On the nature of island constraints I: Language processing and reductionist accounts

This chapter discusses how the Minimalist Program (MP) strives to model unbounded dependency constructions and island constraints, and discusses the empirical, theoretical and cognitive status of syntactic displacement (movement), as formalized in terms of Internal Merge. At the present time, modelling filler-gap dependencies via movement faces significant theoretical and empirical issues. There is no parsimonious account of successive cyclic movement in the MP because of the Triggering Problem, nor of convergent and cumulative filler-gap dependencies. Other problems concern island phenomena, which have been argued to follow from core architectural economy constraints, but which make incorrect predictions not only about islands, but also about unbounded dependency constructions more generally. Finally, the MP has also been difficult to reconcile with extant psycholinguistic evidence about language processing. All recent attempts to make the MP consistent with incremental sentence processing adopt phrase-structural information, and abandon movement altogether.

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Relating structure and time in linguistics and psycholinguistics

The Oxford Handbook of Psycholinguistics ◽

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198568971.013.0045 ◽

2007 ◽

pp. 738-756 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Colin Phillips ◽

Matthew Wagers

Keyword(s):

Language Processing ◽

Experimental Studies ◽

Statistical Analyses ◽

Long Distance ◽

Linguistic Research ◽

The Status ◽

Specialized Equipment ◽

Island Constraints ◽

Syntactic Dependencies ◽

Large Groups

The field of psycholinguistics advertises its mentalistic commitments in its name. The field of linguistics does not. Psycholinguistic research frequently involves ingenious experimental designs, fancy lab equipment such as eye-trackers or electroencephalograms, large groups of experimental subjects, and detailed statistical analyses. Linguistic research typically requires no specialized equipment, no statistical analyses, and somewhere between zero and a handful of cooperative informants. This article examines issues in the representation of unbounded syntactic dependencies, as a case study of what psycholinguistic methods can and cannot tell us about linguistic questions, and vice versa. The status of constraints on long-distance dependencies, such as the ban on dependencies that span relative clause boundaries, is a major topic of linguistic research. This article discusses the effects of such constraints on language processing, and their implications for the relation between linguistic and psycholinguistic models. It reviews experimental studies of island constraints on dependencies.

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Language processing is not a race against time

Behavioral and Brain Sciences ◽

10.1017/s0140525x15000692 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 39 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Giosuè Baggio ◽

Carmelo M. Vicario

Keyword(s):

Information Processing ◽

Human Brain ◽

Language Processing ◽

Cognitive Functions ◽

Memory Systems ◽

Language System ◽

Moderating Factors

AbstractWe agree with Christiansen & Chater (C&C) that language processing and acquisition are tightly constrained by the limits of sensory and memory systems. However, the human brain supports a range of cognitive functions that mitigate the effects of information processing bottlenecks. The language system is partly organised around these moderating factors, not just around restrictions on storage and computation.

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Cognitive Processing of Miscommunication in Interactive Listening: An Evaluation of Listener Indecision and Cognitive Effort

Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research ◽

10.1044/2020_jslhr-20-00128 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-17

Author(s):

Jennifer M. Roche ◽

Arkady Zgonnikov ◽

Laura M. Morett

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Cognitive Processing ◽

Language Processing ◽

Cognitive Effort ◽

Mouse Tracking ◽

Computer Mouse ◽

Decision Making Processes ◽

Computer Mouse Tracking ◽

Listening Task ◽

Processing Effort

Purpose The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the social and cognitive underpinnings of miscommunication during an interactive listening task. Method An eye and computer mouse–tracking visual-world paradigm was used to investigate how a listener's cognitive effort (local and global) and decision-making processes were affected by a speaker's use of ambiguity that led to a miscommunication. Results Experiments 1 and 2 found that an environmental cue that made a miscommunication more or less salient impacted listener language processing effort (eye-tracking). Experiment 2 also indicated that listeners may develop different processing heuristics dependent upon the speaker's use of ambiguity that led to a miscommunication, exerting a significant impact on cognition and decision making. We also found that perspective-taking effort and decision-making complexity metrics (computer mouse tracking) predict language processing effort, indicating that instances of miscommunication produced cognitive consequences of indecision, thinking, and cognitive pull. Conclusion Together, these results indicate that listeners behave both reciprocally and adaptively when miscommunications occur, but the way they respond is largely dependent upon the type of ambiguity and how often it is produced by the speaker.

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