scholarly journals Comprehension and Eye Movements in the Processing of Subject- and Object-Relative Clauses: Evidence from Dyslexia and Individual Differences

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 915
Author(s):  
Marianna Stella ◽  
Paul E. Engelhardt
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Eye Movements ◽  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Sentence Type ◽  
Main Effect ◽  
Subject And Object ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Processing Difficulty ◽  
Object Relative

In this study, we examined eye movements and comprehension in sentences containing a relative clause. To date, few studies have focused on syntactic processing in dyslexia and so one goal of the study is to contribute to this gap in the experimental literature. A second goal is to contribute to theoretical psycholinguistic debate concerning the cause and the location of the processing difficulty associated with object-relative clauses. We compared dyslexic readers (n = 50) to a group of non-dyslexic controls (n = 50). We also assessed two key individual differences variables (working memory and verbal intelligence), which have been theorised to impact reading times and comprehension of subject- and object-relative clauses. The results showed that dyslexics and controls had similar comprehension accuracy. However, reading times showed participants with dyslexia spent significantly longer reading the sentences compared to controls (i.e., a main effect of dyslexia). In general, sentence type did not interact with dyslexia status. With respect to individual differences and the theoretical debate, we found that processing difficulty between the subject and object relatives was no longer significant when individual differences in working memory were controlled. Thus, our findings support theories, which assume that working memory demands are responsible for the processing difficulty incurred by (1) individuals with dyslexia and (2) object-relative clauses as compared to subject relative clauses.

Processing Subject and Object Relative Clauses: Evidence from Eye Movements

2002 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-90 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew J Traxler ◽  
Robin K Morris ◽  
Rachel E Seely
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Subject And Object ◽  
Object Relative

Canonical word order and interference-based integration costs during sentence comprehension: The case of Spanish subject- and object-relative clauses

2012 ◽  
Vol 65 (11) ◽  
pp. 2108-2128 ◽  
Author(s):  
David del Río ◽  
Ramón López-Higes ◽  
MaríaTeresa Martín-Aragoneses
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Relative Clause ◽  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Sentence Comprehension ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Noncanonical Form ◽  
Object Relative

Object-relative clauses are generally harder to process than subject-relative clauses. Increased processing costs for object-relatives have been attributed either to working memory demands for the establishment of long-distance dependencies or to difficulties processing unexpected, noncanonical structures. The current study uses self-paced reading to contrast the impact of both kinds of factors in Spanish object-relative clauses, manipulating the interposition of the subject of the relative clause between object and verb. In addition, object-relatives were unambiguously marked at their onset with the Spanish preposition “ a”. Reading times increased at the onset and final regions of object-relative clauses, regardless of interference-based working memory costs, although interference costs may affect the processing of post-relative-clause regions. These results suggest that, beyond interference-related working memory costs, end-of-clause integration processes may be affected by a preference for canonical structures, thus increasing processing difficulties when confronted with a noncanonical form.

scholarly journals Who Did What and When? Using Word- and Clause-Level ERPs to Monitor Working Memory Usage in Reading

1995 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 376-395 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan W. King ◽  
Marta Kutas
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Sentence Type ◽  
Syntactic Complexity ◽  
Memory Usage ◽  
Single Word ◽  
Word Level ◽  
Poor Comprehenders ◽  
Anterior Negativity ◽  
Object Relative

ERPs were recorded from 24 undergraduates as they read sentences known to differ in syntactic complexity and working memory requirements, namely Object and Subject Relative sentences. Both the single-word and multiword analyses revealed significant differences due to sentence type, while multiword ERPs also showed that sentence type effects differed for Good and Poor comprehenders. At the single-word level, ERPs to both verbs in Object Relative sentences showed a left anterior negativity between 300 and 500 msec postword-onset relative to those to Subject Relative verbs. At the multiword level, a slow frontal positivity characterized Subject Relative sentences, but was absent for Object Relatives. This slow positivity appears to index ease of processing or integration. and was more robust in Good than in Poor comprehenders.

scholarly journals The Sentence in Its Syntactic and Semantic Aspects in Al-Salimi’s Grammatical Scholarship

2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 5
Author(s):  
Sameer Statiyyeh ◽  
Halah Al Abooshi
Keyword(s):  
Relative Clause ◽  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Subject And Object ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Sentence Classification ◽  
Main Factors ◽  
Semantic Aspect

This research aims at defining the concept of the sentence, its components, and types according to the Omani scholar Abdullah bin Humaid Al-Salimi (1913). Like most Arab grammarians, Al-Salimi concentrated on the syntactic level of the sentence without denying the semantic aspect. Al-Salimi adopted the traditional grammatical concept of the sentence. According to Arab grammarians, the sentence is the minimum structure that makes sense. It consists of two main factors: the subject and object. This concept makes problems when applied to the relative clause and the first part of the conditional clause. Both conditional and relative clauses consist of two elements, i.e. subject and object but they do not make complete meaning. Like traditional grammarians, Al-Salimi divided the sentence according to initiation and implication. Initiation is when the sentence starts with a noun, then it will be classified as a nominal sentence; otherwise it will be considered a verbal sentence. Implication is when the small sentence is implied in the big sentence. This research arrived at some findings which include the following results: 1-Al-Salimi was a traditional grammarian but he had some innovative ideas. 2-Al-Salimi’s approach can be considered structural, but one that does not ignore semantic considerations. 3-The sentence classification in Salimi’s work is built on syntactic principles. 

scholarly journals The Bondei object pronoun in clefts and pseudo-clefts.pdf

1988 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 233-257
Author(s):  
Elizabeth G. Weber
Keyword(s):  
East Africa ◽  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Syntactic Category ◽  
Bantu Language ◽  
Grammatical Construction ◽  
Subject And Object ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Noun Class ◽  
Cleft Constructions

Verbs in Bondei, a Bantu language spoken in East Africa, have crossreferencing pronouns which agree in noun class with the subject and object of the clause. This paper will examine the distribution of the syntactic category object pronoun in four grammatical constructions: (a) basic affirmative declarative clauses; (b) relative clauses; (c) clefts; and (d) pseudo-clefts. In declarative and relative clauses, the presence of the object pronoun does not require a definite interpretation of the object noun; the absence of the object pronoun does not preclude a definite interpretation of the object noun. In both cleft and pseudo-cleft constructions, however, the object pronoun obligatorily functions to grammatically mark clef ted and pseudo-clef ted objects as definite. In the cleft constructions, the definiteness of the clef ted NP forces a contrastive interpretation. Thus, a judgement concerning the function of this grammatical construction with regard to contrastive function will be made on the basis of the distribution of the syntactic category object pronoun. possible to make the same judgment. Contrastive function is unambiguously signaled by the relative morphology on the verb of the pseudo-cleft. In this constuction, the object pronoun serves only to force a definite interpretation of the NP. In the pseudo-cleft constructions, it is not possible to make the same judgment. Contrastive function is unambiguously signaled by the relative morphology on the verb of the pseudo-cleft. In this constuction, the object pronoun serves only to force a definite interpretation of the NP.

The influences of proficiency levels and working memory capacities on sentence comprehension by Japanese learners of English

2015 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
pp. 143-163 ◽  
Author(s):  
Koji Suda
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Relative Clause ◽  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Sentence Comprehension ◽  
Structural Information ◽  
Proficiency Levels ◽  
Japanese Learners Of English ◽  
Japanese Learners ◽  
Object Relative

Examining influences of two participant factors, i.e., proficiency and working memory (WM), in second language (L2) sentence processing, we discuss how Japanese learners of English (JLEs) with distinct proficiency levels and WM capacities comprehend relative clauses in English. Reading times (RTs) were collected from intermediate and elementary levels of JLEs with different WM capacities using a self-paced reading task. The results revealed that: (1) JLEs had difficulty interpreting object relative clauses with animate antecedents; (2) JLEs at the elementary level processed the critical region in subject relative clauses with animate antecedents faster than that in object relative clauses with animate antecedents; (3) JLEs with the large WM capacity read embedded verbs faster than those with the small WM capacity; and (4) RTs of the verb region in the subject relative clause were shorter than those in the object relative clause. From these results, we propose that lower proficient L2 learners depend heavily on animacy information when they comprehend relative clauses though there appears evidence that JLEs also make use of structural information. Moreover, we suggest that WM has a positive role in the L2 comprehension process, similar to findings in previous L2 processing studies.

scholarly journals Four-year-old Cantonese-speaking children's online processing of relative clauses: a permutation analysis

2017 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 174-203 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANGEL CHAN ◽  
WENCHUN YANG ◽  
FRANKLIN CHANG ◽  
EVAN KIDD
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Eye Tracking ◽  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Opposite Effect ◽  
Syntactic Processing ◽  
Frequency Of Occurrence ◽  
Rc Structures ◽  
Online Processing ◽  
Permutation Analysis ◽  
Object Relative

AbstractWe report on an eye-tracking study that investigated four-year-old Cantonese-speaking children's online processing of subject and object relative clauses (RCs). Children's eye-movements were recorded as they listened to RC structures identifying a unique referent (e.g. “Can you pick up the horse that pushed the pig?”). Two RC types, classifier (CL) and ge3 RCs, were tested in a between-participants design. The two RC types differ in their syntactic analyses and frequency of occurrence, providing an important point of comparison for theories of RC acquisition and processing. A permutation analysis showed that the two structures were processed differently: CL RCs showed a significant object-over-subject advantage, whereas ge3 RCs showed the opposite effect. This study shows that children can have different preferences even for two very similar RC structures within the same language, suggesting that syntactic processing preferences are shaped by the unique features of particular constructions both within and across different linguistic typologies.

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