The Arithmetic of Relative- Clause Attachment Syntactic Priming of Global Structural Configurations...
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Transcript of The Arithmetic of Relative- Clause Attachment Syntactic Priming of Global Structural Configurations...
The Arithmetic of Relative-The Arithmetic of Relative-Clause Attachment Clause Attachment
Syntactic Priming of Global Structural Syntactic Priming of Global Structural ConfigurationsConfigurations
Christoph ScheepersChristoph Scheepers
IntroductionIntroduction
Syntactic PrimingSyntactic PrimingSyntactic priming refers to the facilitation of linguistic processing when
structures are repeated– Producers (unknowingly) tend to re-generate structures they have produced or
understood before– Comprehenders find structures easier to process when they are similar to
previously encountered ones
Useful, implicit method for investigating the kinds of abstract structural representations activated during language use
Typically measured in experiments where participants are encouraged to produce a particular structure in one trial (primeprime) and are free to produce the same or an alternative structure in a following trial (targettarget)
Method: EquipmentMethod: Equipment
Method: EquipmentMethod: Equipment
!!!
IntroductionIntroduction
In language production, syntactic priming is well documented for a range of structural alternations, e.g.
Ditransitive Structure Priming (PO/DO)Ditransitive Structure Priming (PO/DO)(e.g. Bock, 1986; Pickering & Branigan, 1998; etc. etc.)–Peter read the girl a book a book (prime) > Mary gave the dog a bonethe dog a bone (target)–Peter read a book to the girl to the girl (prime) > Mary gave a bone to the doga bone to the dog (target)
Transitive Structure Priming (Active/Passive)Transitive Structure Priming (Active/Passive)(e.g. Bock, 1986; Bock & Loebell, 1990; etc etc.)–The boss fired the employee (prime) > Lightning strikes the house (target)–The employee was fired by the boss (prime) > The house is struck by lightning (target)
NP-modifier priming (Adjective/Relative Clause)NP-modifier priming (Adjective/Relative Clause)(e.g. Cleland & Pickering, 2003)–The green circle (prime) > The red sheep (target)–The circle that’s green (prime) > The sheep that’s red (target)
IntroductionIntroduction
However, most (if not all) of these structural priming phenomena involve lexical choiceslexical choices
Ditransitive Structure Priming (PO/DO)Ditransitive Structure Priming (PO/DO)
– Choice between PO ([[V give] [NP the book] [PP to the man]) versus DO ([[V give] [NP the man] [NP the book]) verb frames
Active/Passive PrimingActive/Passive Priming– Choice between transitive (active) versus intransitive (passive) verb frames,
inclusion of “by”, differences in verb morphology, etc.
NP-modifier primingNP-modifier priming
– Choice between an adjective ([NP the [N’ [Adj red ] [N sheep]]]) or a relative pronoun ([NP [NP the [N sheep]] [RC [Pro that] [S’ is red]]]) for adjunction
Relative Clause AttachmentRelative Clause Attachment
– e.g., “I visited a friend of a colleague who lived in Spain.”
who lived in Spain
NP
NP PP
a friend prep
NP
a colleagueof
RC
NP
who lived in Spain
NP
NP PP
a friend prep
a colleague
ofRC
NP
NP
Low Attachment (LA)High Attachment (HA)
ConfigurationConfigurationof Modifiers!of Modifiers!
(1) NP Det N(2) NP NP PP(3) NP NP RC(4) PP prep NP
Relative Clause AttachmentRelative Clause Attachment
Scheepers (2003, Cognition)
HA Primes:HA Primes:
Die Assistentin verlas den Punktestand der Kandidatin, der ____ .
The assistant announced the score of the candidate that ____ .
LA Primes:LA Primes:
Die Assistentin verlas den Punktestand der Kandidatin, die ____ .
The assistant announced the score of the candidate that ____ .
BL Primes:BL Primes:
Die Assistentin verlas den Punktestand der Kandidatin, bevor __ .
The assistant announced the score of the candidate before ___ .
Targets:Targets:
Der Rentner schimpfte über die Autorin der Flugblätter, die ___ .
The pensioner complained about the author of the fliers that ___ .
ProcedureProcedure
30 subjects 24 items Individual random sequences of
5 fillers (start) prime target 2 fillers prime target 2 fillers ...
Task: Provide a hand-written completion in each trial, e.g.
The pensioner complained about the author of the fliers that
_were in his letterbox this morning__ ..
ResultsResults
Probability of LA target completion (out of all classifiable responses)
0.00
0.20
0.40
0.60
0.80
1.00
BL prime
HA prime
LA prime
Clear structural priming effects!Global syntactic configuration (high/low RC-attachment) is as much
subject to priming as local, lexically-driven structure
Syntax or Pragmatics?Syntax or Pragmatics?
Scheepers (2003), Exp 3: adverbial clause primesadverbial clause primes
HR Primes:HR Primes:
Die Assistentin verlas den Punktestand der Kandidatin, als dieser ____ .
The assistant announced the score of the candidate when this ____ .
LR Primes:LR Primes:
Die Assistentin verlas den Punktestand der Kandidatin, die ____ .
The assistant announced the score of the candidate that ____ .
BL Primes:BL Primes:
Die Assistentin verlas den Punktestand der Kandidatin, bevor __ .
The assistant announced the score of the candidate before ___ .
Targets:Targets:
Der Rentner schimpfte über die Autorin der Flugblätter, die ___ .
The pensioner complained about the author of the fliers that ___ .
Syntax or Pragmatics?Syntax or Pragmatics?
when {it , she } had reached …
S
NP
VP
They
V
announced
NP
NP PP
the score prep NP
of the candidate
S’
1
VP
2
1 2
The score of the candidate that had reached 1000 points impressed us.
*The score of the candidate when it/she had reached 1000 points impressed us.
ResultsResults
No reliable priming!Simply referring back to either NP1 or NP2 in the prime is not enough
Probability of LA target completion (out of all classifiable responses)
0.00
0.20
0.40
0.60
0.80
1.00
Baseline
HR Prime
LR Prime
SummarySummary
RC-attachments are subject to priming– also replicated in Dutch, and from Dutch to English in bilinguals (Desmet &
Declercq, 2006)
Priming of global syntactic configurations– Not explainable in terms of lexical choices– Not explainable in terms of re-using individual rules– Not explainable in terms of focus structure or anaphoric binding
What exactly is being primed, then?– My original suggestion: Preservation of rule sequences…
Rule SequencesRule Sequences
1. NP NP RCRC
NP
NP
2. NP NP PP
RC
NP
PPNP
NP
a friend
3. PP prep NP
RC
NP
PP
NP
NP
NPprep
a friend of a colleague …
1. NP NP PPNP
PP
NP
a friend
2. PP prep NP
NP
PP
NP
a friend
NP
prep
of
3. NP NP RC
NP
PP
NP
a friend
NP
prep
ofNP RC
a colleague …
HA LA
Rule Sequences?Rule Sequences?
If exact rule sequences are being primed, one should not observe cross-structural priming, e.g.–From PP-attachment primes to RC-attachment targets–From complex genitive primes to RC-attachment targets
If we do observe cross-structural priming, then maintained syntactic representations must be more abstract / general than rule sequences
Cross-Structural PrimingCross-Structural Priming
Scheepers (to appear), Exp 1: PP-attachment primesPP-attachment primes
HA Primes:HA Primes:
The cobbler examined The cobbler examined the shoesthe shoes of the old man of the old man with theirwith their ____ . ____ .
(… (… broken solesbroken soles).).
LA Primes:LA Primes:
The cobbler The cobbler examined the shoes examined the shoes of of the old man fromthe old man from ____ . ____ .
(… (… down the streetdown the street).).
BL Primes:BL Primes: The cobbler examined the shoes of the old man before ____ .The cobbler examined the shoes of the old man before ____ . (… (… lunchlunch ))
Targets:Targets:
The minister saw the bodyguard of the diplomats who ____ .The minister saw the bodyguard of the diplomats who ____ .
Cross-Structural PrimingCross-Structural Priming
Probability of LA target completion (out of all classifiable responses)
0.00
0.20
0.40
0.60
0.80
1.00
Baseline
HA Prime
LA Prime
Clear cross-structural priming from PP- to RC-attachment– recently replicated in Dutch by Loncke, van Laere, & Desmet
Cross-Structural PrimingCross-Structural Priming
Scheepers (to appear), Exp 2: Genitive primesGenitive primes
HA Primes:HA Primes:
The knights jousted for the daughter of the King’s ____ .
(… hand in marriage )
LA Primes:LA Primes:
The knights jousted for the hand of the King’s ____ .
(… beautiful daughter )
BL Primes:BL Primes: The knights jousted for the daughter of the King during ____ .(… the tournament )
Targets:Targets:
The minister saw the bodyguard of the diplomats who ____ .The minister saw the bodyguard of the diplomats who ____ .
Head-Modifier RelationsHead-Modifier Relations
… a friend of a colleague who lived in Spain.
H
M
… a friend of a colleague who lived in Spain.
MH
Relative Clauses
… a friend of a colleague from Spain.
H
M
… a friend of a colleague from Spain.
MH
PPs
Genitives
… a friend of a colleague’s acquaintance.
M
… a friend of a colleague’s acquaintance.
H
M H
Cross-Structural PrimingCross-Structural Priming
Clear cross-structural priming from Genitives to RC-attachment!!
Probability of LA target completion (out of all classifiable responses)
0.00
0.20
0.40
0.60
0.80
1.00
Baseline
HA Prime
LA Prime
SummarySummary
Evidence for cross-structural priming effects– RC-attachment can be primed by syntactic configuration within a complex
genitive NP or a high- vs. low attached PP– Clearly inconsistent with rule sequencing
Interesting side-aspect:– Complex genitive primes imply reverse head-modifier relations compared
to RC-attachment targets– Priming cannot be explained in terms of maintaining such relations
Rather, what appears to be primed is the syntactic chunking/bracketing of the ‘NP-of-NP’ string– [the noun of the noun] ‘s / with / who …– the noun of [the noun] ‘s / with / who …
Cross-Cross-DomainDomain Priming Priming
If it has to do with syntactic chunking/bracketing, it might even If it has to do with syntactic chunking/bracketing, it might even work with work with mathematical equationsmathematical equations as primes as primes
3 + ( 4 – 2 ) 3 + ( 4 – 2 ) 2 2 vs.vs. 3 + 4 – 2 3 + 4 – 2 2 2
33
44 22
22
++
33
44
22 22
++
Cross-Domain PrimingCross-Domain Priming
Indeed, evidence from neuroscience already point to the possibility that language shares processing resources in the brain with other highly structured representational domains, e.g.– Musical cognition (e.g. Patel, 2003)– Sequential processing (e.g. Lelekov et al., 2000)– Mathematical cognition (e.g. Deheane et al., 1999)
There is also behavioural evidence showing – that concurrent mathematical tasks interfere with the processing of
linguistic structures with high memory demands (Fedorenko et al., 2007)
– that domain-general memory resources associated with chunking are predictive of RC-attachment preferences (Swets et al., 2007)
Structural priming from maths to language might work
Cross-Domain PrimingCross-Domain Priming
Scheepers et al. (2011), Exp 1Exp 1
HA Primes:HA Primes:
80 – ( 9 + 1 ) 5 =
LA Primes:LA Primes:
80 – 9 + 1 5 =
BL Primes:BL Primes:
80 – 22 =
Targets:Targets:
The minister saw the bodyguard of the diplomats who ____ .The minister saw the bodyguard of the diplomats who ____ .
Cross-Domain PrimingCross-Domain Priming
108 participants– 36 Psychology students (pre-screened for mathematical ability and
reminded of the rules if necessary [extra training for ca. 60%])– 36 Business students (no extra mathematical training)– 36 Maths/Informatics/Physics students (no extra mathematical training)
24 prime (equation) – target (sentence fragment) pairs
Fillers between prime-target pairs were randomly taken from a set of 26 sentence fragments and 25 equations– No regular sequence of equations and sentences detectable
Task: Solve equations by hand foot and provide hand-written completions to sentence fragments
ResultsResults
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
1
PSY Business Maths Overall
Pro
bab
ilit
y o
f L
A C
om
ple
tio
n
Participant Sample
Probability of LA Target Completion by Sample and Prime
BL Prime HA Prime LA Prime
Clear cross-domain structural priming!– Comparable in magnitude to
previous, language-specific RC-attachment priming effects
Relative to baseline:Fewer LA / more HA sentence
completions after correctly solving HA equations like 90 + ( 5 + 15 ) / 5 =
More LA / fewer HA sentence completions after correctly solving LA equations like 90 + 5 + 15 / 5 =
Doesn’t work that well with (mathematically trained) Psychology undergrads…
Scheepers C., Sturt P., Martin C.J., Myachykov A., Teevan K. & Viskupova I. (2011).Structural priming across cognitive domains: From simple arithmetic to relative clause attachment. Psychological Science, 22(10), 1319-1326.
ResultsResults
Same as before, except
Only Psychology students (N=27 no mathematical training!)
HA and LA prime equations comprised redundant bracketsHA: 90 + ( ( 5 + 15 ) / 5 ) =
LA: 90 + 5 + ( 15 / 5 ) =
Psychology students do show cross-domain priming if they are helped with redundant brackets instead of mathematical training Scheepers C., Sturt P., Martin C.J., Myachykov A., Teevan K. & Viskupova I. (2011).
Structural priming across cognitive domains: From simple arithmetic to relative clause attachment. Psychological Science, 22(10), 1319-1326.
Scheepers et al. (2011), Exp 2Exp 2
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
1
Pro
babi
lity
of L
A C
ompl
etio
n
Probability of LA Target Completion by Prime
BL Prime HA Prime LA Prime
DiscussionDiscussion
First piece of evidence for cross-domaincross-domain structural priming from arithmetic to language
Priming of syntax in its ‘purest’ form, concerning the hierarchical chunking of elements–Algebra and language have no “semantics” in common–Highlights the importance of global syntactic representations at a very high level of abstraction
But what could be the actual mechanisms behind these (and the previous language-internal) priming effects?
Potential MechanismsPotential Mechanisms
90
+
/
5+
( 5 15 )
mentioned
VP
NP
NP
the bells of the church
RC that…
90
+
/
mentioned
VP
NP
NP
the bells of
RC that…
HA
LA+
5
15 5 the church
Possibility 1: Representational IsomorphismPossibility 1: Representational Isomorphism
Participants retain (in memory) an abstract global structure representation of the prime, and process a subsequent sentence in such a way that its global structure is isomorphic to that of the prime
The exact level of abstraction would need to be specified
Potential MechanismsPotential Mechanisms
Possibility 2: (Incremental) Procedural IsomorphismPossibility 2: (Incremental) Procedural Isomorphism
Expressions (sentences and equations) are processed from ‘left to right’
When the final combinatorial element is encountered (“ / ” respectively “ that ”), a previous computation has to be un-done, combined with that element, and re-integrated into the previous structure
Priming relies on whether the final element combines with a simple (LA) or a more complex (HA) expression on its left
90
+/
520
+
( 5 15 )
HA
110??
1
90
+
20
+
5 15
LA
110/
5
??
Potential MechanismsPotential Mechanisms
Possibility 2: (Incremental) Procedural IsomorphismPossibility 2: (Incremental) Procedural Isomorphism
Expressions (sentences and equations) are processed from ‘left to right’
When the final combinatorial element is encountered (“ / ” respectively “ that ”), a previous computation has to be un-done, combined with that element, and re-integrated into the previous structure
Priming relies on whether the final element combines with a simple (LA) or a more complex (HA) expression on its left
90
+/
5
20
+
( 5 15 )
HA
90??
2
90
+
5
+
5
15
LA
95/
5
??
Potential MechanismsPotential Mechanisms
Possibility 2: (Incremental) Procedural IsomorphismPossibility 2: (Incremental) Procedural Isomorphism
Expressions (sentences and equations) are processed from ‘left to right’
When the final combinatorial element is encountered (“ / ” respectively “ that ”), a previous computation has to be un-done, combined with that element, and re-integrated into the previous structure
Priming relies on whether the final element combines with a simple (LA) or a more complex (HA) expression on its left
90
+
/
5
20
+
( 5 15 )
HA
90
4
3
90
+
5
+
5
15
LA
95
/
5
3
Potential MechanismsPotential Mechanisms
Possibility 2: (Incremental) Procedural IsomorphismPossibility 2: (Incremental) Procedural Isomorphism
Expressions (sentences and equations) are processed from ‘left to right’
When the final combinatorial element is encountered (“ / ” respectively “ that ”), a previous computation has to be un-done, combined with that element, and re-integrated into the previous structure
Priming relies on whether the final element combines with a simple (LA) or a more complex (HA) expression on its left
90
+
/
5
20
+
( 5 15 )
HA
94
4
done
90
+
8
+
5
15
LA
98
/
5
3
Potential MechanismsPotential Mechanisms
Possibility 2: (Incremental) Procedural IsomorphismPossibility 2: (Incremental) Procedural Isomorphism
Expressions (sentences and equations) are processed from ‘left to right’
When the final combinatorial element is encountered (“ / ” respectively “ that ”), a previous computation has to be un-done, combined with that element, and re-integrated into the previous structure
Priming relies on whether the final element combines with a simple (LA) or a more complex (HA) expression on its left
90
+
/
5
20
+
( 5 15 )
94
4
90
+
8
+
5
15
98
/
5
3
NP
NP
PP
of NPthe bells
VP
heard
the church
RC
that S’
NP
NP
S
NP
Peter
NP
NP
PP
of NPthe bells
VP
heard
the church
RC
that S’
NP
NP
S
NP
Peter
HA LA
1
Potential MechanismsPotential Mechanisms
Possibility 2: (Incremental) Procedural IsomorphismPossibility 2: (Incremental) Procedural Isomorphism
Expressions (sentences and equations) are processed from ‘left to right’
When the final combinatorial element is encountered (“ / ” respectively “ that ”), a previous computation has to be un-done, combined with that element, and re-integrated into the previous structure
Priming relies on whether the final element combines with a simple (LA) or a more complex (HA) expression on its left
90
+
/
5
20
+
( 5 15 )
94
4
90
+
8
+
5
15
98
/
5
3
NP
NP
PP
of NPthe bells
VP
heard
the church
RC
that S’
NP
NP
S
NP
Peter
NP
NP
PP
of
NP
the bells
VP
heard
the church
RC
that S’
NP
NP
S
NP
Peter
HA LA
2
Potential MechanismsPotential Mechanisms
Possibility 2: (Incremental) Procedural IsomorphismPossibility 2: (Incremental) Procedural Isomorphism
Expressions (sentences and equations) are processed from ‘left to right’
When the final combinatorial element is encountered (“ / ” respectively “ that ”), a previous computation has to be un-done, combined with that element, and re-integrated into the previous structure
Priming relies on whether the final element combines with a simple (LA) or a more complex (HA) expression on its left
90
+
/
5
20
+
( 5 15 )
94
4
90
+
8
+
5
15
98
/
5
3
NP PP
of NPthe bells
VP
heard
the church
RC
that S’
NP
S
NP
Peter
NP
NP
PP
ofthe bells
VP
heard
the church
RC
that S’
NP
NP
S
NP
Peter
HA LA
3
NP
Potential MechanismsPotential Mechanisms
Possibility 2: (Incremental) Procedural IsomorphismPossibility 2: (Incremental) Procedural Isomorphism
Expressions (sentences and equations) are processed from ‘left to right’
When the final combinatorial element is encountered (“ / ” respectively “ that ”), a previous computation has to be un-done, combined with that element, and re-integrated into the previous structure
Priming relies on whether the final element combines with a simple (LA) or a more complex (HA) expression on its left
90
+
/
5
20
+
( 5 15 )
94
4
90
+
8
+
5
15
98
/
5
3
NP PP
of NPthe bells
VP
heard
the church
RC
that S’
NP
NP
S
NP
Peter
NP
NP
PP
ofthe bells
VP
heard
the church
RC
that S’
NP
NP
S
NP
Peter
HA LA
done
New (Preliminary) FindingsNew (Preliminary) Findings
The representational account makes no assumptions about how the equations are being processed (left-to-right, right-to left, etc.)– All that matters is the final syntactic representation
By contrast, the incremental procedural account predicts that the more an equation is processed in a “language-like” fashion (i.e. from left to right), the stronger the priming effect should be– Left-to-right incrementality matters
Eye-tracking experiment (21 participants) in which mathematical prime equations were followed by written sentence fragments for verbal completion– Question: Does the amount of left-to-right processing in the equations predict
strength of syntactic priming in the target sentences?
Quantifying IncrementalityQuantifying Incrementality
8 local progressions
9 0 - ( 5 + 1 5 ) / 5 =
t
9 0 - ( 5 + 1 5 ) / 5 =
t
7 global progressions
LRP index (N-global / N-local) = 7/8 = .875
Preliminary ResultsPreliminary Results
• Prime condition main effect:
2subjects(2) = 5.22; p = .074; 2
items(2) = 6.56; p < .04
Table 1. Covariate-adjusted marginal means (and corresponding standard errors) for probabilities of LA target completions as a function of prime condition.
By Subjects By Items
Mean SE Mean SE
HA prime .386 .041 .381 .039
LA prime .552 .046 .544 .058
BL prime .399 .033 .424 .045
Preliminary ResultsPreliminary Results
• Prime condition × LRP-index interaction:
2subjects(2) = 5.31; p = .070; 2
items(2) = 6.84; p < .04
Table 2. LRP-index slopes (in logit units, with standard errors) in each prime condition. A positive slope implies an increase in LA target probability with increasing LRP indices, while a negative slope implies a decrease in LA target probability with increasing LRP indices.
By Subjects By Items
Mean SE Mean SE
HA prime 1.616 .916 1.689 .777
LA prime 0.372 .620 0.224 .635
BL prime +0.909 .653 +0.716 .463
HA equations are more effective in suppressing LA responses, the more they are processed incrementally from left to right
Thanks!Thanks!
Collaborators
Patrick Sturt (Edinburgh)
Kay Teevan (Glasgow)
Andriy Myachykov (Glasgow)
Catherine Martin (Glasgow)
Izabela Viskupova (Glasgow)