Similar does not mean the same: ERP correlates of mental and physical experiencer verb processing in Malayalam complex constructions

Abstract

This study examined the neurophysiological correlates of processing mental experiencer verbs and physical experiencer verbs in Malayalam complex constructions, where the subject argument assumed the role of the experiencer. Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were recorded as 28 first-language speakers of Malayalam read intransitive sentences with the two types of experiencer verbs. The subject case either matched (acceptable) or violated (unacceptable) the requirements of the verb in the critical stimuli. Both mental and physical experiencer verbs engendered negative effects in the 400-600-ms time window when the subject case did not match the verb's requirements. Additionally, mental experiencer verbs evoked a left anterior negativity LAN-like effect in the same time window, regardless of grammaticality. Thus, even though both kinds of experiencer verbs are processed qualitatively similarly, inherent differences between mental and physical experiencer verbs in Malayalam persist and are discernible.

Keywords: LAN; Malayalam; N400; mental experiencer verb; physical experiencer verb.

Figure 1

Raincloud plot of the acceptability ratings. (A) The by-participant variability of acceptability ratings, with the individual data points representing the mean by-participant acceptability of each case and verb type combination. (B) The by-item variability of acceptability ratings, with the individual data points representing the mean by-item acceptability of each case and verb type combination.

Figure 2

Grand averaged ERPs at the verb for the critical conditions across 28 participants. Negativity is plotted upwards; the time axis runs from −0.2 s to 1.2 s (i.e., −200 ms to 1,200 ms) with 0 being the onset of the critical verb. The dark blue line represents the correct mental experiencer light verb (with a dative subject). In contrast, the orange line shows the incorrect mental experiencer light verb (with a nominative subject), which elicited a centroparietal negativity effect. The light blue line indicates the correct physical experiencer verb (with a dative subject) and the red line represents the incorrect physical experiencer verb (with a nominative subject), which elicited a centroparietal negativity effect. Regardless of grammaticality, conditions with mental experiencer light verbs elicited a further negativity effect in the left anterior region compared to physical experiencer light verbs.