TY - JOUR

T1 - Processing of a Free Word Order Language

T2 - The Role of Syntax and Context

AU - Slioussar, Natalia

PY - 2011/8

Y1 - 2011/8

N2 - In languages with flexible constituent order (so-called free word order languages), available orders are used to encode given/new distinctions; they therefore differ not only syntactically, but also in their context requirements. In Experiment 1, using a self-paced reading task, we compared Russian S V IO DO (canonical), DO S V IO and DO IO V S constructions in appropriate vs. inappropriate contexts (those that violated their context requirements). The context factor was significant, while the syntax factor was not. The less pronounced context effect evidenced in previous studies (e. g., Kaiser and Trueswell in Cognitioin 94:113-147, 2004) might be due to the use of shorter target sentences and less extensive contexts. We also demonstrated that the slow-down starts at the first contextually inappropriate constituent, which shows that the information about context requirements is taken into account immediately, but that it develops faster on preverbal subjects and postverbal indirect objects (occupying their canonical positions) than on preverbal indirect objects (occupying a noncanonical position, or scrambled). In Experiment 2, these findings were replicated for IO S V DO and IO DO V S orders. S V IO DO orders with a continuation were used to show that there is no additional effect of inappropriate context at the end of the sentence.

AB - In languages with flexible constituent order (so-called free word order languages), available orders are used to encode given/new distinctions; they therefore differ not only syntactically, but also in their context requirements. In Experiment 1, using a self-paced reading task, we compared Russian S V IO DO (canonical), DO S V IO and DO IO V S constructions in appropriate vs. inappropriate contexts (those that violated their context requirements). The context factor was significant, while the syntax factor was not. The less pronounced context effect evidenced in previous studies (e. g., Kaiser and Trueswell in Cognitioin 94:113-147, 2004) might be due to the use of shorter target sentences and less extensive contexts. We also demonstrated that the slow-down starts at the first contextually inappropriate constituent, which shows that the information about context requirements is taken into account immediately, but that it develops faster on preverbal subjects and postverbal indirect objects (occupying their canonical positions) than on preverbal indirect objects (occupying a noncanonical position, or scrambled). In Experiment 2, these findings were replicated for IO S V DO and IO DO V S orders. S V IO DO orders with a continuation were used to show that there is no additional effect of inappropriate context at the end of the sentence.

KW - Context

KW - Russian

KW - Scrambling

KW - Sentence processing

KW - Word order

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=79960595351&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1007/s10936-011-9171-5

DO - 10.1007/s10936-011-9171-5

M3 - Article

C2 - 21739339

VL - 40

SP - 291

EP - 306

JO - Journal of Psycholinguistic Research

JF - Journal of Psycholinguistic Research

SN - 0090-6905

IS - 4

ER -