Can Thematic Roles Leave Traces of Their Places?

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Title: Can Thematic Roles Leave Traces of Their Places?
Language: English
Authors: Chang, Franklin, Bock, Kathryn, Goldberg, Adele E.
Source: Cognition. Nov 2003 90(1):29-49.
Availability: Elsevier. 6277 Sea Harbor Drive, Orlando, FL 32887-4800. Tel: 877-839-7126; Tel: 407-345-4020; Fax: 407-363-1354; e-mail: usjcs@elsevier.com; Web site: http://www.elsevier.com
Peer Reviewed: Y
Physical Description: PDF
Page Count: 21
Publication Date: 2003
Document Type: Journal Articles
Reports - Evaluative
Descriptors: Sentences, Semantics, Syntax, Language Processing, Thematic Approach, Phrase Structure, Structural Linguistics, Role
DOI: 10.1016/S0010-0277(03)00123-9
ISSN: 0010-0277
Abstract: An important question in the study of language production is the nature of the semantic information that speakers use to create syntactic structures. A common answer to this question assumes that thematic roles help to mediate the mapping from messages to syntax. However, research using structural priming has suggested that the construction of syntactic frames may be insensitive to variations in thematic roles within messages ("Cognition" 35 (1990) 1; "Psychological Review" 99 (1992) 150). Because these studies involved structural alternations whose syntax covaries with the order of thematic roles, it is difficult to assess any independent contribution that role information may make to the positioning of phrases. In this study, we primed the order of the roles without changing the syntactic structure of the sentences produced, and found that the order of the roles was influenced by the priming manipulation. This implies that thematic roles or the features that differentiate them are active within the mapping between messages and sentence structures.
Abstractor: Author
Entry Date: 2007
Accession Number: EJ778675
Database: ERIC
Be the first to leave a comment!
You must be logged in first