Effects of lifetime and fact knowledge in language comprehension

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Pia Knoeferle
• Subject Area: General and Comparative Linguistics, Experimental Linguistics, Typology, Non-European Languages
• Term: since 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 426675158

The proposal examines effects of knowledge about lifetime and of factual knowledge during language comprehension. Such effects are virtually unexamined and of interest as a research topic since knowledge about a speaker's lifetime status (is s/he alive?) and accomplishments (e.g., in what film someone starred) is potentially less homogeneous than stereotypical knowledge (e.g., that female police officers tend to arrest criminals and not the other way around). We know that stereotypical world knowledge is rapidly and robustly applied during comprehension. Is the same true for lifetime and fact knowledge? Are such effects also rapid or rather part of later comprehension processes? This proposal is a continuation proposal in the context of pandemic-related adverse effects on execution of the proposal.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants