engleski

Languages in the Mind: Systematic variability of agreement and word order interface options

The talk I am presenting will offer an insight into the interplay of semantic and syntactic features of an agreement and word order phenomena in Croatian and will be couched in the investigations conducted within the research group of the HRZZ project “The Building Blocks Croatian Mental Grammar: Constraints of the Information Structure”. In our research we examine the systematic variability of interface options, as well as their integration through information. In doing so, we see the mental grammar as a multidimensional, multifaceted complex processing space in which one needs to investigate the effects of so far uninvestigated factors in classical approaches. Therefore I will discuss the results of several sets of experiments conducted with an aim to understand the mechanisms behind the gender agreement in coordinated structures in Croatian, morphosintactically rich language. I will build on a research (Peti-Stantić et al 2015 ; Willer-Gold et al 2017) that showed the prevalence of linear over hierarchical principle in agreement by investigating two competitive word orders, MF and FM. Despite the fundamentally syntactic nature of an agreement, because the agreement ties words together in virtue of their structural role in the sentence, agreement processing also turns out to be sensitive to semantic components of the sentence, therefore allowing us to explore the tight links between syntax and semantics in sentence processing. Although empirical evidence has underlined that semantic factors also modulate attraction effects, only two types of semantic effects in agreement have been distinguished so far (Franck, 2017): (i) effects of semantic/notional representation of number, and (ii) influences from the semantic relations between the words in the sentence. Therefore, specific aim in this talk will be to show how the interaction of uninvestigated salient semantic features play significant role in the realizations of agreement. Some of the features I will probe are the concreteness and abstractness, as well as the feature of being human or non-human. Based on this finding, I will analyze semantic modulation of the agreement at the interface of syntax and semantics. CONCRETE ANIMATE HUMAN + + + Dječaci i djevojčice su pametni/*e. boysM and girlsF are smartM/F Djevojčice i dječaci su pametni/*e. Dječaci i skoro sve djevojčice su pametne/?i. Skoro sve djevojčice i dječaci su pametni/*e. + + - Konji i krave su odmorni/?e. horsesM and cowsF are restedM/F Krave i konji su odmorni/*e. Konji i skoro sve krave su odmorne/?i. Skoro sve krave i konji su odmorni/*e. + - - Stolovi i stolice su drveni/e. tablesM and chairsF are woodenM/F Stolice i stolovi su drveni/*e. Stolovi i skoro sve stolice su drvene/?i. Skoro sve stolice i stolovi su drveni/*e. - + + Vizionari i demografkinje su ozbiljni/?e. visionariesM and demographersF are seriousM/F Demografkinje i vizionari su ozbiljni/?e. Vizionari i skoro sve demografkinje su ozbiljne/?i. Skoro sve demografkinje i vizionari su ozbiljni/*e. - + - Vilenjaci i vile su zanimljivi/?e elvesM and fairiesF are interestingM/F Vile i vilenjaci su zanimljivi/*e. Vilenjaci i skoro sve vile su zanimljive/?i. Skoro sve vile i vilenjaci su zanimljivi/*e. - - - Oprosti i tajne su predvidivi/e. pardonsM and secretsF are forseableM/F Tajne i oprosti su predvidivi/?e. Oprosti i skoro sve tajne su predvidive/?i. Skoro sve tajne i oprosti su predvidivi/*e.

mental grammar, variability, interfaces, gender agreement, coordinated structures, clitics, word order

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