The Bilingual Mind Research Group, Department of Linguistics and Basque Studies, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), Vitoria-Gasteiz, Basque Country, Spain.
University of Deusto (DBS), Bilbao, Basque Country, Spain.
PLoS One. 2022 Aug 3;17(8):e0272211. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0272211. eCollection 2022.
Experimental research on argument structure has reported mixed results regarding the processing of unaccusative and unergative predicates. Using eye tracking in the visual world paradigm, this study seeks to fill a gap in the literature by presenting new evidence of the processing distinction between agent and theme subjects. We considered two hypotheses. First, the Unaccusative Hypothesis states that unaccusative (theme) subjects involve a more complex syntactic representation than unergative (agent) subjects. It predicts a delayed reactivation of unaccusative subjects compared to unergatives after the presentation of the verb. Second, the Agent First Hypothesis states that the first ambiguous NP of a sentence will preferably be interpreted as an agent due to an attentional preference to agents over themes. It predicts a larger reactivation of agent subjects than themes. We monitored the time course of gaze fixations of 44 native speakers across a visual display while processing sentences with unaccusative, unergative and transitive verbs. One of the pictures in the visual display was semantically related to the sentential subject. We analyzed fixation patterns in three different time frames: the verb frame, the post-verb frame, and the global post-verbal frame. Results indicated that sentential subjects across the three conditions were significantly activated when participants heard the verb; this is compatible with observing a post-verbal reactivation effect. Time course and magnitude of the gaze-fixation patterns are fully compatible with the predictions made by the Agent First Hypothesis. Thus, we report new evidence for (a) a processing distinction between unaccusative and unergative predicates in sentence comprehension, and (b) an attentional preference towards agents over themes, reflected by a larger reactivation effect in agent subjects.
实验语法结构研究对非宾格动词和非作格动词的加工结果报道不一。本研究采用视觉世界范式中的眼动追踪技术，旨在通过提供关于主语为施事和主题的区分加工的新证据来填补文献中的空白。我们考虑了两个假设。首先，非宾格假设认为非宾格（主题）主语比非作格（施事）主语具有更复杂的句法表示。它预测在动词呈现后，非宾格主语的重新激活会比非作格主语延迟。其次，施事优先假设认为，由于对施事的注意偏好，句子的第一个歧义性 NP 会优先被解释为施事。它预测施事主语的再激活会大于主题主语。我们监测了 44 位母语为英语的被试在处理带非宾格、非作格和及物动词的句子时注视点的时间进程。视觉显示中有一张图片与句子主语在语义上相关。我们在三个不同的时间框架内分析注视模式：动词框架、动词后框架和整体动词后框架。结果表明，当参与者听到动词时，三个条件下的句子主语都被显著激活；这与观察到的动词后再激活效应是一致的。注视模式的时间进程和幅度与施事优先假设的预测完全一致。因此，我们报告了新的证据，证明了（a）在句子理解中，非宾格动词和非作格动词的加工存在区分，以及（b）对施事的注意偏好强于主题，反映在施事主语的再激活效应更大。
