Number agreement attraction in Czech and English comprehension: A direct experimental comparison

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216208%3A11210%2F23%3A10474136" target="_blank" >RIV/00216208:11210/23:10474136 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

<a href="https://verso.is.cuni.cz/pub/verso.fpl?fname=obd_publikace_handle&handle=LG2l8rx78_" target="_blank" >https://verso.is.cuni.cz/pub/verso.fpl?fname=obd_publikace_handle&handle=LG2l8rx78_</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.5070/G6011235" target="_blank" >10.5070/G6011235</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Number agreement attraction in Czech and English comprehension: A direct experimental comparison

Original language description

Number agreement attraction in comprehension is a phenomenon that has been documented in various typologically diverse languages. This evidence has led to claims about the cross-linguistic uniformity of agreement attraction effects and its independence from the grammatical features of a particular language. However, recent research has shown that in Czech, number agreement attraction effects are either absent or negligible in size. This directly contradicts the cross-linguistic uniformity hypothesis. The current paper aims to further corroborate this finding and presents a direct experimental comparison of Czech and English. Two comparable self-paced reading experiments were conducted using stimuli that were translation equivalents in Czech and English. Our analyses demonstrate a preference for the null model in Czech (no agreement attraction), unlike in English, where an interaction between verb number and attractor number was preferred. Moreover, when we compare the data from the two experiments directly, we find that the interaction between language and attraction was also preferred. In sum, we provide evidence against the cross-linguistic uniformity hypothesis for agreement attraction effects and suggest that processing patterns may differ between languages even for almost identical structures, such as agreement relations.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

J_ost - Miscellaneous article in a specialist periodical

CEP classification

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OECD FORD branch

60203 - Linguistics

Project

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Continuities

I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

Publication year

2023

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Name of the periodical

Glossa psycholinguistics

ISSN

2767-0279

e-ISSN

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Volume of the periodical

2

Issue of the periodical within the volume

1

Country of publishing house

US - UNITED STATES

Number of pages

20

Pages from-to

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UT code for WoS article

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EID of the result in the Scopus database

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