Typology: Prominence of Experiencers
These pages provide information about the first project phase of the Experiencer project, which investigated in which way semantic and pragmatic characteristics of prominence influence the structure of experiencer-stimulus constructions. Information about the current status of the project as well as a full list of publications can be found on the pages of the current project phase "On the typology of the psych-alternation in morphology, syntax, and discourse".
We examine in which way semantic and pragmatic characteristics of prominence influence the structure of experiencer-stimulus constructions. The focus of this research lies on investigating two contrary hypotheses about the syntactic behavior of experiencer arguments, which either trace the latter back to the topicality of experiencers or their syntactic status.
The effects of topicality and semantic role on the realisation of arguments are systematically examined in a comparative language sample with the help of experimental as well as corpus linguistic methods. The aim of this investigation is to determine which status is to be applied to the factors topicality and semantic role when identifying a typology for experiencers. The use of experimental methods bears the advantage of being able to methodically control the assessment of hypotheses about the interaction of syntax and pragmatics. Corpus studies complement the generalisations, made based on experiments, with naturalistic data.
The proposed study is one of the few current studies introducing corpus data and experimental data for Non-Indoeuropean as well as underexplored languages to the discussion. This allows for the consideration of structures of underexplored languages for the development of linguistic theory.
Theory
Experiencers and predicates that select experiencers make up a central field of phenomena of theoretical linguistics, as they trigger effects that are located outside of the standard behavior of canonical (non-experiential) structures. This includes word order and binding effects as well as particular extraction behavior or islandhood. Various theoretical assumptions are important for the following linguistic layers:
- semantic-aspectual characteristics
- syntactic characteristics
- discourse characteristics.
The empirical study of these unique effects in different languages contribute to the current perceptions and question them. In addition, factors causing these unique effects can be defined more precisely. For this, the following needs to be taken into account:
- absolute & relative semantic-aspectual characteristics of the participants (animacy, agentivity) and predicates (verb classes, stativity, causativity, individual level/stage-level)
- characteristics of the argument structure and overal syntactic characteristics (case, syntactic functions, unaccusativity)
- interactions with language-specific phenomena (scrambling, left-dislocation, morphological/syntactic topicalisation, clitisation, quirky subjects)
- interactions with contextual conditions (information structure, discourse relations)
Language typology
The special characteristics of experiencer structures have been observed and studied in numerous languages. This is why an important focus of this studiy lies on language comparison. These are the languages looked at so far:
- German,
- Greek,
- Hungarian,
- Korean,
- Chinese,
- Icelandic,
- Turkish,
- Yucatec Maya.
Special attention is paid to undertaking comparative studies for different languages. One of the challenges lies in taking into account language-specific characteristics. The interaction of experiencer effects with language-specific phenomena is an important field of research in this project and also contributes to the conceptualisation of typological studies.
You can find an experiment sample design for transfer to other languages in Material.
Methodology
As controlled linguistic studies serve as the central database for our research, we also contribute through method comparisons to the debate on the reliability of linguistic data and data collection.
For this, see for instance the articles for the AMLaP 2013 and the Linguistic Evidence 2014 in Publications.
In addition, we're making the data for our research available. In Material you can find extracts from the experiments as well as templates for the experiment design.
Linguistic Evidence, Eberhard Karls University Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany |
Feb. 18-20th, 2016
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Backward binding as a psych effect: A binding illusion. Theoretical considerations and experimental evidence by Temme, Anne und Elisabeth Verhoeven | |
12th International Conference on Greek Linguistics (ICGL 12), Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany |
Sept.16-19th, 2016
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Verb class effects on linearization in corpus data: a comparative view on Modern Greek by Elisabeth Verhoeven Abstract | |
48th Meeting of the Societas Linguistica Europaea, Leiden, The Netherlands |
Sept. 2-5th, 2015
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Verb class effects on linearization in corpus data: a comparative view on Modern Greek by Temme, Anne und Elisabeth Verhoeven Abstract | |
International Conference on Prominence in Language, Köln, Germany |
June 15-17th, 2015 |
Prominence scales and subject choice: a crosslinguistic corpus study by Elisabeth Verhoeven | |
Guest Lecture, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece | April 2015 |
Kasus und Argumentlinearisierung im Deutschen by Elisabeth Verhoeven | |
Berlin-Stuttgart-Meeting zu Psych Verbs, Stuttgart, Germany | Nov. 21st, 2014 |
Verb class effects on word order by Elisabeth Verhoeven Slides | |
Berlin-Stuttgart-Meeting zu Psych Verbs, Stuttgart, Germany | Nov. 21st, 2014 |
Backward Binding as a Psych effect - A binding illusion? by Temme, Anne and Elisabeth Verhoeven Slides | |
Workshop zur Syntax und Semantik von Experiencern, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany |
June 20th, 2014
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Psych effects in theory and practice by Anne Temme Slides | |
Workshop zur Syntax und Semantik von Experiencern, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany |
June 20th, 2014
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Verb class effects on word order: Evidence from a comparative corpus study by Elisabeth Verhoeven Slides | |
Lecture, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria |
June 5th, 2014
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Thematische Asymmetrien und Argumentlinearisierung: Eine Korpusstudie zum Deutschen by Elisabeth Verhoeven | |
International Colloquium on Referentiality, University of Erfurt, Erfurt, Germany | Feb. 21-22nd, 2014 |
The impact of referential and thematic properties on argument realization: A comparative corpus study in German and Chinese by Elisabeth Verhoeven | |
Linguistic Evidence, Eberhard Karls University Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany |
Feb. 13-15th, 2014
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Experiencers from different perspectives: Comparing scalar and binary judgements by Temme, Anne and Elisabeth Verhoeven Abstract | |
Journée ATALA – Labex EFL: Quantitative Approaches in Corpus Linguistics and Psycholinguistics. Word Order and Constituent Order, Paris: INALCO & CNRS | Oct. 18th, 2013 |
Argument linearization in German: Evidence from corpus data by Elisabeth Verhoeven | |
Experiment on backward binding of Experiencers in German | January 2014 |
You have an opportunity to see the experiment in Material. | |
Experiment on word order of Experiencers in Korean | October 2013 |
You have an opportunity to see the experiment in Material. | |
International Conference on Greek Linguistics (ICGL11), University of the Aegean, Rhodes, Greece |
Sept. 26-29th, 2013
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Structural visibility of strong affectedness: The licensing of object-first structures in German and Greek by Temme, Anne and Elisabeth Verhoeven | |
Architectures and Mechanisms for Language Processing (AMLaP), Aix-Marseille University, Marseille, France |
Sept. 2-4th, 2013
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Processing experience: The licensing of object-first structures in German and their stability across data types by Temme, Anne and Elisabeth Verhoeven Abstract | |
Experiment on word order of Experiencers in Greek | July 2013 |
You have an opportunity to see the experiment in Material. | |
Experiment on word order of Experiencers in Hungarian | June 2013 |
You have an opportunity to see the experiment in Material. | |
Linguistic Evidence, Berlin Special, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany |
April 4-6th, 2013
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Where do Experiencer-first Effects come from? An Empirical Study on Effects of Animacy and Case by Temme, Anne and Elisabeth Verhoeven Abstract | |
Experiment on word order of Experiencers in German - Split-Rating | March 2013 |
You have an opportunity to see an evaluation study (online) in German in Material. | |
Experiment on word order of Experiencers in German | August 2012 |
You have an opportunity to see an experiment (online) in German in Material.
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International Conference: Non-Canonically Case-Marked Subjects, University of Iceland, Reykjavík, Iceland | June 4-8th, 2012 |
Factors of syntactic prominence in Icelandic experiencer arguments: Quirky subjects vs. dative objects by Julian A. Rott | |
International Conference: Agents and Causes – Interdisciplinary Aspects in Mind, Language, and Culture, Center for Interdisciplinary Research, University of Bielefeld, Bielefeld, German | March 21-23rd, 2012 |
Agentivity and verb classes: Cross-linguistic experimental evidence by Elisabeth Verhoeven
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Lecture, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany | January 25th, 2012 |
Nicht-kanonische Argumentrealisierung: Typologische Variation und empirische Fundierung by Elisabeth Verhoeven
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Lecture, Philipps University of Marburg, Marburg, Germany | February 4th, 2011 |
Nicht-kanonische Argumentrealisierung: Typologische Variation und empirische Fundierung by Elisabeth Verhoeven
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Nordwestdeutsches Linguistisches Kolloquium, Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany |
Dec. 3-4th, 2010
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Experimental vs corpus data in the study of argument structure by Elisabeth Verhoeven
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Nordwestdeutsches Linguistisches Kolloquium, Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany |
Dec. 3-4th, 2010
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Experiencer constructions in Puma (Kiranti, Eastern Nepal) by Birgit Jänen
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6th International Contrastive Linguistics Conference, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany |
Sept. 30th- Oct. 2nd, 2010
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A comparative corpus analysis for the study of argument structure by Elisabeth Verhoeven | |
Workshop on Valency Classes, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany |
August 21st, 2010
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Experiencer constructions and valency by Birgit Jänen | |
Verhoeven, Elisabeth. 2015. Thematic asymmetries do matter! Verb class effects on word order in German corpora. Journal of Germanic Linguistics 27.1. 45-104. Preprint | DOI
Temme, Anne & Elisabeth Verhoeven. 2014. Clitic-left dislocation vs. scrambling: Comparing the linearization properties of German and Greek experiencer verbs. In Kotzoglou, G. et al eds. Selected papers of the 11th International Conference on Greek Linguistics. Rhodes: University of the Aegean, 1668-1678. Preprint
Verhoeven, Elisabeth. 2014. Thematic prominence and animacy asymmetries. Evidence from a cross-linguistic production study. Lingua 143. 129-161. Preprint | DOI
Temme, Anne. 2014. German psych-adjectives. In Machicao y Priemer, A., et. al. (eds.), Zwischen Kern und Peripherie, 131-156. Berlin: de Gruyter. Abstract | Preprint | DOI
Rott, Julian A. 2013. Syntactic prominence in Icelandic experiencer arguments: Quirky subjects vs. dative objects. Language Typology and Universals 66(2). 91-111. Berlin: de Gruyter. DOI
Verhoeven, Elisabeth. 2010. Agentivity and stativity in experiencer verbs: Implications for a typology of verb classes. Linguistic Typology 14. 213-251. Berlin: de Gruyter. Preprint | DOI
Verhoeven, Elisabeth. 2010. Transitivity in Chinese experiencer-object verbs. In Brandt, P. & García Gracía, M. (eds.), Transitivity: Form, Meaning, Acquisition, and Processing, 95-118. Amsterdam: Benjamins. Preprint | DOI
Shin, Yong-Min & Elisabeth Verhoeven. 2009. Animacy and argument hierarchy in conflict: Constraints on object topicalization in Korean. In Helmbrecht et al. (eds.), Form and Function in Language Research, 107-122. Berlin: de Gruyter. DOI
Verhoeven, Elisabeth. 2009. Experiencer objects and object clitics in Modern Greek: Evidence from a corpus study. In Baltazani, M. et al. (eds.), Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Greek Linguistics, 574-588. Ioannina: University of Ioannina. Preprint
Verhoeven, Elisabeth. 2009. Subjects, agents, experiencers, and animates in competition: Modern Greek argument order. Linguistische Berichte 219. 355-376. Preprint | URL
Verhoeven, Elisabeth. 2008. (Non-)canonical marking of experiencer objects: A typological comparison of Chinese, Korean, Turkish, and Modern Greek. Language Typology and Universals 61(1). 81-92. Berlin: de Gruyter. DOI
Verhoeven, Elisabeth. 2008. Grammaticalization in constructions: Clitic doubling with experiencers in Modern Greek. In Elisabeth Verhoeven et al. (eds.), Studies on Grammaticalization, 251-281. Berlin: de Gruyter. DOI
Verhoeven, Elisabeth. 2008. Grammatikalisierung und die Entstehung von Konstruktionen: Experiencerobjekt-Konstruktionen im Neugriechischen. In Thomas Stolz (ed.), Grammatikalisierung und grammatische Kategorien, 111-133. Bochum: Brockmeyer.
Verhoeven, Elisabeth. 2007. Experiential Constructions in Yucatec Maya. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: Benjamins. DOI
Skopeteas, Stavros & Elisabeth Verhoeven. 2004. Syntactic prominence of animates in the history of Greek [Sintaktiki kiriarxia ton empsixon stin istoria tis Ellinikis]. In Katsimali, G. et al. (eds.), Proceedings of the 6th International Conference of Greek Linguistics, 1-14. Crete: University of Crete. URL
Eine vollständige Publikationsliste finden Sie auf der Seite der zweiten Projektphase "Zur Typologie der Psych-Alternation in Morphologie, Syntax und Diskurs".
Here you have access to the conducted studies as well as further information surrounding the used material.
Feel free to contact us concerning open questions!
Information & Links
Forced-Choice-Studies on word order with experiencers present:
Split-100-Studies on method comparison:
Assessment studies on backward binding with experiencers:
- German (January 2014)
- German (November 2014)
- Chinese (April 2014)
- Hungarian (May 2014)
- English (May 2015)
Further Information
The experiments were created with OnExp. You can find further infomation under the following link: http://onexp.textstrukturen.uni-goettingen.de