The connection between verbs and argument structures: Native speaker production of the double object dative

Kate Wolfe-Quintero

doi:10.1017/s0142716400010055

The connection between verbs and argument structures: Native speaker production of the double object dative

Applied Psycholinguistics ◽

10.1017/s0142716400010055 ◽

1998 ◽

Vol 19 (2) ◽

pp. 225-257 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Kate Wolfe-Quintero

Keyword(s):

Argument Structure ◽

Native Speaker ◽

A Priori ◽

Lexical Representation ◽

Class Membership ◽

Double Object ◽

Written Production ◽

Semantic Classes ◽

Verb Argument Structure ◽

Structure Complexity

AbstractThis study is an investigation of the patterns and strength of the connections between English dative verbs and the double object dative (DOD) argument structure in native speaker production. The subjects completed three written production tasks using dative and other verbs from different semantic classes of verbs. The results show that alternating dative verbs varied in their patterns of connection to argument structures, but were consistent in the strength of their connection to the DOD argument structure across subjects and tasks. There was no support for production differences due to verb class membership, but the results do support a model of lexical representation that represents variable strengths of association between individual verbs and argument structures. With respect to the design of production and processing studies, the results do not support the treatment of alternating dative verbs as a unitary group, nor a priori assumptions about relative argument structure complexity between alternating and nonalternating verbs, but do support the use of production tasks to determine individual verb argument structure preferences.

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Neural Mechanisms of Verb Argument Structure Processing in Agrammatic Aphasic and Healthy Age-matched Listeners

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience ◽

10.1162/jocn.2009.21334 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 22 (9) ◽

pp. 1993-2011 ◽

Cited By ~ 47

Author(s):

Cynthia K. Thompson ◽

Borna Bonakdarpour ◽

Stephen F. Fix

Keyword(s):

Sentence Processing ◽

Argument Structure ◽

Right Hemisphere ◽

Semantic Integration ◽

Neural Mechanisms ◽

Angular Gyrus ◽

Decision Task ◽

Verb Argument Structure ◽

Verb Processing ◽

Structure Complexity

Processing of lexical verbs involves automatic access to argument structure entries entailed within the verb's representation. Recent neuroimaging studies with young normal listeners suggest that this involves bilateral posterior peri-sylvian tissue, with graded activation in these regions on the basis of argument structure complexity. The aim of the present study was to examine the neural mechanisms of verb processing using fMRI in older normal volunteers and patients with stroke-induced agrammatic aphasia, a syndrome in which verb, as compared to noun, production often is selectively impaired, but verb comprehension in both on-line and off-line tasks is spared. Fourteen healthy listeners and five age-matched aphasic patients performed a lexical decision task, which examined verb processing by argument structure complexity, namely, one-argument [i.e., intransitive (v1)], two-argument [i.e., transitive (v2)], and three-argument (v3) verbs. Results for the age-matched listeners largely replicated those for younger participants studied by Thompson et al. [Thompson, C. K., Bonakdarpour, B., Fix, S. C., Blumenfeld, H. K., Parrish, T. B., Gitelman, D. R., et al. Neural correlates of verb argument structure processing. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 19, 1753–1767, 2007]: v3 − v1 comparisons showed activation of the angular gyrus in both hemispheres and this same heteromodal region was activated in the left hemisphere in the (v2 + v3) − v1 contrast. Similar results were derived for the agrammatic aphasic patients, however, activation was unilateral (in the right hemisphere for three participants) rather than bilateral, likely because these patients' lesions extended to the left temporo-parietal region. All performed the task with high accuracy and, despite differences in lesion site and extent, they recruited spared tissue in the same regions as healthy subjects. Consistent with psycholinguistic models of sentence processing, these findings indicate that the posterior language network is engaged for processing verb argument structure and is crucial for semantic integration of argument structure information.

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Processing verb argument structure across languages: Evidence for shared representations in the bilingual lexicon

Applied Psycholinguistics ◽

10.1017/s0142716407070348 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 28 (4) ◽

pp. 627-660 ◽

Cited By ~ 53

Author(s):

ANGELIKI SALAMOURA ◽

JOHN N. WILLIAMS

Keyword(s):

Argument Structure ◽

Syntactic Structure ◽

Double Object ◽

Thematic Role ◽

Advanced Learners ◽

Shared Representations ◽

Bilingual Lexicon ◽

Verb Argument Structure ◽

Bilingual Literature ◽

Prepositional Object

Although the organization of first language (L1) and second language (L2) lexicosemantic information has been extensively studied in the bilingual literature, little evidence exists concerning how syntactic information associated with words is represented across languages. The present study examines the shared or independent nature of the representation of verb argument structure in the bilingual mental lexicon and the contribution of constituent order and thematic role information in these representations. In three production tasks, Greek (L1) advanced learners of English (L2) generated an L1 prime structure (Experiment 1: prepositional object [PO] and double object [DO] structures; Experiment 2: PO, DO, and intransitive structures; Experiment 3: PO, DO, locative, and “provide (someone) with (something)” structures) before completing an L2 target structure (PO or DO only). Experiment 1 showed L1-to-L2 syntactic priming; participants tended to reuse L1 structure when producing L2 utterances. Experiments 2 and 3 showed that this tendency was contingent on the combination of both syntactic structure and thematic roles up to the first postverbal argument. Based on these findings, we outline a model of shared representations of syntactic and thematic information for L1 and L2 verbs in the bilingual lexicon.

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Neural Correlates of Verb Argument Structure Processing

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience ◽

10.1162/jocn.2007.19.11.1753 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 19 (11) ◽

pp. 1753-1767 ◽

Cited By ~ 105

Author(s):

Cynthia K. Thompson ◽

Borna Bonakdarpour ◽

Stephen C. Fix ◽

Henrike K. Blumenfeld ◽

Todd B. Parrish ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Argument Structure ◽

Neural Tissue ◽

Semantic Integration ◽

Structure Information ◽

Single Argument ◽

Verb Argument Structure ◽

Word Classes ◽

Lesion Studies ◽

Linguistic Dimension ◽

Structure Complexity

Neuroimaging and lesion studies suggest that processing of word classes, such as verbs and nouns, is associated with distinct neural mechanisms. Such studies also suggest that subcategories within these broad word class categories are differentially processed in the brain. Within the class of verbs, argument structure provides one linguistic dimension that distinguishes among verb exemplars, with some requiring more complex argument structure entries than others. This study examined the neural instantiation of verbs by argument structure complexity: one-, two-, and three-argument verbs. Stimuli of each type, along with nouns and pseudowords, were presented for lexical decision using an event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging design. Results for 14 young normal participants indicated largely overlapping activation maps for verbs and nouns, with no areas of significant activation for verbs compared to nouns, or vice versa. Pseudowords also engaged neural tissue overlapping with that for both word classes, with more widespread activation noted in visual, motor, and peri-sylvian regions. Examination of verbs by argument structure revealed activation of the supramarginal and angular gyri, limited to the left hemisphere only when verbs with two obligatory arguments were compared to verbs with a single argument. However, bilateral activation was noted when both two- and three-argument verbs were compared to one-argument verbs. These findings suggest that posterior peri-sylvian regions are engaged for processing argument structure information associated with verbs, with increasing neural tissue in the inferior parietal region associated with increasing argument structure complexity. These findings are consistent with processing accounts, which suggest that these regions are crucial for semantic integration.

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The cognitive neural mechanisms of verb argument structure complexity processing

Advances in Psychological Science ◽

10.3724/sp.j.1042.2020.00062 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 28 (1) ◽

pp. 62

Author(s):

Xin WANG ◽

Mingli HANG ◽

Dandan LIANG

Keyword(s):

Argument Structure ◽

Neural Mechanisms ◽

Verb Argument Structure ◽

Structure Complexity

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Maîtrise des clitiques datifs dans les structures bitransitives en français L2 par des apprenants anglophones : influence de la structure argumentale de la L1

Canadian Journal of Applied Linguistics ◽

10.37213/cjal.2021.26419 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 24 (3) ◽

pp. 30-60

Author(s):

Louisette Emirkanian ◽

Leslie Redmond ◽

Adel Jebali

Keyword(s):

Argument Structure ◽

Double Object ◽

Object Structure ◽

Follow Up Study ◽

Dative Alternation ◽

Verb Argument Structure ◽

L1 Influence ◽

French And English ◽

Verb Meaning

The objective of this study is to measure the influence of L1 verb argument structure, as well as verb meaning, on the mastery of dative clitics in French as a second language for a group of Anglophone learners. More specifically, we focus on ditransitive structures. While French and English share the V NP PP structure, English also has a double-object structure, V NP NP, for a subset of verbs. The results of our study show that L1 argument structure influences the mastery of dative clitics in French, especially for verbs that only accept the double-object structure in English. Further, the behaviour of our participants with verbs that accept the dative alternation led us to conduct a follow-up study. The findings show that verb meaning also influences performance with dative clitics, but this effect cannot be explained by L1 influence.

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Frequency Sensitivity of Neural Responses to English Verb Argument Structure Violations

Collabra Psychology ◽

10.1525/collabra.87 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 4 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Jona Sassenhagen ◽

Ryan Blything ◽

Elena V. M. Lieven ◽

Ben Ambridge

Keyword(s):

Statistical Learning ◽

High Frequency ◽

Argument Structure ◽

Low Frequency ◽

Event Related Potentials ◽

Neural Responses ◽

Online Processing ◽

Verb Argument Structure ◽

Related Potentials ◽

Intransitive Verbs

How are verb-argument structure preferences acquired? Children typically receive very little negative evidence, raising the question of how they come to understand the restrictions on grammatical constructions. Statistical learning theories propose stochastic patterns in the input contain sufficient clues. For example, if a verb is very common, but never observed in transitive constructions, this would indicate that transitive usage of that verb is illegal. Ambridge et al. (2008) have shown that in offline grammaticality judgements of intransitive verbs used in transitive constructions, low-frequency verbs elicit higher acceptability ratings than high-frequency verbs, as predicted if relative frequency is a cue during statistical learning. Here, we investigate if the same pattern also emerges in on-line processing of English sentences. EEG was recorded while healthy adults listened to sentences featuring transitive uses of semantically matched verb pairs of differing frequencies. We replicate the finding of higher acceptabilities of transitive uses of low- vs. high-frequency intransitive verbs. Event-Related Potentials indicate a similar result: early electrophysiological signals distinguish between misuse of high- vs low-frequency verbs. This indicates online processing shows a similar sensitivity to frequency as off-line judgements, consistent with a parser that reflects an original acquisition of grammatical constructions via statistical cues. However, the nature of the observed neural responses was not of the expected, or an easily interpretable, form, motivating further work into neural correlates of online processing of syntactic constructions.

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