{"title":"Quantification at a distance and grammatical illusions in French","authors":"Jérémy Pasquereau, Brian Dillon, Lyn Frazier","doi":"10.1111/synt.12260","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Recent research in psycholinguistics supports the hypothesis that retrieval from working memory is a key component of establishing syntactic dependencies in comprehension. This can result in so‐called grammatical illusions. These illusions have been modeled as the result of a content‐addressable retrieval process in sentence comprehension that allows grammatically inaccessible licensing elements to be reactivated, creating a spurious perception of acceptability. This article reports five studies that establish the existence of a new grammatical illusion involving quantification at a distance and the licensing of so‐called de NPs in French. Our results suggest that this grammatical illusion is interestingly constrained by syntactic properties of the licensors. Specifically, quantifiers that independently participate in quantification‐at‐a‐distance constructions were seen to create grammatical illusions to a greater extent than quantifiers that do not participate in that construction. Consistent with previous work on the nature of cues in memory retrieval, we suggest that this is the result of fairly specific abstract syntactic cues that guide retrieval of a licensing element. This article thus brings further evidence that syntax is crucially used to structure working memory over the course of a parse.","PeriodicalId":45823,"journal":{"name":"Syntax-A Journal of Theoretical Experimental and Interdisciplinary Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7000,"publicationDate":"2023-10-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Syntax-A Journal of Theoretical Experimental and Interdisciplinary Research","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1111/synt.12260","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"LANGUAGE & LINGUISTICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Abstract Recent research in psycholinguistics supports the hypothesis that retrieval from working memory is a key component of establishing syntactic dependencies in comprehension. This can result in so‐called grammatical illusions. These illusions have been modeled as the result of a content‐addressable retrieval process in sentence comprehension that allows grammatically inaccessible licensing elements to be reactivated, creating a spurious perception of acceptability. This article reports five studies that establish the existence of a new grammatical illusion involving quantification at a distance and the licensing of so‐called de NPs in French. Our results suggest that this grammatical illusion is interestingly constrained by syntactic properties of the licensors. Specifically, quantifiers that independently participate in quantification‐at‐a‐distance constructions were seen to create grammatical illusions to a greater extent than quantifiers that do not participate in that construction. Consistent with previous work on the nature of cues in memory retrieval, we suggest that this is the result of fairly specific abstract syntactic cues that guide retrieval of a licensing element. This article thus brings further evidence that syntax is crucially used to structure working memory over the course of a parse.
期刊介绍:
Syntax publishes a wide range of articles on the syntax of natural languages and closely related fields. The journal promotes work on formal syntactic theory and theoretically-oriented descriptive work on particular languages and comparative grammar. Syntax also publishes research on the interfaces between syntax and related fields such as semantics, morphology, and phonology, as well as theoretical and experimental studies in sentence processing, language acquisition, and other areas of psycholinguistics that bear on syntactic theories. In addition to full length research articles, Syntax features short articles which facilitate a fast review process. ''In the few years of its existence, Syntax quickly became one of the most prominent journals in the field, and unique as a source for high-quality studies at the forefront of research, combining theoretical inquiry and often significant innovation with outstanding descriptive and experimental work. It is indispensable for researchers in the areas it covers.'' Noam Chomsky, Massachusets Institute of Technology, USA