ERIC Number: EJ850836
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2009-Jun
Pages: 19
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0090-6905
EISSN: N/A
The Electrophysiological Manifestation of Dutch Verb Second Violations
den Ouden, Dirk-Bart; Bastiaanse, Roelien
Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, v38 n3 p201-219 Jun 2009
We investigated the processing of violations of the verb position in Dutch, in a group of healthy subjects, by measuring event-related potentials (ERPs) through electroencephalography (EEG). In Dutch, the base position of the verb is clause final, but in matrix clauses, the finite verb is in second position, a construction known as "Verb Second". In embedded clauses, the finite verb remains in its clause-final base position. The results show that ungrammatical placement of finite verbs in second position in embedded clauses yields a P600 response, which suggests that the parser treats this type of violation as a clear syntactic anomaly. This is in contrast to accounts by which a general preference for subject-verb-object word order in languages like Dutch is reflected by an absence of P600 effects in response to violations of Verb Second.
Descriptors: Verbs, Medicine, Word Order, Indo European Languages, Language Processing, Diagnostic Tests, Structural Analysis (Linguistics), Syntax, Grammar, Physiology
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
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Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A