Lexical case marking affects the processing of animacy in simple verbs, but not particle verbs: Evidence from event-related potentials

Glossa

Anna Czypionka¹  Carsten Eulitz¹ 

[1] University of Constance, Universitätstraße 10D-78457 Konstanz;

关键词: sentence comprehension;    event-related potentials;    N400;    animacy;    case marking;   

DOI  :  10.5334/gjgl.313

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

In case-marking languages like German, nonstandard nominative-dative verbs lead to enhanced processing costs. So far, it is unclear if these case-marking effects reflect the special syntax or semantics of nominative-dative verbs. We present the results of two ERP experiments aimed to disentangle semantic and syntactic contributions to lexical case-marking by manipulating object animacy and case-marking for two verb types: simple verbs (nonstandard syntax and semantics for nominative-dative verbs) and particle verbs (nonstandard semantics only). Simple nominative-dative verbs show effects of case-marking, and no animacy effects. Particle verbs show no effects of case-marking, and animacy effects for nominative-accusative and nominative-dative verbs. Our findings suggest that lexical case-marking effects reflect the special syntax, rather than semantics, of simple nominative-dative verbs.

【 授权许可】

Unknown