Verb Aspect and the Activation of Event Knowledge Todd R. Ferretti & Marta Kutas & Ken McRae Sai Qian
[email protected]
Structure
Introduction Motivation & Key Point Experiment 1 Experiment 3 Conclusion
Introduction
Information extracted at a verb is quite expressive: It serves to activate knowledge of the various roles associated with the action denoted by the verb
Some recent studies discover: Verbs are an important source of information about people’s conceptual knowledge concerning specific events, including typical participants, instruments, time course, duration
Example: The lumberman was working heavily. (axe-instrument)
Introduction
In this present research, Ferretti et al. extend the previous verb aspect findings by: showing how verb aspect influences activation of event knowledge (location) when people read verb phrases either in isolation or within single sentences
Example: Playing football-Playground These kids were playing football on the playground.
Motivation & Key Point The grammatical category of aspect captures some ways in which language uses morphology to refer to the temporal structure of events Such as: imperfective (ongoing) vs. perfective (resultant)
Motivation & Key Point Why does verb aspect play a crucial role in modulating event knowledge? Temporal and casual structure
Motivation & Key Point
In the current research: how verb aspect influences the activation of world knowledge about location Previous research: (1)John was walking from the kitchen to the bedroom. (2)John walked from the kitchen to the bedroom.
Result: (1)somewhere between the kitchen and the bedroom (2)somewhere in the bedroom
Motivation & Key Point
The goal: Gain insight into how verb aspect influences language comprehension The method: Both behavioral and electrophysiological measures, verbs were presented in isolation as well as in sentence contexts
Experiment 1: Materials
A 24 Verb-Location pairs list, containing: 6
related past imperfective (was skatingarena) 6 unrelated past imperfective (was prayingarena) 6 related past perfective (had skated-arena) 6 unrelated past perfective (had prayedarena)
Experiment 1: Procedure
Participant’s task: Order of appearance
in the screen: “+”, “verb phrase”, “location” read the verb phrase silently and to name the noun aloud into the microphone as quickly and accurately as possible “+”, “was skating”, “arena”
Dependent variable: Latency (between the presentation of location and naming response)
Experiment 1: Result 611
620.0
615.0 Reaction Time
Reaction Time
609
606
604
610.0
605.0
601
Related
Unrelated
Mean Naming Latencies (in ms) as a Function of Aspect (collapsed across relatedness)
600.0
ImperfectivePerfective
Mean Naming Latencies (in ms) as a Function of Aspect (collapsed across aspect)
Experiment 1: Result 620
Reaction Time
610
600
590
580
Imperfective Perfective Related Unrelated
Experiment 1: Summarization
Locations were named more quickly when they were preceded by related verb However, only when verb is presented as imperfective aspect!!!
Location information is less likely to have continuing relevance in the resultant states of events Conclusion: Imperfective aspect highlights the path or location of entities in events
Experiment 3: Goal
Goal: Test relation between word aspect and location information in sentences during online sentence processing
Material types:
Related past imperfective Unrelated past imperfective Related past perfective Unrelated past perfective
Experiment 3: Materials
Examples of Materials The
diver was snorkeling in the ocean. (RI) The diver was snorkeling in the pond. (UI) The diver had snorkeled in the ocean. (RP) The diver had snorkeled in the pond. (UP)
Experiment 3: Procedure
Participant’s task: Sentences were presented word by word. To ensure that participants were reading for comprehension, they had to answer a comprehension question for some of the sentences.
Measurement: Conducting N400 analysis (The stronger the electronic signal is at the point of 400ms, the lower the expectancy is)
Expectation: The most unexpected (UI) would cause the strongest signal, the most natural one (RI) would cause the weakest signal.
N400 signal
Experiment 3: Result
RI
UI
RP
UP
Mean Amplitudes (N400 analysis; 300-500ms) as a Function of Aspect and Relatedness
RI-related imperfective
UI-unrelated imperfective
RP-related perfective
UP-unrelated perfective
Experiment 3: Summarization
General: A unique mechanism, the N400 amplitudes, show that people’s expectancy for location information during online sentences processing vary as function of verb aspect
Conclusion: People have most expectation for highly related location information when imperfective verb is used, and least expectations for low related location information in the same condition
Conclusion
Review of the experiments Experiment
1
Isolated verb-location pairs Locations of specific events are more highly activated when verbs refer to situations as ongoing
Experiment
3
Online whole sentence processing People have a high expectation for location information after imperfective verb of the event
Conclusion
Verb aspect influences people’s construction of situation models In particular, people’s situation models vary according to whether the events in the text are referenced as ongoing or completed
End
Thank you!
