, Martin, Lis & Hang
https://romancelab.weblog.leidenuniv.nl/2019/05/17/thursday-23-may-isabel-oltra-massuet/
Speaker: Isabel Oltra-Massuet (Universitat Rovira i Virgili)
Title: Theories of argument structure and syntactic priming in comprehension
Date: Thursday 23 May
Venue: Lipsius 2.35(!)
Time: 15.15-16.30 hrs (drinks follow at Cafe de Keyzer)
Abstract:
Different theories of argument structure attribute different syntactic
configurations to intransitives like (1) and transitive structures like (2-6),
so that they make different predictions about the processing of these sentence
types and the priming relations between them.
(1)
Unergative
The dog
barked
in a quiet park
at night.
(2)
Cognate
The man
dozed
a restful doze
on the train.
(3)
Creation
The cook
baked
a carrot cake
with spelt flour.
(4)
Location/Locatum
The girl
saddled
a wild horse
in the farm.
(5)
Strong transitives
The athlete
ignored
a slight niggle
in his knee.
(6)
With-Small Clause
The worker
loaded
a rail wagon
with hay.
In this talk, I will first review the syntactic structures attributed to
(1)-(6) in two competing theoretical approaches to argument structure, (i) Hale
& Keyser's (1993, 2002) approach as developed in Mateu (2002), Acedo-Matellán
(2010) and Acedo-Matellán & Mateu (2011, 2013) [AM&M], and (ii) Marantz's
(2005, 2011) [M], as well as their different claims with respect to syntactic
priming. Then, I will report the results of a behavioral experiment, a
self-paced reading language comprehension study on structural priming. Finally,
I will discuss the development of this experiment into an ongoing MEG
experiment.
Both experiments are the result of my collaboration with researchers at the
Neuroscience of Language Lab - New York University Abu Dhabi.
References:
Acedo-Matellán, V. 2010. Argument Structure and the Syntax-Morphology
Interface. A Case Study in Latin and Other Languages. UB, PhD Thesis.
Acedo-Matellán, V. & Mateu, J. 2013. Satellite-framed Latin vs. verb-framed
Romance: a syntactic approach. Probus 25, 227-265. Hale, K. & Keyser, S. J.
1993. On argument structure and the lexical expression of syntactic relations.
The view from Building, 20, 53-109. Hale, K. & Keyser, S. J. 2002. Prolegomenon
to a theory of argument structure. MIT Press. Mateu, J. 2002. Argument
Structure. Relational Construal at the Syntax-Semantics Interface. UAB, PhD
Thesis. Marantz, A. 2005. Objects out of the lexicon: Objects as events. MIT,
Ms. Marantz, A. 2011. Syntactic approaches to argument structure without
incorporation. Talk presented at the Workshop Structuring the argument,
Structures Formelles du Langage UMR 7023 Paris 8/CNRS, Paris, 5-7 September.
