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Related Experiment Video

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The (Spatial) Memory Game: Testing the Relationship Between Spatial Language, Object Knowledge, and Spatial Cognition

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Published on: February 19, 2018

Givenness, complexity, and the Danish dative alternation.

Johannes Kizach¹, Laura Winther Balling

¹Department of Aesthetics and Communication, University of Aarhus, Jens Chr. Skous Vej 4, 8000, Aarhus C, Denmark, engjk@hum.au.dk.

Memory & Cognition

|June 8, 2013

Summary

Syntactic structure processing depends on how information is presented (givenness) and sentence complexity. Optimal complexity enhances givenness effects, while suboptimal complexity neutralizes them, showing structure-building is primary in parsing.

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Published on: October 13, 2018

Area of Science:

Psycholinguistics
Computational Linguistics
Syntactic Processing

Background:

Investigates the interplay between information structure (givenness) and syntactic complexity in language processing.
Examines how the order of elements and their complexity influence the choice of syntactic structures.
Builds upon previous research on the English dative alternation.

Purpose of the Study:

To determine how givenness and complexity interact in the selection of syntactic structures.
To test the hypothesis that syntactic structure-building is primary in online parsing.
To explore the influence of suboptimal complexity relations on discourse-linked effects.

Main Methods:

Two experiments employing speeded acceptability judgments.
Analysis of the Danish dative alternation.
Manipulation of noun phrase (NP) complexity and givenness.

Main Results:

For the Danish dative alternation, given-new orders facilitate processing in double-object/NP constructions but not PP constructions.
The effect of givenness is neutralized under suboptimal complexity (long NP preceding short NP).
Givenness remains influential under optimal complexity relations between NPs.

Conclusions:

Online parsing prioritizes syntactic structure-building over higher-order computations like discourse linking.
The relative complexity of NPs directly impacts the structure-building process.
Suboptimal complexity relations can neutralize the influence of givenness, highlighting the primacy of structural processing.