Title: Object fronting
1Object fronting
- Helen de Hoop
- based on joint work with
- Monique Lamers
2Object fronting
- Object fronting in Dutch
- Dat weet ik zeker case
- that know I sure
- Het lijk heeft Jan verstopt animacy
- the corpse has Jan hidden
- Jan sloeg Piet word order
- Jan hit Piet
3Overview
- Distinguishability
- Incremental optimization of interpretation
- Evidence from ERPs
- Three types of verbs
- Evidence from rating studies
- Evidence from a production study
- A bidirectional perspective
- Conclusion
4Distinguishability
- Case can help to identify the first NP as the
object - Latin
- puer-um magister laudat
- boyACC teacher praises
- The teacher praises the boy.
5Distinguishability
Prediction There is also a part 1
6Distinguishability
- part 2 ? part 1
- ACC ? subject
- Within the domain of language comprehension, it
is well established that syntactic dependencies
give rise to predictive parsing (Gibson, 1998).
For example, the processing of an unambiguously
identifiable object will give rise to the
prediction of a subject.
7Distinguishability
Den Zaun habe ich zerbrochen the fenceACC have
INOM broken The fence, I broke.
8Distinguishability
- Den Zaun habe ich zerbrochen
- Distinguishability of subject and object
- Case
- Agreement
- Prominence (animacy)
- Selection
- Precedence (word order)
9Distinguishability
Die Studentin hat die Professorin geschlagen The
student hit the professor.
10Distinguishability
- Die Studentin hat die Professorin geschlagen
- Distinguishability of subject and object
- Case
- Agreement
- Prominence (animacy)
- Selection
- Precedence (word order)
11Distinguishability
The holiday pleased the man The man liked the
holiday
12Distinguishability
The holiday pleased the man
- Distinguishability of subject and object
- Case
- Agreement
- Prominence (animacy)
- Selection
- Precedence (word order)
13Distinguishability
- Case the subject is in the nominative case, the
object in the accusative - Agreement the subject agrees with the verb
- Prominence (animacy) the subject outranks the
object in animacy - Selection Fit the selection restrictions of the
verb. - Precedence (word order) the subject linearly
precedes the object
14Determining the ranking
15Determining the ranking
16Determining the ranking
17Determining the ranking
18Determining the ranking
19Determining the ranking
20The ranking of the constraints
- Case, Agreement
- Selection
- Precedence
- Prominence
21Incremental optimization
- During sentence processing the optimal
interpretation is being built up incrementally
(word-by-word or constituent-by-constituent) - System of ranked constraints
22Incremental optimization
- Optimal interpretation at time t
- Jumping from one interpretation to the other
- ERP studies
- Lamers 2001
23Incremental optimization
24Incremental optimization
25Incremental optimization
26Incremental optimization
27Incremental optimization
28Incremental optimization
29Incremental optimization
30Evidence from ERPs
31Evidence from ERPs
32Evidence from ERPs
33case
animacy
De oude vrouw/Het oude park verzorgde hij
De oude vrouw in de straat verzorgde hem/hij
34Evidence from ERPs
- De oude vrouw verzorgde hem
- Het oude park verzorgde hij
- De oude vrouw verzorgde hij
- (2) gets an OI reading at the verb (SELECTION)
- (3) gets an OI reading at the pronoun (CASE)
- Lamers (2001) reports similar ERP effects at the
verb in (2) and at the pronoun in (3)
35Evidence from ERPs
- De oude vrouw verzorgde hem
- Het oude park verzorgde hij
- De oude vrouw verzorgde hij
- Lamers (2001) reports similar ERP effects at the
verb in (2) and at the pronoun in (3) - At the verb in (2) and at the pronoun in (3)
there is a jump from an SI to an OI reading
(thereby violating PRECEDENCE)
36Evidence from ERPs
- Identical ERP effects correspond to identical
patterns of constraint violations
37Three types of verbs
- agentive experiencer-theme verbs
- Call (xAgent, yTheme)
- The secretary called the customer
- causative psych/theme-experiencer verbs
- Frighten (xTheme/Stim, yExp)
- The secretary frightened us.
- unaccusative psych verbs
- Please (xTheme, yExp)
- The secretary pleased us.
38Three types of verbs
- agentive experiencer-theme verbs
- Dat de toerist de stad zeer bewonderde ltSIgt
- that the tourist the city a-lot admired
- Dat de stad de toerist zeer bewonderde ltOIgt
- that the city the tourist a-lot admired
39Three types of verbs
- causative psych verbs
- Dat de stad de toerist zeer deprimeerde ltSIgt
- that the city the tourist a-lot depressed
- Dat de toerist de stad zeer deprimeerde ltOIgt
- that the tourist the city a-lot depressed
40Three types of verbs
- unaccusative psych verbs
- Dat de stad de toerist zeer beviel ltSIgt
- that the city the tourist a-lot pleased
- Dat de toerist de stad zeer beviel ltOIgt
- that the tourist the city a-lot pleased
41Evidence from rating studies
Black Lamers (2001) Orange Lamers (2005)
42Evidence from rating studies
- General preference for subject-initial sentences
- Strongest SI preference for agentive verbs
- Highest rating of OI sentences for unaccusative
psych verbs
43Evidence from rating studies
- Where do these differences between the three
types of verbs come from? - Strongest SI preference for agentive verbs
- Subject first
- Animate first
44Evidence from rating studies
- Psych verbs have an animate object
- Therefore, only one of the two constraints can be
satisfied - Subject first ? SI
- Animate first ? OI
45Three types of verbs
- But then, what is the difference between
unaccusative and psych verbs? - Highest rating of OI sentences for unaccusative
psych verbs - Production experiment (Hofmans Lamers 2006)
46A production study
- 30 normal participants (6 Broca aphasics)
- 12 sets of three verbs with an animate
inanimate NPs (2 combinations for each set of
verbs) - three conditions for each verb
- -no first NP given
- -animate first
- -inanimate first
depress student exam
47 ANIMATE FIRST
SUBJECT FIRST
48A production study
- Subject First
- Animate First
- Conflict between these two results in a higher
occurrence of passive constructions with
causative psych verbs satisfying both
constraints, and a higher occurrence of OI
constructions satisfying Animate First with
unaccusative psych verbs.
49A bidirectional perspective
But then, what is the difference between
unaccusative and psych verbs?
- Difference in rating can be explained in a
bidirectional approach in which the hearer takes
the speakers perspective into account.
50A bidirectional perspective
- When a speaker wants to start with the animate
argument, she can use a passive construction in
case of a causative psych verb (thereby
satisfying Subject First as well), but not in
case of an unaccusative psych verb. Thus, for
unaccusative psych verbs, only an OI sentence
leads to satisfaction of Animate First.
51Conclusions
- Subject First is more important than Animate
First. - If a speaker wants to satisfy Subject First as
well as Animate First, then a conflict may arise
in the case of psych verbs (that have animate
objects). - To solve the conflict, a passive construction may
be used (which implies satisfaction of both
constraints). - But if passive formation is not possible
(unaccusative psych verbs), then object fronting
is the only way to satisfy Animate First. - This explains the increase of both the rating and
the production of object-initial sentences in the
case of unaccusative psych verbs.
52Case cross-linguistically Animacywww.ru.nl/pion
ier/