The Biological Bases of SyntaxSemantics Interface in Natural

The Biological Bases of Syntax-Semantics Interface in Natural Languages: Cognitive Modeling and Empirical Evidence. • event structure Evguenia Malaia Ronnie B. Wilbur SLHS Department, Purdue University emalaya@purdue. edu 1

WORLD-to-LANGUAGE events in real world parsed out and expressed in sentences Each sentence centered around a predicate/verb …and this is what we want to model

Parsing observable events: Human languages parse and formulate observable events in a logically restricted fashion (e. g. Son and Cole, 2008, Borer 1994, Ritter and Rosen 1998, Davis and Demidarche 2000, van Hout 2000, Hale and Keyser 1993, Van Valin 2007) Vendler (1967) four syntactically relevant semantic types of predicates: – homogenous // atelic States and Activities sleep (for an hour) walk (for an hour) – transitions // telic Achievements and Accomplishments die (in an hour) paint a portrait (in two weeks) 3

Model of Event Structure • Pustejovsky 2001 Sub-event type Subevent States S Processes P Transitions: Achievements S→S Transitions: Accomplishments P→S Atelic Telic transition to end state

Model of Event Structure • Ramchand (2008) - Divide events into – Initiation phrase – Process phrase – Result phrase Init. P Proc. P Res. P event structure • Participant involved: – Initiation phrase: – Process phrase: – Result phrase: Initiator Undergoer Resultee argument structure 5

Ramchand Event Structure Model Tree init. P (v. P) proc. P Initiator init Undergoer proc Resultee res. P res XP (Rheme) - verbal morphology of individual languages can represent individuated elements of event structure… - which allows use of a single verbal root in multiple event structures… - to yield telic or atelic meanings. 6

Linguistic universals meet language processing Do we have empirical evidence that telicity affects the way human languages are processed? Options: • complete analysis of all known languages of the world with respect to their event structure • evidence from psycholinguistic and neurolinguistic research 7

Linguistic universals meet language processing • Reaction times: - O’Bryan (2003) - independent effects of telicity and transitivity : word maze experiment with reduced relative clauses. : reaction time advantage on the preposition “by” for sentences with telic verbs in the relative clause, as compared to those with atelic verbs; : independent advantage for the second argument in sentences with obligatorily transitive verbs (both telic and atelic). - Friedmann, Taranto, Shapiro, and Swinney (2008) priming effect for obligatorily intransitive telic verbs, but not for unergatives obligatorily intransitive atelics. • ERPs - Malaia, Wilbur, Weber-Fox (in press) ERP evidence for telicity effects on syntactic processing in garden-path sentences. Brain and Language. The baby nursed/ burped by the mother rolled over. The customer shaved / cheated by the barber left no tip. The prisoner taught/ halted by the agent tried to escape. 8

ERPs on the RRC: HP group 9

ERPs on the RRC: NP group 10

ERPs on the RRC: HP and NP groups processing of syntactic information interacts with the previous semantic context. (cf. Yamada & Neville, 2007; Osterhout, Holcomb, Swinney, 1994) 11

Frame alternations: telic verbs New argument does not require re-assignment of thematic roles awakened (intransitive) actress awakened (transitive) writer actress 12

Frame alternations: atelic verbs New argument requires thematic role re-assignment worshipped (intr. ) actress worshipped (transitive) writer actress 13

Linguistic universals, language processing – unified account? Where did grammatically relevant semantic features come from? Research on Signed languages: v tied to the visual modality v in both production and perception v provide the missing link 14

structure in American Sign Language Telic Event and atelic predicates in signed languages Telic event signs a. change of aperture handshape change SEND b. orientation change HAPPEN c. setting change proximal/distal POSTPONE d. change of location with contact HIT Atelic event signs (a) RUN [tracing: straight] (b) PLAY (tracing + TM) (c) READ (tracing + TM) 15

Event Structure and SLs • We already know that telicity plays a role in sign morphology: – [delayed completive] aspect only applies to telic stems (Brentari 1998). – Durative and continuative aspects cannot apply to telic predicates (Wilbur 2005, in press). – Some mouth non-manuals are distributed according to predicate telicity type (Schalber 2004, 2006; Schalber & Grose 2006) in Austrian Sign Language and American Sign Language. : : production differences reflecting semantic distinction of event type 16

Event Visibility Hypothesis • The Event Visibility Hypothesis (EVH) argues that the semantics of event structure (subevents) are visible in predicate sign formation. • Can see if an end state is intended by way sign movement comes to a stop: - rapidly for end states - regularly for no end state. 17

Motion Analysis • ASL signs representing telic events appear to contain ‘perceptually significant rapid deceleration to a stop’. • Hypothesis: Signs representing telic events will have steeper deceleration slopes than those representing atelic events, because it will provide an end-marking to indicate the final State. 18

Methodology • Stimuli: – • Conditions – – – • 29 telic and 21 atelic signs chosen, randomized and presented to native bilingual ASL signer. Signs in isolation (done twice) Signs in carrier phrase SIGN X AGAIN Signs in medial sentence position IX 3 X TODAY Signs in final position TODAY IX 3 X (NB: data analysis not yet finished). Each sign produced 4 times by signer x 29 for telic = 116 cases for telics x 21 for atelic = 84 cases for atelics. Equipment – – – Gypsy 3. 0 wired motion capture suit Pair of 18 -sensor Metamotion Cybergloves. Six special motion capture ceiling mounted cameras. 19

Deceleration Results Metric: the Slope from the velocity peak to the next velocity minimum, reflecting the deceleration to(ward) a stop. Slope Telic/Atelic Isolation 1 * Isolation 2 * Carrier Phrase** Sentence 1 * Atelic -. 09 -. 12 -. 14 Telic -. 14 -. 18 -. 23 Ratio 1. 46 1. 97 1. 62 e. g. Mean telic slope is 1. 46 times steeper than mean atelic slope in isolation Difference between atelic and telic slopes is significant at *p<. 05 **p<. 001 v. Sign movements have internal structure based on velocity changes v. Signers are making production distinctions 20

What is recipient doing for processing? ASL production studies - left hemispheric activation of Broca’s area (cf. Corina et al. 1999, Horowitz et al. 2003, Emmorey 2002, 2003, 2004). ASL comprehension studies - bilateral activation in Broca’s area (Levänen et al, 2001, Neville et al. , 1998, etc) - also typical for audiovisual stimuli comprehension in spoken languages (cf. Capek et al. , 2004). Broca’s area is activated during both syntactic and semantic processing in spoken languages - integrates syntactic and semantic information during sentence comprehension (Hagoort, 2005). : : spoken and signed languages appear to be highly correlated in the use of Broca’s area in the left hemisphere for integration of structural and lexical linguistic information. 21

Hypotheses on ASL predicates Telic predicates in ASL incorporate the end-state and internal argument Atelic predicates do not simpler smaller load? Hypothesis: ASL predicate signs with distinct types of event structure (telic vs. atelic) would elicit differentiated activation patterns in Broca’s area (BA 44/45) of left IFG.

Pilot f. MRI study of ASL predicates Participants: 5 healthy adults - native ASL signers: Age Eye dominance Hand dominance Linguistic status 48 Right DEAF 20 Right Left DEAF 22 Right Child of Deaf Adult (hearing CODA) 21 Right Child of Deaf Adult (hearing CODA) 22 Right Child of Deaf Adult (hearing CODA) Subjects were presented with visual stimuli consisting of telic and atelic ASL signs in a block paradigm, with non-ASL gesture as a baseline condition. 23

Data acquisition and fixed effects analysis Subtraction paradigm was used to compare differential activation during processing of telic vs. atelic predicates. Fixed effects analysis of the pilot data from 5 subjects (p<. 001, uncorrected for multiple comparisons) demonstrates activation clusters in Broca’s area (BA 44/45, cluster size 15 voxels), and V 5/MT+, cluster size 5 voxels. 24

Interpreting the empirical data • experiments demonstrate semantics/grammar interaction in spoken and signed languages • syntax of human languages cross-modally is grounded in what can be construed as biological perception. The way events are perceived and conceptualized is explicitly coded in syntax-semantics interface. 25

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THANK YOU We are grateful to Robin Shay, Gabriel Masters, Nicoletta Adamo -Villani, Greg Tamer, Javier Gonzalez-Castillo, and Purdue and Indianapolis sign language community for their ongoing support of Purdue Sign Language Lab research. This work was supported by NSF Research in Disabilities Education grant, and by NIH grant DC 00524 to R. B. Wilbur. 27

Ramchand’s factorical typology of predicates Class Syntactic status Arguments involved Examples [init, proc] I Transitive Initiator, Undergoer drive, push, paint Transitive Initiator, Path eat, read, paint II Intransitive Initiatori, Undergoeri run [init, proc, res] III Transitive Initiator, Undergoeri, Resulteei throw, defuse Transitive Initiatori, Undergoeri, Result-Rheme enter IV Intransitive Initiatori, Undergoeri, Resulteei arrive, jump V Ditransitive Initiator, Undergoer, Resultee give, throw [proc] VI Intransitive Undergoer melt, roll, freeze [proc, res] VII Intransitive Undergoeri, Resulteei break, tear [init, proc, N] VIII N-conflation Initiatori, Undergoeri dance, sleep [init, proc, A] IX A-conflation Undergoer dry, clear