TY - GEN A1 - Clausen, Yulia A1 - Scheffler, Tatjana T1 - A corpus-based analysis of meaning variations in German tag questions evidence from spoken and written conversational corpora T2 - Postprints der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe N2 - This paper addresses semantic/pragmatic variability of tag questions in German and makes three main contributions. First, we document the prevalence and variety of question tags in German across three different types of conversational corpora. Second, by annotating question tags according to their syntactic and semantic context, discourse function, and pragmatic effect, we demonstrate the existing overlap and differences between the individual tag variants. Finally, we distinguish several groups of question tags by identifying the factors that influence the speakers’ choices of tags in the conversational context, such as clause type, function, speaker/hearer knowledge, as well as conversation type and medium. These factors provide the limits of variability by constraining certain question tags in German against occurring in specific contexts or with individual functions. T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe - 706 KW - German KW - tag questions KW - discourse functions KW - pragmatic variability KW - corpus annotation Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-467882 SN - 1866-8364 IS - 706 ER - TY - THES A1 - Chen, Hui Ching T1 - Acquisition of focus - in a cross-linguistic perspective T1 - Spracherwerb im Fokus - eine sprachübergreifende Perspektive N2 - In dieser Dissertation untersuchen wir, wie chinesischen Muttersprachler und deutschen Muttersprachler, sowohl die Erwachsenen als auch die Kinder, verschiedene linguistische Mittel, wie z. B. Wortstellungsinformationen, prosodische und lexikalische Mittel im Sprachverständnis korrekt interpretieren. N2 - Successful communication is often explored by people throughout their life courses. To effectively transfer one’s own information to others, people employ various linguistic tools, such as word order information, prosodic cues, and lexical choices. The exploration of these linguistic cues is known as the study of information structure (IS). Moreover, an important issue in the language acquisition of children is the investigation of how they acquire IS. This thesis seeks to improve our understanding of how children acquire different tools (i.e., prosodical cues, syntactical cues, and the focus particle only) of focus marking in a cross linguistic perspective. In the first study, following Szendrői and her colleagues (2017)- the sentence-picture verification task- was performed to investigate whether three- to five-year-old Mandarin-speaking children as well as Mandarin-speaking adults could apply prosodic information to recognize focus in sentences. More, in the second study, not only Mandarin-speaking adults and Mandarin-speaking children but also German-speaking adults and German-speaking children were included to confirm the assumption that children could have adult-like performance in understanding sentence focus by identifying language specific cues in their mother tongue from early onwards. In this study, the same paradigm- the sentence-picture verification task- as in the first study was employed together with the eye-tracking method. Finally, in the last study, an issue of whether five-year-old Mandarin-speaking children could understand the pre-subject only sentence was carried out and again whether prosodic information would help them to better understand this kind of sentences. The overall results seem to suggest that Mandarin-speaking children from early onwards could make use of the specific linguistic cues in their ambient language. That is, in Mandarin, a Topic-prominent and tone language, the word order information plays a more important rule than the prosodic information and even three-year-old Mandarin-speaking children could follow the word order information. More, although it seems that German-speaking children could follow the prosodic information, they did not have the adult-like performance in the object-accented condition. A feasible reason for this result is that there are more possibilities of marking focus in German, such as flexible word order, prosodic information, focus particles, and thus it would take longer time for German-speaking children to manage these linguistic tools. Another important empirical finding regarding the syntactically-marked focus in German is that it seems that the cleft construction is not a valid focus construction and this result corroborates with the previous observations (Dufter, 2009). Further, eye-tracking method did help to uncover how the parser direct their attention for recognizing focus. In the final study, it is showed that with explicit verbal context Mandarin-speaking children could understand the pre-subject only sentence and the study brought a better understanding of the acquisition of the focus particle- only with the Mandarin-speaking children. KW - information structure KW - language acquisition KW - Mandarin KW - German KW - Prosody KW - Informationsstruktur KW - Spracherwerb KW - Deutsch KW - Mandarin KW - Prosodie Y1 - 2022 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-553458 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Lago Huvelle, Maria Sol A1 - Felser, Claudia T1 - Agreement attraction in native and nonnative speakers of German JF - Applied psycholinguistics : psychological and linguistic studies across languages and learners N2 - Second language speakers often struggle to apply grammatical constraints such as subject-verb agreement. One hypothesis for this difficulty is that it results from problems suppressing syntactically unlicensed constituents in working memory. We investigated which properties of these constituents make them more likely to elicit errors: their grammatical distance to the subject head or their linear distance to the verb. We used double modifier constructions (e.g., the smell of the stables of the farmers), where the errors of native speakers are modulated by the linguistic relationships between the nouns in the subject phrase: second plural nouns, which are syntactically and semantically closer to the subject head, elicit more errors than third plural nouns, which are linearly closer to the verb (2nd-3rd-noun asymmetry). In order to dissociate between grammatical and linear distance, we compared embedded and coordinated modifiers, which were linearly identical but differed in grammatical distance. Using an attraction paradigm, we showed that German native speakers and proficient Russian speakers of German exhibited similar attraction rates and that their errors displayed a 2nd-3rd-noun asymmetry, which was more pronounced in embedded than in coordinated constructions. We suggest that both native and second language learners prioritize linguistic structure over linear distance in their agreement computations. KW - agreement attraction KW - German KW - linear distance KW - Russian Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1017/S0142716417000601 SN - 0142-7164 SN - 1469-1817 VL - 39 IS - 3 SP - 619 EP - 647 PB - Cambridge Univ. Press CY - New York ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Häussler, Jana A1 - Bader, Markus T1 - An interference account of the missing-VP effect JF - Frontiers in psychology N2 - Sentences with doubly center-embedded relative clauses in which a verb phrase (VP) is missing are sometimes perceived as grammatical, thus giving rise to an illusion of grammaticality. In this paper, we provide a new account of why missing-VP sentences, which are both complex and ungrammatical, lead to an illusion of grammaticality, the so-called missing-VP effect. We propose that the missing-VP effect in particular, and processing difficulties with multiply center-embedded clauses more generally, are best understood as resulting from interference during cue-based retrieval. When processing a sentence with double center-embedding, a retrieval error due to interference can cause the verb of an embedded clause to be erroneously attached into a higher clause. This can lead to an illusion of grammaticality in the case of missing-VP sentences and to processing complexity in the case of complete sentences with double center-embedding. Evidence for an interference account of the missing-VP effect comes from experiments that have investigated the missing-VP effect in German using a speeded grammaticality judgments procedure. We review this evidence and then present two new experiments that show that the missing-VP effect can be found in German also with less restricting procedures. One experiment was a questionnaire study which required grammaticality judgments from participants without imposing any time constraints. The second experiment used a self-paced reading procedure and did not require any judgments. Both experiments confirm the prior findings of missing-VP effects in German and also show that the missing-VP effect is subject to a primacy effect as known from the memory literature. Based on this evidence, we argue that an account of missing-VP effects in terms of interference during cue-based retrieval is superior to accounts in terms of limited memory resources or in terms of experience with embedded structures. KW - sentence parsing KW - center embedding KW - grammatical illusion KW - missing-VP effect KW - cue-based retrieval KW - interference KW - German Y1 - 2015 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00766 SN - 1664-1078 VL - 6 PB - Frontiers Research Foundation CY - Lausanne ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Häussler, Jana A1 - Bader, Markus T1 - An interference account of the missing-VP effect JF - Frontiers in psychology N2 - Sentences with doubly center-embedded relative clauses in which a verb phrase (VP) is missing are sometimes perceived as grammatical, thus giving rise to an illusion of grammaticality. In this paper, we provide a new account of why missing-VP sentences, which are both complex and ungrammatical, lead to an illusion of grammaticality, the so-called missing-VP effect. We propose that the missing-VP effect in particular, and processing difficulties with multiply center-embedded clauses more generally, are best understood as resulting from interference during cue-based retrieval. When processing a sentence with double center-embedding, a retrieval error due to interference can cause the verb of an embedded clause to be erroneously attached into a higher clause. This can lead to an illusion of grammaticality in the case of missing-VP sentences and to processing complexity in the case of complete sentences with double center-embedding. Evidence for an interference account of the missing-VP effect comes from experiments that have investigated the missing-VP effect in German using a speeded grammaticality judgments procedure. We review this evidence and then present two new experiments that show that the missing-VP effect can be found in German also with less restricting procedures. One experiment was a questionnaire study which required grammaticality judgments from participants without imposing any time constraints. The second experiment used a self-paced reading procedure and did not require any judgments. Both experiments confirm the prior findings of missing-VP effects in German and also show that the missing-VP effect is subject to a primacy effect as known from the memory literature. Based on this evidence, we argue that an account of missing-VP effects in terms of interference during cue-based retrieval is superior to accounts in terms of limited memory resources or in terms of experience with embedded structures. KW - sentence parsing KW - center embedding KW - grammatical illusion KW - missing-VP effect KW - cue-based retrieval KW - interference KW - German Y1 - 2015 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00766 SN - 1664-1078 VL - 6 IS - 766 PB - Frontiers Research Foundation CY - Lausanne ER - TY - GEN A1 - Häussler, Jana A1 - Bader, Markus T1 - An interference account of the missing-VP effect N2 - Sentences with doubly center-embedded relative clauses in which a verb phrase (VP) is missing are sometimes perceived as grammatical, thus giving rise to an illusion of grammaticality. In this paper, we provide a new account of why missing-VP sentences, which are both complex and ungrammatical, lead to an illusion of grammaticality, the so-called missing-VP effect. We propose that the missing-VP effect in particular, and processing difficulties with multiply center-embedded clauses more generally, are best understood as resulting from interference during cue-based retrieval. When processing a sentence with double center-embedding, a retrieval error due to interference can cause the verb of an embedded clause to be erroneously attached into a higher clause. This can lead to an illusion of grammaticality in the case of missing-VP sentences and to processing complexity in the case of complete sentences with double center-embedding. Evidence for an interference account of the missing-VP effect comes from experiments that have investigated the missing-VP effect in German using a speeded grammaticality judgments procedure. We review this evidence and then present two new experiments that show that the missing-VP effect can be found in German also with less restricting procedures. One experiment was a questionnaire study which required grammaticality judgments from participants without imposing any time constraints. The second experiment used a self-paced reading procedure and did not require any judgments. Both experiments confirm the prior findings of missing-VP effects in German and also show that the missing-VP effect is subject to a primacy effect as known from the memory literature. Based on this evidence, we argue that an account of missing-VP effects in terms of interference during cue-based retrieval is superior to accounts in terms of limited memory resources or in terms of experience with embedded structures. T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe - 278 KW - sentence parsing KW - center embedding KW - grammatical illusion KW - missing-VP effect KW - cue-based retrieval KW - interference KW - German Y1 - 2015 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-78673 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Fanselow, Gisbert A1 - Zimmermann, Malte A1 - Philipp, Mareike T1 - Assessing the availability of inverse scope in German in the covered box paradigm JF - Glossa : a journal of general linguistics N2 - This paper presents the results of a novel experimental approach to relative quantifier scope in German that elicits data in an indirect manner. Applying the covered-box method (Huang et al. 2013) to scope phenomena, we show that inverse scope is available to some extent in the free constituent order language German, thereby validating earlier findings on other syntactic configurations in German (Rado & Bott 2018) and empirical claims on other free constituent order languages (Japanese, Russian, Hindi), as well as recent corpus findings in Webelhuth (2020). Moreover, the results of the indirect covered-box experiment replicate findings from an earlier direct-query experiment with comparable target items, in which participants were asked directly about the availability of surface scope and inverse scope readings. The configuration of interest consisted of canonical transitive clauses with deaccented existential subject and universal object QPs, in which the restriction of the universal QP was controlled for by the context. KW - inverse scope KW - covered-box KW - free constituent order KW - German KW - experimental semantics Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.16995/glossa.5766 SN - 2397-1835 VL - 7 IS - 1 SP - 1 EP - 24 PB - Open Library of Humanities CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Felser, Claudia A1 - Drummer, Janna-Deborah T1 - Binding out of relative clauses in native and non-native sentence comprehension JF - Journal of psycholinguistic research N2 - Pronouns can sometimes covary with a non c-commanding quantifier phrase (QP). To obtain such 'telescoping' readings, a semantic representation must be computed in which the QP's semantic scope extends beyond its surface scope. Non-native speakers have been claimed to have more difficulty than native speakers deriving such non-isomorphic syntax-semantics mappings, but evidence from processing studies is scarce. We report the results from an eye-movement monitoring experiment and an offline questionnaire investigating whether native and non-native speakers of German can link personal pronouns to non c-commanding QPs inside relative clauses. Our results show that both participant groups were able to obtain telescoping readings offline, but only the native speakers showed evidence of forming telescoping dependencies during incremental parsing. During processing the non-native speakers focused on a discourse-prominent, non-quantified alternative antecedent instead. The observed group differences indicate that non-native comprehenders have more difficulty than native comprehenders computing scope-shifted representations in real time. KW - Pronoun binding KW - c-command KW - Eye-movement monitoring KW - Non-native language KW - processing KW - German Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s10936-022-09845-z SN - 0090-6905 SN - 1573-6555 VL - 51 IS - 4 SP - 763 EP - 788 PB - Springer CY - New York ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Drummer, Janna-Deborah A1 - Felser, Claudia T1 - Cataphoric pronoun resolution in native and non-native sentence comprehension JF - Journal of memory and language N2 - Encountering a cataphoric pronoun triggers a search for a suitable referent. Previous research indicates that this search is constrained by binding Condition C, which prohibits coreference between a cataphoric pronoun and a referential expression within its c-command domain. We report the results from a series of eye-movement monitoring and questionnaire experiments investigating cataphoric pronoun resolution in German. Given earlier findings suggesting that the application of structure-sensitive constraints on reference resolution may be delayed in non-native language processing, we tested both native and proficient non-native speakers of German. Our results show that cataphoric pronouns trigger an active search in both native and non-native comprehenders. Whilst both participant groups demonstrated awareness of Condition C in an offline task, we found Condition C effects to be restricted to later processing measures during online reading. This indicates that during natural reading, Condition C applies as a relatively late filter on potential coreference assignments. KW - Cataphoric pronouns KW - Reference resolution KW - Condition C KW - Eye-movement monitoring KW - Bilingual processing KW - German Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2018.04.001 SN - 0749-596X SN - 1096-0821 VL - 101 SP - 97 EP - 113 PB - Elsevier CY - San Diego ER - TY - THES A1 - De Veaugh-Geiss, Joseph P. T1 - Cleft exhaustivity T1 - Exhaustivität in Spaltsätzen BT - a unified approach to inter-speaker and cross-linguistic variability BT - ein einheitlicher Erklärungsansatz für die individuelle und cross-linguistische Variabilität N2 - In this dissertation a series of experimental studies are presented which demonstrate that the exhaustive inference of focus-background it-clefts in English and their cross-linguistic counterparts in Akan, French, and German is neither robust nor systematic. The inter-speaker and cross-linguistic variability is accounted for with a discourse-pragmatic approach to cleft exhaustivity, in which -- following Pollard & Yasavul 2016 -- the exhaustive inference is derived from an interaction with another layer of meaning, namely, the existence presupposition encoded in clefts. N2 - In dieser Dissertation wird eine Reihe von experimentellen Studien vorgestellt, die zeigen, dass die Exhaustivitätsinferenz englischer 'it'-Spaltsätze mit Fokus-Background-Gliederung und ihrer Gegenstücke in den Sprachen Akan, Französisch und Deutsch weder robust noch systematisch ist. Die individuelle und cross-linguistische Variabilität wird mit einer diskurspragmatischen Analyse der Spaltsatz-Exhaustivität erklärt, in der -- nach Pollard & Yasavul 2016 -- die Exhaustivitätsinferenz aus einer Interaktion mit einer anderen Bedeutungsebene abgeleitet wird, und zwar mit der in Spaltsätzen enthaltenen Existenzpräsupposition. KW - experimental studies KW - German KW - French KW - English KW - Akan KW - clefts KW - definite pseudoclefts KW - exhaustive inference KW - anaphoric existence presupposition KW - predicate interpretation (distributive vs. non-distributive) KW - variability KW - experimentelle Studien KW - Deutsch KW - Französisch KW - Englisch KW - Akan KW - Spaltsätze KW - definite Pseudospaltsätze KW - Exhaustivitätsinferenz KW - anaphorische Existenzpräsupposition KW - Prädikatsinterpretation (distributiv vs. nicht-distributiv) KW - Variabilität Y1 - 2020 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-446421 ER -