Kamal Kumar Choudhary

The present study examined whether thematic reversal anomalies are processed similarly across subject and object experiencer constructions in Malayalam. Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were recorded as 30 first-language speakers of Malayalam read transitive sentences with the two types of experiencer verbs, in which the thematic role assignment for the preceding arguments was either correct or reverse. The reversal anomaly became apparent only at the position of the experiencer verb. A linear mixed-models analysis confirmed a biphasic N400-P600 effect at the verb for both verb types when the argument roles were reverse. Thus, our results suggest a uniform processing strategy for TRAs irrespective of the type of experiencer verb involved. However, the N400 amplitude was larger for the object experiencer verb compared to subject experiencer verbs. We suggest that the quantitative difference observed for object experiencer verbs is due to the inverse linking of grammatical function and thematic roles associated with these verbs. In other words, verb-specific linking properties modulate the processing of TRAs involving object experiencer verbs. We argue that this modulation occurs because the parser recalibrates cue weighting when the expected form-to-meaning mappings are overridden by the inverse linking properties of object experiencer verbs. Keywords: Thematic reversal anomaly, Subject experiencer, Object experiencer, N400, P600, Malayalam

Background: Case marking serves as a crucial cue in sentence processing, enabling the prediction of upcoming arguments, thematic roles, and event structure. Cross-linguistic studies have revealed language-specific variations in case processing, with differences observed between nominative–accusative and ergative languages, albeit with limited data from the latter. Objective: To this end, we investigated case processing in Hindi compound light verb constructions, leveraging its split-ergative system. Methods: An ERP study was conducted with twenty-four native Hindi speakers, wherein the subject case (ergative or nominative) either matched or mismatched with the aspect marking on the light verb (perfective or imperfective). Results: The results revealed distinct ERP effects depending upon the subject case: a P600 effect for ergative case violations at the imperfective light verb and a biphasic N400-P600 effect for nominative case violations at the perfective light verb. Conclusions: These findings suggest underlying neurophysiological differences in the processing of ergative versus nominative case alignment within light verb structures. Moving forward, a closer examination of structure-specific neurophysiological variation can help bridge the gap between typological distributions and their neural underpinnings.

The present study examined the neurophysiological correlates of processing mental experiencer verbs and physical experiencer verbs in Malayalam complex constructions, in which the subject argument assumed the experiencer role. Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were recorded as twenty-eight first-language speakers of Malayalam read intransitive sentences with the two types of experiencer verbs. The subject case either matched the requirements of the verb in the critical stimuli, thereby rendering the sentence acceptable, or it violated the requirements of the verb, and thus rendering the sentence unacceptable. Both mental and physical experiencer verbs engendered negativity effects in the 400–600 ms time-window when the subject case did not match the verb’s requirements. Additionally, mental experiencer verbs evoked a LAN-like effect in the same time window regardless of grammaticality. Thus, even though both kinds of experiencer verbs are processed qualitatively similarly, inherent differences between mental and physical experiencer verbs in Malayalam persist and are discernible.

Ergativity marks subject arguments as agents of a transitive event and thereby signals verbal transitivity and influences language comprehension. We report here on an event-related brain potentials (ERP) study in Hindi, in which we investigated this interconnection to ascertain whether the ergative case as a processing cue and its ERP correlates can be generalized across and within ergative languages. The case marking on the subject argument (ergative or nominative case) in our study either matched or mismatched with the transitivity of the light verb (transitive or intransitive) in compound light verb constructions. Ergative case violations due to an intransitive light verb evoked an N400 effect, whereas nominative case violations due to a transitive light verb elicited a P600 effect. The results reveal neurophysiological differences in the processing of ergative and nominative case alignment modulated by the transitivity of the light verbs. The findings highlight the need for cross-linguistic research to aim beyond universality and elucidate the mechanism underlying the processing of language-specific structural variations.

The study reported here was conducted to investigate the neurophysiological correlates of processing two types of subject experiencer verbs, namely mental experiencer verbs and physical experiencer verbs in Malayalam, a South Dravidian language. Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were recorded as twenty-eight first-language speakers of Malayalam read intransitive sentences with the two types of experiencer verbs. Critical stimuli were either fully acceptable, whereby the subject case matched the requirements of the verb, or unacceptable, whereby the subject case violated the requirements of the verb. A linear mixed-models analysis confirmed negativity effects in the time window 400–800 ms for mental and physical experiencer verbs. Post-hoc analyses revealed that the negativity peaked relatively early for mental experiencer verbs, whereas relatively late for physical experiencer verbs. Further, the sentence-final acceptability of trials modulated the ERPs in non-anomalous conditions but not in violation conditions, and this modulation qualitatively differed between mental and physical experiencer verbs. These results suggest that, whilst a qualitatively similar mechanism is involved in the processing of both kinds of experiencer verbs, subtle but robust differences are inherent in processing mental versus physical experiencer verbs in Malayalam.

This study was conducted with the aim of exploring the general parsing mechanisms involved in processing different kinds of dependency relations, namely verb agreement with subjects versus objects in Punjabi, an SOV Indo-Aryan language. Event related brain potentials (ERPs) were recorded as twenty-five native Punjabi speakers read transitive sentences. Critical stimuli were either fully acceptable as regards verb agreement, or alternatively violated gender agreement with the subject or object. A linear mixed-models analysis confirmed a P600 effect at the position of the verb for all violations, regardless of whether subject or object agreement was violated. These results thus suggest that an identical mechanism is involved in gender agreement computation in Punjabi regardless of whether the agreement is with the subject or the object argument.

The animate–inanimate distinction is of crucial importance cognitively, and animacy has been known to influence language comprehension. However, little is known about the role of animacy in verb agreement processing. The present study employed event-related brain potentials to examine whether the gender agreement of the verb with animate (natural gender) and inanimate (grammatical gender) subject nouns reveal similar or different processing mechanisms in Hindi. Critical stimuli were intransitive sentences of the form subject–verb–aux. Subject nouns were either animate or inanimate, and the verb either showed correct gender agreement or violated it. The violation of gender agreement with animate subjects evoked a P600 effect, whereas gender agreement violation with inanimate subjects revealed a long-latency N400-like effect. The result suggests that different underlying mechanisms are involved in the computation of gender agreement with animate and inanimate arguments in Hindi, illustrating the crucial role that animacy plays in verb agreement processing.

Gender has been investigated in psycholinguistics research both with respect to how it is retrieved when a noun is encountered and the computation of its agreement dependencies between different elements in a sentence. The literature is abound with differences as to the processing of gender agreement computations across languages and constructs. Similarly, neurophysiological evidence with respect to gender retrieval mechanisms differ wherein languages differ in the way the gender feature is retrieved when a noun is encountered based on different properties. The present study aims to scrutinize gender agreement computations in verb-agreement relations in Hindi and to ascertain if the intrinsic property (i.e. the animacy) of a noun participating in the relation plays a role in processing agreement dependencies. In addition, it also looks into the issue of whether the gender retrieval mechanism in the language influences agreement comprehension. Results revealed a positivity for the animate subject agreement and a negativity for the inanimate subject agreement violations at the position of the verb respectively. The results are suggestive of distinct processing mechanisms underlying semantic and syntactic gender. Further, the results also suggest that gender agreement computation in Hindi is modulated by the way gender is retrieved at the position of the noun.