Argument structure frames: a lexical complexity metric?

Abstract

The number of semantic argument structure frames associated with a verb has been reported to influence ease of processing during language comprehension. The present experiments tested the generality of the argument structure complexity effect with three dependent measures: eye-fixation times, naming latencies, and lexical decision latencies. Two eye-movement experiments and two experiments using cross-modal tasks failed to provide evidence supporting the argument structure complexity effect. The present experiments indicated that results reflecting verbs' argument structure complexity are not generalizable.