Mayfest 2025 - Constraints on Meaning
When and why are certain meanings missing?
Research
Research at our top-ranked department spans syntax, semantics, phonology, language acquisition, computational linguistics, psycholinguistics and neurolinguistics.
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Featured Research News
The Temporal Dimension of Linguistic Prediction
Wing Yee Chow explores the time course of predicting upcoming words and meanings from their linguistic context, using and eye movements and event-related potentials (ERP).
Non-ARHU Contributor(s): Wing Yee Chow
Dates:
This thesis explores how predictions about upcoming language inputs are computed during real-time language comprehension. Previous research has demonstrated humans’ ability to use rich contextual information to compute linguistic prediction during real-time language comprehension, and it has been widely assumed that contextual information can impact linguistic prediction as soon as it arises in the input. This thesis questions this key assumption and explores how linguistic predictions develop in real- time. I provide event-related potential (ERP) and reading eye-movement (EM) evidence from studies in Mandarin Chinese and English that even prominent and unambiguous information about preverbal arguments’ structural roles cannot immediately impact comprehenders’ verb prediction. I demonstrate that the N400, an ERP response that is modulated by a word’s predictability, becomes sensitive to argument role-reversals only when the time interval for prediction is widened. Further, I provide initial evidence that different sources of contextual information, namely, information about preverbal arguments’ lexical identity vs. their structural roles, may impact linguistic prediction on different time scales. I put forth a research framework that aims to characterize the mental computations underlying linguistic prediction along a temporal dimension.
A note on P-stranding and adjunct extraction from nominals
Larson and Hornstein resist a proposal to assimilate adjunct islands to prohibitions on P-stranding.
Contributor(s): Norbert HornsteinNon-ARHU Contributor(s): Bradley Larson
Dates:
Boskovic 2005, 2008 outlines a phase-based analysis of adjunct extraction in determinerless languages like Serbo-Croation (SC). The analysis is modeled on recent phase based analyses of P-stranding (cf. Abels 2003, 2012) wherein the richness of the functional structure of the PP determines whether extraction is possible. This squib identifies a problem for a unified analysis of these two phenomena. Prohibitions of adjunct extraction are obviated under sluicing while prohibitions of p-stranding are not.
A Movement Account of Long-Distance Reflexives
Binding of medium- and long-distance reflexives is a movement dependency, argues Rebecca McKeown, with attention to Icelandic (sig), Chinese (ziji), Japanese (zibun) and Kannada (tannu).
Non-ARHU Contributor(s): Rebecca McKeown
Dates:
This thesis examines reflexive pronouns, such as Icelandic sig (Cf. Thráinsson 2007), which may be bound from outside of an infinitive clause (which I call MD “medium distance” binding) in addition to being bound locally. I propose that such reflexives are linked to their antecedents via sisterhood followed by movement: the reflexive and antecedent are first merged together as sisters, and the antecedent subsequently moves to receive its first theta-role, as schematized below:
1. He ordered Harold to shave he+sig
This links the properties of bound simplex reflexives to the properties of movement. I argue that reflexives such as sig must be bound within the first finite clause because finite CP is a spell-out domain and its escape hatch is inaccessible to A-movement. Furthermore, I derive the subject-orientation of sig and other simplex reflexives from merge-over-move, combined with a numeration divided into phases including vP. Since the antecedent is moving into its first theta-role, and merge is preferable to move, the antecedent will end up in the highest position in the phase: that is, the subject.
I then examine long-distance (LD) uses of sig as well as Chinese ziji, Japanese zibun, and Kannada tannu. I propose that in such cases the reflexive still has a double, which is not the antecedent but a null element, possibly an operator. It undergoes A’ movement to a position in the left periphery of a finite clause, associated with point-of- view (with a divided left periphery as in Speas 2004)—and this operator is in turn associated with an antecedent either outside the finite clause, or outside the sentence entirely. This accounts for the observation that LD reflexives often must refer to POV holders (Sells 1987). Evidence for LD reflexives being mediated by an A’ position comes from the interaction of binding with wh-movement in Kannada (Lidz 2008), and is one way of describing where blocking effects do and do not occur in Chinese (Anand 2006). Furthermore, in Japanese there are sometimes overt morphemes, potentially left- periphery heads, that indicate POV and can co-occur with the use of LD reflexives (Nishigauchi 2005, 2010).
Grammar Deconstructed: Constructions and the Curious Case of the Comparative Correlative
A Minimalist analysis of comparative correlatives, like "The longer you stay, the colder you'll get," opposed to the view that they are constructional primitives.
Non-ARHU Contributor(s): Heather Taylor
Dates:
Comparative correlatives, like the longer you stay out in the rain, the colder you’ll get, are prolific in the world’s languages (i.e., there is no evidence of a language that lacks comparative correlatives). Despite this observation, the data do not present a readily apparent syntax. What is the relationship between the two clauses? What is the main verb? What is English’s the which obligatorily appears at the start of each clause?
This thesis reviews prior analyses of comparative correlatives, both syntactic and semantic (Fillmore, 1987; McCawley, 1988; McCawley, 1998; Beck, 1997; Culicover & Jackendoff, 1999; Borsley, 2003; Borsley, 2004; den Dikken, 2005; Abeillé, Borsley & Espinal, 2007; Lin, 2007). A formal syntactic analysis of comparative correlatives is presented which accounts for its syntactic behaviors across several languages. Most notably, it challenges the assumption that constructions are essential primitives for the successful derivation and interpretation of the data (Fillmore, 1987; McCawley, 1988; Culicover & Jackendoff, 1999; Borsley, 2003; Borsley, 2004; Abeillé, Borsley & Espinal, 2007). The analysis is framed within the goals of the Minimalist Program (Chomsky 1993, 1995a), specifically with respect to endocentricity and Bare Phrase Structure (Chomsky 1995b).
Crosslingustically, the first clause is subordinate to the second clause, the main clause. A’-movement (e.g., Topicalization, wh-movement, Focus) out of each clause proceeds successive-cyclically and, in the case of the subordinate clause, via sideward movement (Nunes 1995, 2004; Hornstein, 2001). In English, the word the which obligatorily appears at the start of each clause in English is a Force0. This provides an explanation for the ban on Subject-Aux Inversion (SAI) in the entire expression. The degree phrases which are present in each clause of a comparative correlative crosslinguistically contain a quantifier phrase in Spec,DegP; this quantifier is phonetically null in English.
This thesis concludes by presenting conceptual arguments against constructions as primitives in the grammar. Bare Phrase Structure (BPS) (Chomsky, 1995b) is included in the system by virtue of virtual conceptual necessity (VCN). Since constructions do not meet the criteria of VCN, their existence would compromise the principles of BPS. Further, when applied carefully, BPS renders constructions unable to be defined.
Parameters in Language Acquisition
"Parameters" are abstract features of grammar that govern many different observable structures and may vary across languages. Lisa Pearl and Jeff Lidz explore how this notion is used in theories of typology and acquisition.
Contributor(s): Jeffrey LidzNon-ARHU Contributor(s): Lisa Pearl
Dates:
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
"Parameters" are abstract features of grammar that govern many different observable structures and may vary across languages. Lisa Pearl and Jeff Lidz explore how this notion is used in theories of typology and acquisition.
Word-level information influences phonetic learning in adults and infants
How do infants learn the phonetic categories of their language? The words they occur can provide a useful cue, shows Naomi Feldman.
Contributor(s): Naomi FeldmanNon-ARHU Contributor(s): Emily Myers, Katherine White, Thomas Griffiths, James Morgan
Dates:
Infants begin to segment words from fluent speech during the same time period that they learn phonetic categories. Segmented words can provide a potentially useful cue for phonetic learning, yet accounts of phonetic category acquisition typically ignore the contexts in which sounds appear. We present two experiments to show that, contrary to the assumption that phonetic learning occurs in isolation, learners are sensitive to the words in which sounds appear and can use this information to constrain their interpretation of phonetic variability. Experiment 1 shows that adults use word-level information in a phonetic category learning task, assigning acoustically similar vowels to different categories more often when those sounds consistently appear in different words. Experiment 2 demonstrates that eight-month-old infants similarly pay attention to word-level information and that this information affects how they treat phonetic contrasts. These findings suggest that phonetic category learning is a rich, interactive process that takes advantage of many different types of cues that are present in the input.
No semantic illusions in the 'Semantic P600' phenomenon: ERP evidence from Mandarin Chinese
Do ERP date indicate that semantics runs independently of syntax in comprehension? Wing Yee Chow and Colin Phillips evaluate the evidence and say No.
Contributor(s): Colin PhillipsNon-ARHU Contributor(s): Wing-Yee Chow
Dates:
Recent observations of unexpected ERP responses to grammatically well-formed role reversed sentences (the “Semantic P600” phenomenon) have been taken to bear directly on questions about the architecture of the language processing system. This paper evaluates two central pieces of evidence for accounts that propose a syntax-independent semantic composition mechanism, namely, the presence of P600 effects and the absence of N400 effects in role reversed sentences. Experiment 1 examined the relative contribution of the presence of an animacy violation and the semantic relations between words (‘combinability’) to the ERP responses to role-reversed sentences. Experiment 2 examined the ERP responses to role-reversed sentences that are fully animacy-congruous. Results from the two experiments showed that animacy-violated sentences with no plausible non-surface interpretation elicited the same P600 effect as both types of role-reversed sentences; additionally, semantically anomalous target words elicited no N400 effects when they were strongly semantically related to the preceding words, regardless of the presence of animacy violations. Taken together, these findings suggest that the presence of P600s to role-reversed sentences can be attributed to the implausibility of the sentence meaning, and the absence of N400 effects is due to a combination of weak contextual constraints and strong lexical association. The presence of a plausible non-surface interpretation and animacy violations made no unique contribution to the ERP response profiles. Hence, existing ERP findings are compatible with the long-held assumption that online semantic composition is dependent on surface syntax and do not constitute evidence for a syntax-independent semantic composition mechanism.
What Complexity Differences Reveal About Domains in Language
Do humans learn phonology differently than they do syntax? Yes, argue Bill Idsardi and Jeff Heinz, as this is the best explanation for why phonological but not syntactic patterns all belong to the regular region of the Chomsky Hierarchy.
Contributor(s): William IdsardiNon-ARHU Contributor(s): Jeffrey Heinz
Dates:
An important distinction between phonology and syntax has been overlooked. All phonological patterns belong to the regular region of the Chomsky Hierarchy, but not all syntactic patterns do. We argue that the hypothesis that humans employ distinct learning mechanisms for phonology and syntax currently offers the best explanation for this difference.
Read More about What Complexity Differences Reveal About Domains in Language
Arabic Conjunct-Sensitive Agreement and Primitive Operations
The puzzle of subject-agreement in varieties of Arabic.
Non-ARHU Contributor(s): Bradley Larson
Dates:
In some Arabic dialects pre-verbal coordinated subjects cause plural agreement on the verb while post-verbal ones cause either plural agreement or singular agreement. This paradigm has been addressed by Aoun, Benmamoun, and Sportiche (1994, 1999) and Munn (1999) to varying degrees of success. This reply offers an improvement on the previous analyses by utilizing the concept of decomposed merge (Hornstein 2009) whereby merge is reanalyzed as two suboperations. Previously unexplained cases that flaunt the paradigm are explained here by a decomposition of the extension condition (Chomsky 1995) and a derivational account of pronoun binding across coordination.
Dissociating N400 effects of prediction from association in single word contexts
The N400 component in ERP is modulated both by the predictability of the stimulus, and by its congruence with the semantic context. Ellen Lau and collaborators show that the effect of the former is much greater.
Contributor(s): Ellen LauNon-ARHU Contributor(s): Phillip Holcomb, Gina Kuperberg
Dates:
When a word is preceded by a supportive context such as a semantically associated word or a strongly constraining sentence frame, the N400 component of the ERP is reduced in amplitude. An ongoing debate is the degree to which this reduction reflects a passive spread of activation across long-term semantic memory representations as opposed to specific predictions about upcoming input. We addressed this question by embedding semantically associated prime-target pairs within an experimental context that encouraged prediction to a greater or lesser degree. The proportion of related items was used to manipulate the predictive validity of the prime for the target while holding semantic association constant. A semantic category probe detection task was used to encourage semantic processing and to preclude the need for a motor response on the trials of interest. A larger N400 reduction to associated targets was observed in the high than the low relatedness proportion condition, consistent with the hypothesis that predictions about upcoming stimuli make a substantial contribution to the N400 effect. We also observed an earlier priming effect (205-240 ms) in the high proportion condition, which may reflect facilitation due to form-based prediction. In sum, the results suggest that predictability modulates N400 amplitude to a greater degree than the semantic content of the context.