Two ERP studies on Dutch temporal semantics
Giosuè Baggio · 2004
Although meaning has been a constant interest in psycholinguistics, the concepts and methods of formal semantics have been rarely used to make sense of empirical data. In this thesis we try to fill this gap presenting the results of two ERP studies on Dutch temporal semantics. In the first, we investigate the e#ects elicited by tense violations in temporal adverb constructions. The observed P600/SPS is interpreted as an index of semantic rather than morphosyntactic processing. Reichenbach's distinction between event and reference time is used to account for the LAN elicited by sentences in which the main verb is placed before the adverbial modifier. In the second study, we propose a refinement of an earlier experiment on English temporal connectives. We investigate the e#ects of manipulating world knowledge and the order in which events are mentioned in discourse. Factorial analyses and direct comparisons between conditions indicate that sentences with di#erent inferential properties, triggered by the selective activation of world knowledge from declarative memory, have di#erent ERP correlates. In brief, our work suggests that the use of formal semantics within the ERP paradigm can reinforce the criticism of existing hypotheses and accelerate the process of generation and testing of new ones.