Publication: Verb-based prediction during language processing: the case of Dutch and Turkish
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KU-Authors
KU Authors
Co-Authors
Brouwer, Susanne
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Embargo Status
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Abstract
This study investigated whether cross-linguistic differences affect semantic prediction. We assessed this by looking at two languages, Dutch and Turkish, that differ in word order and thus vary in how words come together to create sentence meaning. In an eye-tracking task, Dutch and Turkish four-year-olds (N = 40), five-year-olds (N = 58), and adults (N = 40) were presented with a visual display containing two familiar objects (e.g., a cake and a tree). Participants heard semantically constraining (e.g., "The boy eats the big cake") or neutral sentences (e.g., "The boy sees the big cake") in their native language. The Dutch data revealed a prediction effect for children and adults; however, it was larger for the adults. The Turkish data revealed no prediction effect for the children but only for the adults. These findings reveal that experience with word order structures and/or automatization of language processing routines may lead to timecourse differences in semantic prediction.
Source
Publisher
Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Subject
Psychology, Developmental psychology, Linguistics, Experimental psychology
Citation
Has Part
Source
Journal of Child Language
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Edition
DOI
10.1017/S0305000918000375