2007 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Establishment of Dependency between Head and Arguments in Japanese Scrambling Constructions
| Project/Area Number |
18520322
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
Linguistics
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| Research Institution | Kochi University |
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Principal Investigator |
NAKANO Yoko Kochi University, The School of Humanities and Economics, Associate Professor (20380298)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2006 – 2007
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| Keywords | scrambling / word order / ambiguous relative-clause attachment / reactivation / deactivation / working memory / sentence processing / Japanese |
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| Research Abstract |
The present study investigated how different types of scrambled constituent influenced processing scrambling constructions with respect to the amount of required working memory resources and how activation levels of scrambled constituents varied while Japanese scrambling constructions were processed.
Firstly, reading-span and listening-span tests were constructed. Secondly, relative-clause attachment preferences were examined when the head NP of a relative clause had two potential attachment sites, i. e., [RC] NP-Gen NP. The complex NP was the object of the main clause and either underwent scrambling or remained in-situ. Attachment preferences were examined by using offline and timed acceptability judgment paradigms. Attachment preferences varied according to different WM resources that were required to process scrambled and canonical word orders. In Japanese gaps appear before the appearance of corresponding antecedents in relative-clause constructions. The results indicated that WM re
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sources of different word orders influenced the establishment of gap and its antecedent. The results also indicated the possibility that some types of scrambled sentences required less processing cost than canonical sentences. Thirdly, further researches on L2 using off-line tasks indicated that in resolving ambiguous relative-clause attachments in L2 proficiency levels were also involved.
Finally, activation levels of scrambled argument NPs (e. g., indirect object) were examined in sentences that involved a filled-gap effect by using the cross-modal priming paradigm. The results indicated that the parser activated a scrambled constituent (filler) at false gap sites but when a reanalysis occurred the once activated filler was suppressed and it was reactivated at the true gap site. The influence of individuals' difference of WM capacity was also observed.
The above-mentioned results indicated that dependencies were formed between scrambled arguments and their heads by re-and de-activating scrambled arguments repeatedly according to the structures and available working memory resources. Less
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