Incremental interpretation of case and prominence

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Matthias Schlesewsky
• Subject Area: General and Comparative Linguistics, Experimental Linguistics, Typology, Non-European Languages
• Term: from 2005 to 2008
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 5445311

The aim of this project is to measure, describe, explain, formalize, and predict the effects of case morphology, word order, and semantic prominence features on the incremental interpretation of the arguments for transitive relations. We hypothesize that these effects can be characterized in terms of a model of incremental (online) optimisation. This is done by linking the time-insensitive model of Optimality Theoretic interpretation of case that is being developed by the Dutch partner to the time-sensitive Argument Dependency Model of sentence processing that is being explored by the German partner. In particular, the different "processing pathways" proposed in the Argument Dependency Model are argued to be direct reflections of the incremental optimisation effects of interpretive constraints on word order and control features of argument noun phrases. The languages that will function as test cases for the new model of incremental optimisation of interpretation are Hindi, Turkish, and Dutch.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Netherlands
• Participating Person: Dr. Helen de Hoop