TY - JOUR A1 - Laurinavichyute, Anna A1 - Jager, Lena Ann A1 - Akinina, Yulia A1 - Roß, Jennifer A1 - Dragoy, Olga V. T1 - Retrieval and Encoding Interference: Cross-Linguistic Evidence from Anaphor Processing JF - Frontiers in psychology KW - encoding interference KW - retrieval interference KW - German KW - Russian KW - comprehension KW - reflexive processing KW - anaphor Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00965 SN - 1664-1078 VL - 8 PB - Frontiers Research Foundation CY - Lausanne ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Adani, Flavia A1 - Stegenwallner-Schutz, Maja Henny Katherine A1 - Niesel, Talea T1 - The Peaceful Co-existence of Input Frequency and Structural Intervention Effects on the Comprehension of Complex Sentences in German-Speaking Children JF - Frontiers in psychology N2 - The predictions of two contrasting approaches to the acquisition of transitive relative clauses were tested within the same groups of German-speaking participants aged from 3 to 5 years old. The input frequency approach predicts that object relative clauses with inanimate heads (e.g., the pullover that the man is scratching) are comprehended earlier and more accurately than those with an animate head (e.g., the man that the boy is scratching). In contrast, the structural intervention approach predicts that object relative clauses with two full NP arguments mismatching in number (e.g., the man that the boys are scratching) are comprehended earlier and more accurately than those with number-matching NPs (e.g., the man that the boy is scratching). These approaches were tested in two steps. First, we ran a corpus analysis to ensure that object relative clauses with number-mismatching NPs are not more frequent than object relative clauses with number-matching NPs in child directed speech. Next, the comprehension of these structures was tested experimentally in 3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds respectively by means of a color naming task. By comparing the predictions of the two approaches within the same participant groups, we were able to uncover that the effects predicted by the input frequency and by the structural intervention approaches co-exist and that they both influence the performance of children on transitive relative clauses, but in a manner that is modulated by age. These results reveal a sensitivity to animacy mismatch already being demonstrated by 3-year-olds and show that animacy is initially deployed more reliably than number to interpret relative clauses correctly. In all age groups, the animacy mismatch appears to explain the performance of children, thus, showing that the comprehension of frequent object relative clauses is enhanced compared to the other conditions. Starting with 4-year-olds but especially in 5-year-olds, the number mismatch supported comprehension-a facilitation that is unlikely to be driven by input frequency. Once children fine-tune their sensitivity to verb agreement information around the age of four, they are also able to deploy number marking to overcome the intervention effects. This study highlights the importance of testing experimentally contrasting theoretical approaches in order to characterize the multifaceted, developmental nature of language acquisition. KW - relative clauses KW - sentence comprehension KW - input frequency KW - number KW - animacy KW - language acquisition KW - German Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01590 SN - 1664-1078 VL - 8 PB - Frontiers Research Foundation CY - Lausanne ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Czypionka, Anna A1 - Spalek, Katharina A1 - Wartenburger, Isabell A1 - Krifka, Manfred T1 - On the interplay of object animacy and verb type during sentence comprehension in German: ERP evidence from the processing of transitive dative and accusative constructions JF - Linguistics : an interdisciplinary journal of the language sciences N2 - Comprehension of transitive sentences relies on different kinds of information, like word order, case marking, and animacy contrasts between arguments. When no formal cues like case marking or number congruency are available, a contrast in animacy helps the parser to decide which argument is the grammatical subject and which the object. Processing costs are enhanced when neither formal cues nor animacy contrasts are available in a transitive sentence. We present an ERP study on the comprehension of grammatical transitive German sentences, manipulating animacy contrasts between subjects and objects as well as the verbal case marking pattern. Our study shows strong object animacy effects even in the absence of violations, and in addition suggests that this effect of object animacy is modulated by the verbal case marking pattern. KW - sentence comprehension KW - animacy KW - case marking KW - ERP KW - German Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1515/ling-2017-0031 SN - 0024-3949 SN - 1613-396X VL - 55 SP - 1383 EP - 1433 PB - De Gruyter Mouton CY - Berlin 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 - TY - GEN A1 - Klassert, Annegret A1 - Bormann, Sarah A1 - Festman, Julia A1 - Gerth, Sabrina T1 - Rechtschreibung von Konsonantenclustern und morphologische Bewusstheit bei Grundschüler_innen T1 - Primary school children’s spelling of consonant clusters and morphological awareness T2 - Postprints der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe N2 - Die vorliegenden Studien untersuchen die Entwicklung der Rechtschreibfähigkeit für finale Konsonantencluster im Deutschen und die ihr zugrundeliegenden Strategien bei Erst- bis Drittklässler_innen (N = 209). Dazu wurde der Einfluss der morphologischen Komplexität (poly- vs. monomorphematische Cluster) auf die Rechtschreibung qualitativ und quantitativ analysiert, sowie mit einer Messung zur morphologischen Bewusstheit korreliert. Von der ersten Klasse an zeigt sich eine hohe Korrektheit in der Schreibung und somit eine sprachspezifisch schnelle Entwicklung der alphabetischen Rechtschreibstrategie für finale Konsonantencluster. Der Einfluss morphologischer Verarbeitungsprozesse wurde allerdings erst für die Drittklässler_innen gefunden. Obwohl bereits die Erstklässler_innen gut entwickelte morphologische Bewusstheit zeigten, scheinen sie noch nicht in der Lage zu sein, diese bei der Rechtschreibung anzuwenden. Die Ergebnisse werden im Kontrast zu den umfangreicher vorliegenden Befunden für die englische Sprache diskutiert. N2 - The present studies investigate the development of the ability to spell final consonant clusters in German and its underlying strategies in first- to third-graders (N = 209). In these studies, the influence of morphological complexity (poly- vs. monomorphemic clusters) was analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively, and correlated with a measure of morphological awareness. From the first grade onwards, we found a high spelling accuracy and therefore a language-specific early development of the alphabetic spelling strategy for final consonant clusters. However, the influence of morphological processing mechanisms was only found for third graders. Although even first graders showed a well-developed morphological awareness, they did not seem to be able to use it during spelling. The results are discussed in contrast to extensive previous research in English. T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe - 610 KW - Rechtschreibung KW - finale Konsonantencluster KW - morphologische Bewusstheit KW - Deutsch KW - spelling KW - final consonant clusters KW - morphological awareness KW - German Y1 - 2020 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-434156 SN - 1866-8364 IS - 610 SP - 115 EP - 125 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Paape, Dario L. J. F. T1 - Filling the Silence: Reactivation, not Reconstruction JF - Frontiers in psychology N2 - In a self-paced reading experiment, we investigated the processing of sluicing constructions ("sluices") whose antecedent contained a known garden path structure in German. Results showed decreased processing times for sluices with garden-path antecedents as well as a disadvantage for antecedents with non-canonical word order downstream from the ellipsis site. A post-hoc analysis showed the garden-path advantage also to be present in the region right before the ellipsis site. While no existing account of ellipsis processing explicitly predicted the results, we argue that they are best captured by combining a local antecedent mismatch effect with memory trace reactivation through reanalysis. KW - ellipsis processing KW - garden-path effect KW - German KW - retrieval KW - reconstruction KW - self-paced reading Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00027 SN - 1664-1078 VL - 7 PB - Frontiers Research Foundation CY - Lausanne ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Adani, Flavia A1 - Stegenwallner-Schütz, Maja Henny Katherine A1 - Händler, Yair A1 - Zukowski, Andrea T1 - Elicited production of relative clauses in German: Evidence from typically developing children and children with specific language impairment JF - First language N2 - We elicited the production of various types of relative clauses in a group of German-speaking children with specific language impairment (SLI) and typically developing controls in order to test the movement optionality account of grammatical difficulty in SLI. The results show that German-speaking children with SLI are impaired in relative clause production compared to typically developing children. The alternative structures that they produce consist of simple main clauses, as well as nominal and prepositional phrases produced in isolation, sometimes contextually appropriate, and sometimes not. Crucially for evaluating the movement optionality account, children with SLI produce very few instances of embedded clauses where the relative clause head noun is pronounced in situ; in fact, such responses are more common among the typically developing child controls. These results underscore the difficulty German-speaking children with SLI have with structures involving movement, but provide no specific support for the movement optionality account. KW - Elicited production KW - first language acquisition KW - German KW - relative clauses KW - specific language impairment Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1177/0142723716648842 SN - 0142-7237 SN - 1740-2344 VL - 36 SP - 203 EP - 227 PB - Sage Publ. CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Paape, Dario A1 - Vasishth, Shravan T1 - Local Coherence and Preemptive Digging-in Effects in German JF - Language and speech N2 - SOPARSE predicts so-called local coherence effects: locally plausible but globally impossible parses of substrings can exert a distracting influence during sentence processing. Additionally, it predicts digging-in effects: the longer the parser stays committed to a particular analysis, the harder it becomes to inhibit that analysis. We investigated the interaction of these two predictions using German sentences. Results from a self-paced reading study show that the processing difficulty caused by a local coherence can be reduced by first allowing the globally correct parse to become entrenched, which supports SOPARSE’s assumptions. KW - Local coherence KW - digging-in effects KW - self-paced reading KW - SOPARSE KW - sentence processing KW - German Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1177/0023830915608410 SN - 0023-8309 SN - 1756-6053 VL - 59 SP - 387 EP - 403 PB - Sage Publ. CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Bhatara, Anjali A1 - Boll-Avetisyan, Natalie A1 - Agus, Trevor A1 - Höhle, Barbara A1 - Nazzi, Thierry T1 - Language Experience Affects Grouping of Musical Instrument Sounds JF - Cognitive science : a multidisciplinary journal of anthropology, artificial intelligence, education, linguistics, neuroscience, philosophy, psychology ; journal of the Cognitive Science Society KW - Cross-linguistic KW - French KW - German KW - Auditory perception KW - Music KW - Rhythmic grouping Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1111/cogs.12300 SN - 0364-0213 SN - 1551-6709 VL - 40 SP - 1816 EP - 1830 PB - Wiley-Blackwell CY - Hoboken ER - TY - GEN A1 - Fanselow, Gisbert A1 - Lenertová, Denisa T1 - Left peripheral focus BT - mismatches between syntax and information structure T2 - Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe N2 - In Czech, German, and many other languages, part of the semantic focus of the utterance can be moved to the left periphery of the clause. The main generalization is that only the leftmost accented part of the semantic focus can be moved. We propose that movement to the left periphery is generally triggered by an unspecific edge feature of C (Chomsky 2008) and its restrictions can be attributed to requirements of cyclic linearization, modifying the theory of cyclic linearization developed by Fox and Pesetsky (2005). The crucial assumption is that structural accent is a direct consequence of being linearized at merge, thus it is indirectly relevant for (locality restrictions on) movement. The absence of structural accent correlates with given-ness. Given elements may later receive (topic or contrastive) accents, which accounts for fronting in multiple focus/contrastive topic constructions. Without any additional assumptions, the model can account for movement of pragmatically unmarked elements to the left periphery (‘formal fronting’, Frey 2005). Crucially, the analysis makes no reference at all to concepts of information structure in the syntax, in line with the claim of Chomsky (2008) that UG specifies no direct link between syntax and information structure. T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe - 596 KW - Czech KW - German KW - Focus KW - Topic KW - Information structure KW - Intervention effects KW - Cyclic linearization KW - A-bar-movement KW - Prosody-syntax interface KW - Accentuation Y1 - 2020 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-428198 SN - 1866-8364 IS - 596 ER -