<OT> New Posting: ROA-796

[roa at ruccs.rutgers.edu]

ROA 796-0106

Incremental distinguishability of subject and object

Helen de Hoop <H.deHoop at let.ru.nl>
Monique J.A. Lamers <M.Lamers at let.ru.nl>

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/view.php3?roa=796


Abstract:
The subject and the object in a transitive clause should
be distinguishable. We discuss five different ways in which
distinguishability can be obtained: (i) case morphology,
(ii) agreement, (iii) selectional criteria of the verb,
(iv) word order, and (v) prominence, in particular animacy.
We argue that these different sources of information can
be viewed as violable and potentially conflicting constraints
that play an important role in the incremental process of
interpretation. We propose a new model of incremental optimizatio
n of interpretation and argue that we can thus account for
the findings of several on-line studies in which distinguishabili
ty was manipulated.

Comments: to appear in L. Kulikov, A. Malchukov, and P. de Swart (eds.) Case, Valency, and Transitivity. Benjamins, Amsterdam.
Keywords: distinguishability, optimization, incremental interpretation
Areas: Psycholinguistics, Formal Analysis
Type: Manuscript

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/view.php3?roa=796