Morphophonological and conceptual effects on Dutch subject–verb agreement

Abstract

Language production theories differ in their assumptions about the information flow between levels. Serial models hypothesize that different types of information, such as conceptual factors and morphophonological make up, would have an effect at different points during the implementation of agreement and would, therefore, not interact. Constraint-based models, on the other hand, entail an interplay of these two types of factors. Here, we present data from an experiment designed to test whether a conceptual factor (notional number) interacts with a morphophonological factor (determiner number ambiguity) resulting in an increased number of subject-verb agreement errors in Dutch. Analyses showed main effects of both factors but no interaction. We also carried out simulations of one specific serial model for production of subject-verb number agreement, the Marking and Morphing model (Eberhard, Cutting, & Bock, 2005). Our simulations in Dutch yielded an excellent fit between the model and these data (as well as other previously collected data). In conclusion, our results argue in favour of independent processing of these two types of information during agreement production and, more specifically, offer support for the Marking and Morphing model.

The interplay of syntax and form in sentence production: A cross-linguistic study of form effects on agreement

“…Our data suggest that the agreement system of these languages takes particular advantage of this information. This interpretation is in line with the report in the literature on subject-verb number agreement showing an influence of the head noun's article in languages in which nominal markers only provide limited morphophonological cues to number (Dutch and German; see Hartsuiker et al, 2003;Antó n-Méndez & Hartsuiker, 2007).…”

“…This lack of interaction supports our hypothesis that two separate components underlie morphophonological effects (feature selection) and attraction effects (feature copy), contra the assumption of the Marking and Morphing model. Second, results by Antó n-Méndez and Hartsuiker (2007) show an interaction between conceptual and morphophonological manipulations of the head noun phrase on agreement. Such an interaction would be expected if the two information sources were integrated in the process of feature selection, as in our model.…”

The impact of notional number and grammatical gender on number agreement with conjoined noun phrases

“…By manipulating notional and morphophonogical information with a construction that is likely to show a wide range of agreement patterns, the present experiments enhance our understanding of the mechanisms through which morphophonology affects subject-verb agreement (e.g. Antón-Méndez & Hartsuiker, 2010;Badecker & Kuminiak, 2007;Foote & Bock, 2012;Lago, Shalom, Sigman, Lau, & Phillips, 2015;Mirković & MacDonald, 2013), and address the degree to which current models of agreement can account for such effects.…”

“…In contrast, het is morphologically unambiguous and is only used with singular neuter nouns. Previous experiments have shown that speakers produce more agreement attraction errors when the determiner associated with the subject head noun is ambiguous for number (de) than when the subject head noun is unambiguously singular (het) (Antón-Méndez & Hartsuiker, 2010;Hartsuiker, Schriefers, Bock, & Kikstra, 2003).…”

Orden, Distributividad Y Atracción en La Producción De La Concordancia

“…The agreement errors, in this way, are possible due to the interaction between the different levels in the speech production system. On the other hand, the minimalist hypothesis (EBERHARD; CUTTING; BOCK, 2005) predicts that languages with rich inflectional morphology are less sensitive to the notional or semantic number, given that the inflectional morphemes would filter the effect of the meaning related to the number (ANTÓN-MÉNDEZ; HARTSUIKER, 2010;FOOTE;BOCK, 2011;LORIMOR et al, 2008;. This hypothesis holds that interference of semantic and / or morphophonological factors is set at levels before or after the calculation of the agreement.…”