The Mandarin retained object passive (ROP) poses a unique challenge to linguistic theories by allowing post-verbal object retention. This study combines Cognitive Grammar (CG) with quantitative analysis to examine the component structures of the ROP and their integration into the composite structure NP₁ + bèi + (NP₂) + P + le + NP₃. Findings reveal a prototypicality hierarchy within the predicate core (P), which has multiple phonological manifestations based on a common causative schema: the full instantiation constitutes the core, followed by the action-only instantiation as a secondary extension, and marginal result-only cases. This hierarchy correlates with participant selection, favoring human subjects (NP₁) and body-part objects (NP₃). To clarify the mechanism of object retention in the ROP, this study proposes a dual profile determinance model. This model posits that the passive marker bèi serves as the primary determinant of thematicity, while the RESULT component acts as a secondary determinant of agentivity. Cognitively, the ROP is motivated by the POSSESSOR FOR POSSESSED metonymy. Furthermore, this study explains the absence of the ROP in English and contributes to CG by introducing mixed orientation, in which thematicity and agentivity integrate rather than compete within a finite clause.
Abstract We examine how form and usage shape the processing of the Spanish gender-inclusive morpheme -e. Within usage-based models, repeated exposure strengthens representations, allowing high-frequency forms to be retrieved holistically while infrequent forms remain compositionally demanding. To test these predictions, we compare the processing of the relatively frequent pronominal quantifier tod-e-s (‘everyone- inc - pl ’) with its masculine counterpart tod-o-s (‘everyone- m - pl ’) and plural inclusive adjectives such as content-e-s (‘happy- inc - pl ’) with masculine forms such as content-o-s (‘happy- m - pl ’). First-language Spanish speakers completed a word-by-word self-paced reading task in which these forms referred to mixed-gender groups, followed by a sociolinguistic questionnaire. The results showed no reliable processing cost for todes relative to todos at the precritical, critical and postcritical regions. By contrast, inclusive adjectives elicited longer reading times than masculine adjectives at the critical word and spillover region. This cost appeared across most participant groups but was absent among those reporting the highest use of inclusive language. A participant-level bootstrap comparison showed that the processing burden was reliably greater for inclusive adjectives than for todes. These findings indicate that inclusive morphology is not processed uniformly across grammatical contexts. Instead, grammatical categories and individual experience modulate entrenchment, suggesting adult speakers can incorporate emergent morphology into real-time processing routines through exposure.
Abstract Language comprehension involves dynamically integrating linguistic input into coherent event representations. A common approach to investigating this process has been to examine behavioural congruency effects between linguistic and visual information. However, it remains unclear under what conditions these effects emerge and whether they reflect embodied processing or alternative cognitive mechanisms. The present study examined semantic-visual alignment of motion schema during incremental processing of Mandarin motion sentences, focusing on whether congruency effects are modulated by task demands and visual probe regions. 149 native Mandarin speakers completed either a self-paced sentence-diagram verification task or a self-paced sentence-diagram viewing task. In both tasks, participants processed segmented Chinese motion sentences, while schematic diagrams were presented either after the directional verb (e.g., jìn , ‘into’) or the landmark (e.g., bàn-gōng-shì , ‘office’). Results revealed overall congruency effects across tasks and diagram regions. Crucially, effects were stronger in the verification task than in the viewing task but remained stable across diagram regions. These findings suggest that semantic-visual alignment is sensitive to task demands but does not necessarily become stronger as the sentence unfolds. These congruency effects are open to both embodied and amodal semantic interpretations and are therefore not uniquely diagnostic of embodied processing.
Abstract In an event-related potential (ERP) experiment in Modern Standard Arabic, we investigated the cognitive processing of co-predication with polysemous nouns that systematically alternate between a concrete (‘building’) and an abstract (‘institution’) sense. Coordinate sentences containing two predicates either of which triggered the concrete or the abstract sense were presented. We compared four conditions, two of which were mixed (Concrete-Abstract or Abstract-Concrete) and required a shift of sense in the interpretation of the noun. The other two conditions were compatible (Concrete-Concrete or Abstract-Abstract) and required no shift of sense. This is the first ERP study to examine polysemous nouns in cases of co-predication in noun–verb constructions. The findings revealed, firstly, a sustained negativity for abstract as opposed to concrete interpretations measured on the second verb. Secondly, we found a direction-of-shift effect resulting in a negativity located on more posterior sites when the shift was from concrete to abstract, and a more frontal negativity when the shift was from abstract to concrete. We hypothesize that this finding indicates a current flowing from frontal to posterior regions during a shift from a concrete to an abstract sense and a current in the opposite direction for the reverse direction of shift.
Abstract Mahowald et al. (2013, Info/information theory: Speakers choose shorter words in predictive contexts. Cognition , 126(2), 313–318. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2012.09.010 ) showed that, when asked to choose a word to complete a sentence fragment that was either predictive of the follow-up word (e.g., For commuting to work, John got a 10-speed … was predictive of bike/bicycle ) or neutral (e.g., Last week John finally bought himself a new … ), participants more often chose a shorter word in the predictive context than in the neutral context. Across three experiments, we examined the broader role this principle has in language production and comprehension. In Experiments 1 and 2, we found that participants were more likely to supply a shorter word in the predictive than neutral context. Using self-paced reading, Experiment 3 found no facilitation in reading times when shorter words were used in a predictive context and longer words were used in a neutral context. In all, these findings suggest that information on short/long word patterning affects language production but not comprehension.
