Left-edge boundary tone and main clause verb effects on syntactic processing in embedded clauses – An ERP study

Brain responses to syntax constrained by time-driven implicit prosodic phrases

“…A possible interpretation of the findings is that readers completed an implicit prosodic phrase at the end of the first clause when it was reached at around 2.7 s but not when the clause-final word was encountered well before this limit. Consequently, the så-clause was associated with a new prosodic phrase only at slow rate, which would explain why readers seemed to have an expectation of main clause word order in this condition Roll et al, 2009.…”

“…Prosodic phrasing seems to be adapted to these time-based working memory limits: Vollrath, Kazenwadel, and Krüger (1992) reported a median length of 2.6 s for intonation phrases in German conversations and Roll, Lindgren, Alter, and Horne (2012) showed that readers parsed utterances into 2.7 s long implicit prosodic phrases. Prosodic phrasing in turn has been observed to influence syntactic processing: embedded clauses following explicit prosodic phrase boundaries increased listeners' expectation of main clause structure (Roll, Horne, & Lindgren, 2009, 2011. The present study aims to extend these findings and investigate how implicit prosodic phrasing affects the parsing of embedded clauses as a result of time constraints on working memory.…”

“…For instance, the presence of explicit prosodic boundaries signaling that the upcoming clause forms a separate prosodic phrase was found to increase listeners' expectation of main clause structure Roll et al, 2009. Words that cued a syntactic structure inconsistent with the initial analysis, such as adverbs associated with the preceding clause, elicited a negativity followed by a late positivity in the ERP signal .…”

“…Furthermore, the initial interpretation of an embedded structure as a main or subordinate clause is influenced by the presence versus absence of explicit prosodic boundaries Roll et al, 2009. It still remains to be explored, however, whether implicit prosodic phrasing constrained by the optimal length of temporal integration units modulates expectations regarding the status of embedded clauses.…”

“…At slow rate, the readers would be expected to close the prosodic phrase at the end of the first clause (after f€ onstret 'the-window' in example 2, 4 and 6), since it is reached towards the end of the 2.7 s long interval (Roll et al 2012). Based on previous findings that prosodic breaks increase the activation of main clause word order Roll et al, 2009, we assumed that readers would be more prepared for a main clause reading of the så-clause after 2.7 s. In this case, encountering a sentence adverb in the preverbal position (inte 'not' in example 2) after så would be unexpected. The ERP response elicited by inte 'not' was predicted to be an enhanced negativity, similar to the scrambling negativity that has been observed in German for correct but non-canonical word orders.…”