Is the Holism Effect Perceptually Obligatory?

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

It has been widely accepted that verbs like spray and load which participate in the locative alternation show a holistic effect when a Ground object is expressed as direct object (e.g., John loaded the wagon with apples). Contrary to most claims in the literature, Jackendoff (1996) points out that Ground syntax shows only a preference for the covered/filled interpretation, but that it does not force this holistic effect. Based on an experimental study, in this paper I investigated whether the holism effect associated with Ground syntax could be perceptually obligatory. Ten English-speaking children and ten adult speakers of English were tested with video-taped events which contain seven English Alternating verbs. The results of the present study show that overall, adults used more Ground syntax when the Ground object was completely affected, than when it was only partially affected by the action However, the holism effect found in this study was not strong enough to make speakers choose Ground syntax. In addition, English-speaking children showed a strong Figure frame bias with Alternating verbs and they did not show the holistic effect at all. Therefore, I suggest that unlike the general claim in the literature, this holistic effect with Ground syntax might not be perceptually obligatory.

목차 (Table of Contents)

• 1. Introduction
• 2. Theoretical Background
• 3. Experiment
• 4. Discussion and Conclusions
• References

참고문헌 (Reference)

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