Prediction in language comprehension beyond specific words: An ERP study on sentence comprehension in Polish
SourceJournal of Memory and Language, 68, 4, (2013), pp. 297-314
Article / Letter to editor
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SW OZ DCC PL
Journal of Memory and Language
SubjectDI-BCB_DCC_Theme 1: Language and Communication; Psycholinguistics
Recently, several ERP studies have shown that the human language comprehension system anticipates words that are highly likely continuations of a given text. However, it remains an open issue whether the language comprehension system can also make predictions that go beyond a specific word. Here, we address the question of whether readers predict broad semantically defined classes of words. Event-related brain potentials were recorded, while native Polish speakers read short stories for comprehension. The stories were setting up a context that was very strongly biasing towards either an animate or an inanimate direct object noun in the story-final sentence. At the same time, the context was highly predictive for a specific direct object noun or not predictive for a specific direct object noun. The noun that was actually presented either did fit the animacy bias of the context or did not fit. The noun was preceded by an adjective. Polish has four classes of grammatical gender in the singular: feminine, neuter, masculine-animate, and masculine-inanimate. The prenominal adjective agrees with the direct object noun with respect to case and, in the case of masculine-animate and masculine-inanimate nouns, with respect to the in-/animacy of the noun. This allowed us to probe, at the adjective, whether the comprehension system predicts the in-/animacy of the direct object noun. Prediction-inconsistent adjectives elicited a negativity relative to prediction-consistent adjectives. This negativity was of the same size for contexts biasing towards a specific noun and for contexts not biasing towards a specific noun. These findings show that the comprehension system can predict semantically defined classes of words.
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"Kutumia lugha ya Kiingereza kwa uelewa wa maneno ni sawa na kutumia lugha ya Kiingereza kwa uelewa wa sentensi, kulingana na utafiti wa ""Jurnal of Memory and Language,"" 68, 4 (2013), p. "Kama ilivyoelezwa katika makala ya kwanza ya jarida la ""Utafiti wa lugha"" (DRC, 2001) na ""Utafiti wa lugha"" (DRC, 2001) na ""Utafiti wa lugha"" (DRC, 2001) na ""Utafiti wa lugha"" (DRC, 2001) na ""Utafiti wa lugha"" (DRC, 2001) na ""Utafiti wa lugha"" (DRC, 2001) ni utafiti wa lugha ya lugha." Hata hivyo, bado ni suala wazi kama mfumo wa uelewaji wa lugha pia unaweza kufanya utabiri ambao huenda zaidi ya neno maalum. Hapa, sisi kushughulikia swali la kama wasomaji kutabiri pana semantically maalum madarasa ya maneno. Uwezo wa ubongo unaohusiana na matukio ulirekodiwa, huku wasemaji wa asili wa Kipolishi wakisoma hadithi fupi ili kuelewa. "Hadithi hizo zilikuwa zikianzisha muktadha ambao ulikuwa na upendeleo mkubwa sana kuelekea jina la kitu cha moja kwa moja au lisilo na uhai katika sentensi ya mwisho ya hadithi.""" Wakati huo huo, muktadha ilikuwa sana utabiri kwa ajili ya maalum moja kwa moja kitu jina au si utabiri kwa ajili ya maalum moja kwa moja kitu jina. Jina ambalo kwa kweli lilitolewa ama lililingana na upendeleo wa uhuishaji wa muktadha au halikufaa. Jina hilo lilitangulizwa na sifa. Kipolishi kina madarasa manne ya jinsia ya sarufi katika umoja: ya kike, ya kimwili, ya kiume-kiumbe, na ya kiume-kijane. Adjective prenominal inakubaliana na neno la kitu cha moja kwa moja kuhusiana na kesi na, katika kesi ya majina ya kiume-hai na ya kiume-haina, kuhusiana na in-animacy ya jina. Hii ilituwezesha kuchunguza, katika sifa, kama mfumo wa uelewa unakadiria in-animacy ya neno la kitu cha moja kwa moja. Adjectives unpredictive-inconsistent elicited a negativity relative to prediction-consistent adjectives. Adjectives unpredictive-inconsistent elicited a negativity relative to prediction-consistent adjectives. Uhalifu huu ulikuwa wa ukubwa sawa kwa muktadha unaopendelea jina maalum na kwa muktadha usio na upendeleo kwa jina maalum. Matokeo haya yanaonyesha kwamba mfumo wa uelewa unaweza kutabiri madarasa yaliyofafanuliwa semantically ya maneno. Kuongeza faili kamili: Tumia sifa zako za RU (nambari ya uZ na nenosiri) kuingia na SURF-context kupakia faili kwa usindikaji na timu ya hifadhi.