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Syntactic structures can convey certain (subtle) emergent properties of events. For example, the double-object dative ("the doctor is giving a patient pills") can convey the successful transfer of possession, whereas its syntactic alternative, the prepositional dative ("the doctor is giving pills to a patient"), conveys just a transfer to a location. Four experiments explore how syntactic structures may become associated with particular semantic content - such as these emergent properties of events. Experiment 1 provides evidence that speakers form associations between syntactic structures and particular event depictions. Experiment 2 shows that these associations also hold for different depictions of the same events. Experiments 3 and 4 implicate representations of the semantic features of events in these associations. Taken together, these results reveal an effect we term syntactic entrainment that is well positioned to reflect the recalibration of the strength of the mappings or associations that allow syntactic structures to convey emergent properties of events.

One of the defining properties of human language is the abundance of potentially unbounded dependencies between elements in a sentence. And yet, how speakers formulate dependencies in sentence production is still poorly understood. Here we examine the timing of verb planning in sentences involving across-the-board and parasitic gap constructions. Using a new task we call the Sentence-Word Interference task, we show that speakers plan the verb of a secondary clause before sentence onset, but selectively when producing across-the-board sentences and not when producing parasitic gap sentences. Based on this timing contrast, we argue that speakers plan verbs predominantly before the production of their dependents, but only when verbs and their dependents engage in both conceptual and direct syntactic relationships. More broadly, the current study suggests that sentence planning is constrained by syntactic relationships that are not reducible to conceptual relationships or to surface word order. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Five recall-based structural priming experiments tested the predictions about dative structural priming derived from a new theory of structure building in sentence production. When both prime and target sentences contained direct object filler-gap dependencies, repeating a dative verb enhanced dative priming (the lexical boost). In contrast, the lexical boost was not observed when only target sentences contained object filler-gap dependencies. Additionally, the lexical boost was not observed when prime and target sentences contained object filler-gap dependencies but had mismatching tenses/aspects. In contrast, when neither prime nor target sentences contained object filler-gap dependencies, the lexical boost was observed despite prime and target sentences having different tenses/aspects. These findings confirm the unique set of predictions of the proposed theory, which posits that the size of compositional units is affected by the dependency structures of sentences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A model of structural priming based on Tree-Adjoining Grammar is developed. • The lexical boost effect for that-priming occurred. • But only when prime and target both contained filler-gap dependencies. • Or when neither did, confirming the prediction of the model. • Speakers use distinct prcesses for cross-clausal filler-gap dependencies. A previous model of long-distance dependency production claims that speakers use two distinct pieces of structures containing clause-taking verbs like believe and the complementizer that or the null complementizer when planning sentences with cross-clausal filler-gap dependencies (e.g., Who did the breeder believe (that) the dog bit?) vs. when planning sentences without (e.g., The breeder believed (that) the dog bit them.). Under a certain assumption about the lexical boost effect, this model predicts that the lexical boost effect for that -priming occurs only when prime and target sentences both contain a cross-clausal filler-gap dependency or when neither does. In the current study, a computational model of structural priming implementing the core claims of the previous filler-gap dependency production model was built to show that this prediction coherently follows from the model. The prediction of the model was then tested in five recall-based structural priming experiments. Speakers showed a larger complementizer priming effect when prime and target sentences share a clause-taking verb (i.e., the lexical boost effect). But the lexical boost effect was selective to when both prime and target sentences contained cross-clausal filler-gap dependencies (Experiment 3) and when neither did (Experiment 1). Critically, the lexical boost effect was absent when only either prime or target sentences contained filler-gap dependencies crossing the complementizer structure (Experiments 2, 4, and 5), confirming the prediction of the model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some word-order alternations observed across the world's languages are constrained by specific verb choice, whereas one type of word-order alternation (i.e., scrambling) frequently seen in free word order languages is not lexically-dependent on the verb. Three novel-language learning experiments explore whether speakers latently respect this generalization. If learners show conservativeness that closely reflects statistics from the input, then it would support usage-based and statistical accounts; alternatively, if learners have linguistic biases that allow them to generalize beyond statistics and show generalization similar to typological patterns, then it would support an internal bias account. In each of the three experiments, two groups of English monolinguals learned a Korean-English hybrid language with structural alternations analogous to those found in different categories of natural languages, as defined by whether the language allows scrambling and whether alternations are lexically-dependent on the verb. Learners' generalization patterns in subsequent picture description and acceptability judgment tasks were analyzed. Comprehension data consistently showed that the group which learned alternations found in natural languages with relatively rigid word orders tended to be more verb-wise conservative than the group that learned alternations found in languages with relatively free word orders. Production data trended in the same direction as the comprehension data. Thus, our results suggest that learners have linguistic biases that mirror typological differences that help learners go beyond simple statistics tracking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a sentence like Who does the artist think chased the chef? , the who at the beginning depends on the last bit of the sentence, chased the chef. This is an instance of a long - distance dependency. What is the nature of the cognitive process that allows speakers to produce sentences that include distant elements that form dependencies? In four experiments, speakers described drawings that elicited long-distance dependencies. Critically, speakers were sometimes primed to produce a that in sentences where that was ungrammatical due to a grammatical constraint known as the that -trace constraint (e.g.,* Who does the artist think that chased the chef). Results showed that, when primed to say an ungrammatical that , speakers were slower to start to speak. Because the that -trace constraint applies selectively to certain configurations of long-distance dependencies, this suggests that the grammatical details of the long-distance dependency are already planned before speakers start to speak the sentences involving long-distance dependencies. I propose a formal model that explains how speakers plan long-distance dependencies in advance of speaking them while also managing the cognitive pressure to speak sentences incrementally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study examines how speakers plan sentences in which two words that form hierarchical dependency relationships - arguments and verbs - appear far apart in linear distance, to investigate how linear and hierarchical aspects of sentences simultaneously shape sentence planning processes. The results of six extended picture-word interference experiments suggest that speakers retrieve sentence-final verbs before the articulation of their sentence-initial patient or theme arguments, but not agent arguments, and before retrieving sentence-medial nouns inside modifiers. These results suggest that the time-course of sentence planning reflects hierarchically-defined dependency relationships over and above linear structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report two experiments that suggest that syntactic category plays a key role in limiting competition in lexical access in speaking. We introduce a novel sentence-picture interference (SPI) paradigm, and we show that nouns (e.g., running as a noun) do not compete with verbs (e.g., walking as a verb) and verbs do not compete with nouns in sentence production, regardless of their conceptual similarity. Based on this finding, we argue that lexical competition in production is limited by syntactic category. We also suggest that even complex words containing category-changing derivational morphology can be stored and accessed together with their final syntactic category information. We discuss the potential underlying mechanism and how it may enable us to speak relatively fluently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study examines how speakers plan sentences in which two words that form hierarchical dependency relationships - arguments and verbs - appear far apart in linear distance, to investigate how linear and hierarchical aspects of sentences simultaneously shape sentence planning processes. The results of six extended picture-word interference experiments suggest that speakers retrieve sentence-final verbs before the articulation of their sentence-initial patient or theme arguments, but not agent arguments, and before retrieving sentence-medial nouns inside modifiers. These results suggest that the time-course of sentence planning reflects hierarchically-defined dependency relationships over and above linear structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]