doi: 10.1353/lan.2013.0044.
Subject/object processing asymmetries in Korean relative clauses: Evidence from ERP data
Affiliations
- PMID: 25400303
- PMCID: PMC4231604
- DOI: 10.1353/lan.2013.0044
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Subject/object processing asymmetries in Korean relative clauses: Evidence from ERP data
Language (Baltim).
2013 Sep.
Abstract
Subject relative (SR) clauses have a reliable processing advantage in VO languages like English in which relative clauses (RCs) follow the head noun. The question is whether this is also routinely true of OV languages like Japanese and Korean, in which RCs precede the head noun. We conducted an event-related brain potential (ERP) study of Korean RCs to test whether the SR advantage manifests in brain responses as well, and to tease apart the typological factors that might contribute to them. Our results suggest that brain responses to RCs are remarkably similar in VO and OV languages, but that ordering of the RC and its head noun localizes the response to different sentence positions. Our results also suggest that marking the right edge of the RC in Chinese (Yang et al. 2010) and Korean and the absence of it in Japanese (Ueno & Garnsey 2008) affect the response to the following head noun. The consistent SR advantage found in ERP studies lends further support to a universal subject preference in the processing of relative clauses.
Figures
Phrase structure of subject (SR) and object (OR) relatives
(A) Grand average ERP waveforms in response to grammatical (‘the.park-to’; solid line
) and ungrammatical (‘*to-the.park’; dotted line
) phrases at all 26 electrode sites. (B) Grand average ERP waveforms for grammatical (
) and ungrammatical (
) phrases at the medial parietal electrode (the electrode in the dotted square in A). (C) Topographic scalp isovoltage map of the mean difference (Ungrammatical – Grammatical conditions, 500 – 800 ms).
) and ungrammatical (‘*to-the.park’; dotted line
) phrases at all 26 electrode sites. (B) Grand average ERP waveforms for grammatical (
) and ungrammatical (
) phrases at the medial parietal electrode (the electrode in the dotted square in A). (C) Topographic scalp isovoltage map of the mean difference (Ungrammatical – Grammatical conditions, 500 – 800 ms).
(A) Grand average ERP waveforms in response to congruous (meal-ACC ate ‘ate a meal’; solid line
) and incongruous (book-ACC ate ‘ate a book’; dotted line
) sentence endings at all 26 electrode sites. (B) Grand average ERP waveforms for congruous (
) and incongruous (
) endings at the right medial central electrode (the electrode in the dotted square in A). (C) Topographic scalp isovoltage map of the mean difference (Incongruous – Congruous conditions, 300 – 600 ms)
) and incongruous (book-ACC ate ‘ate a book’; dotted line
) sentence endings at all 26 electrode sites. (B) Grand average ERP waveforms for congruous (
) and incongruous (
) endings at the right medial central electrode (the electrode in the dotted square in A). (C) Topographic scalp isovoltage map of the mean difference (Incongruous – Congruous conditions, 300 – 600 ms)
(A) Grand average ERP waveforms in response to canonical (solid line
) and scrambled (dotted line
) word order sentences at the nominative-marked NP, all 26 electrode sites. (B) Grand average ERP waveforms for canonical (
) and scrambled (
) word orders at the left medial frontal electrode (the electrode in the dotted square in A). (C) Topographic scalp isovoltage map of the mean difference (Scrambled – Canonical word order conditions, 300 – 600 ms). (D) Topographic scalp isovoltage map of the mean difference at ‘school-GEN’ (Scrambled –Canonical word order conditions, 800 – 1100 ms poststimulus onset of ‘principal-NOM’)
) and scrambled (dotted line
) word order sentences at the nominative-marked NP, all 26 electrode sites. (B) Grand average ERP waveforms for canonical (
) and scrambled (
) word orders at the left medial frontal electrode (the electrode in the dotted square in A). (C) Topographic scalp isovoltage map of the mean difference (Scrambled – Canonical word order conditions, 300 – 600 ms). (D) Topographic scalp isovoltage map of the mean difference at ‘school-GEN’ (Scrambled –Canonical word order conditions, 800 – 1100 ms poststimulus onset of ‘principal-NOM’)
Grand average ERP waveforms in response to NP-ACC/NOM in subject (‘publisher-ACC secretly politically exploit-ADN senator-GEN’; solid line
) and object relative clauses (‘publisher-NOM secretly politically exploit-ADN senator-GEN’; dotted line
) at the left lateral frontal electrode.
) and object relative clauses (‘publisher-NOM secretly politically exploit-ADN senator-GEN’; dotted line
) at the left lateral frontal electrode.
(A) Grand average ERP waveforms in response to NP-ACC/NOM in subject (‘publisher-ACC secretly’; solid line
) and object relative clauses (‘publisher-NOM secretly’; dotted line
) at all 26 electrodes sites. (B) Grand average ERP waveforms for SRs (
) and ORs (
) at the left lateral frontal electrode (the electrode in the dotted square in A). (C) Topographic scalp isovoltage map of the mean difference (OR – SR conditions, 300 – 600 ms).
) and object relative clauses (‘publisher-NOM secretly’; dotted line
) at all 26 electrodes sites. (B) Grand average ERP waveforms for SRs (
) and ORs (
) at the left lateral frontal electrode (the electrode in the dotted square in A). (C) Topographic scalp isovoltage map of the mean difference (OR – SR conditions, 300 – 600 ms).
(A) Grand average ERP waveforms in response to the relative clause verb and head noun positions (‘exploit-ADN senator-GEN office-to’) in subject (solid line
) and object relative clauses (dotted line
) at all 26 electrode sites. (B) Grand average ERP waveforms for SR (
) and OR (
) conditions at the left lateral frontal electrode (the electrode in the dotted square in A). (C) Topographic scalp isovoltage map of the mean difference at the relative clause verb (OR – SR conditions, 300 – 600 ms). (D) Topographic scalp isovoltage map of the mean difference at the head noun (OR – SR conditions, 800 – 1100 ms post-stimulus onset of the relative clause verb).
) and object relative clauses (dotted line
) at all 26 electrode sites. (B) Grand average ERP waveforms for SR (
) and OR (
) conditions at the left lateral frontal electrode (the electrode in the dotted square in A). (C) Topographic scalp isovoltage map of the mean difference at the relative clause verb (OR – SR conditions, 300 – 600 ms). (D) Topographic scalp isovoltage map of the mean difference at the head noun (OR – SR conditions, 800 – 1100 ms post-stimulus onset of the relative clause verb).
(A) Grand average ERP waveforms in response to the head noun (and following worded: ‘senator-GEN office-to’) of subject (solid line
) and object relative clauses (dotted line
) at all 26 electrodes sites. (B) Grand average ERP waveforms for SR (
) and OR (
) conditions at the left lateral frontal electrode (the electrode in the dotted square in A). (C) Topographic scalp isovoltage map of the mean difference at the head noun (OR -SR conditions, 300 – 600 ms).
) and object relative clauses (dotted line
) at all 26 electrodes sites. (B) Grand average ERP waveforms for SR (
) and OR (
) conditions at the left lateral frontal electrode (the electrode in the dotted square in A). (C) Topographic scalp isovoltage map of the mean difference at the head noun (OR -SR conditions, 300 – 600 ms).Similar articles
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