Presentation
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Title: Differential Eye Movement Patterns in Processing Phrasal Verbs and Verb-Preposition Combinations
Poster E127 in Poster Session E, Thursday, October 26, 10:15 am - 12:00 pm CEST, Espace Vieux-Port
This poster is part of the Sandbox Series.
Hassane Kissane1; 1linguistics Lab, Friedrich Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg
Introduction: The cognitive processing of language is a complex phenomenon that involves various neural mechanisms. One aspect of language processing that has garnered significant attention is the comprehension and integration of verb-particle combinations, such as phrasal verbs and verb-preposition combinations. These constructions pose unique challenges due to their complex valency patterns, requiring readers to efficiently process the lexical verb and its associated adverbial or prepositional particle. The eye-tracking methodology offers valuable insights into the cognitive processes involved in reading, as it allows for the examination of eye movement patterns during language tasks. In this study, we investigate the differences in eye movement patterns when native English speakers engage with phrasal verbs and verb-preposition combinations. Methods: The study utilized the "Provo" corpus of eye-tracking data of Native American English speakers (n=84) reading written passages. The target regions of interest (ROIs) were extracted, specifically verb-particle combinations containing phrasal verbs (n=13) and verb-preposition combinations (n=11). The eye-tracking measurements analyzed included fixation and saccadic eye movements. In order to assess the effect of external factors, such as frequency and predictability, on these eye movements, we conducted a frequency analysis using the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA), followed by a predictability assessment of the construction components using the fill mask task from BERT neural language model. Results: Analysis of the eye-tracking data revealed interesting differences in the eye movement patterns between phrasal verbs and verb-preposition combinations. While fixation durations did not significantly differ between the two constructions, differences were observed in other eye movement parameters, the sequence and number of fixations differed. In addition to saccadic measures, where native speakers alternated greater times and effort moving eyes around the ROIs in verb-preposition combinations more than phrasal verbs. Furthermore, neither category of object verbs manifested any statistically significant probabilities in prediction. Moreover, the frequency of use did not significantly impact eye movement patterns for either construction type. Discussion and Conclusion: These findings suggest that readers allocate attention differently during reading phrasal verbs and verb-preposition combinations. Notably, readers exhibited more efficient processing of phrasal verbs, as evidenced by a more direct visual path to the target words. These results indicate that the distinction between these constructions is due to their linguistic nature as it was not influenced by external factors such as the frequency or predictability of the verb-particle combinations. This study provides valuable insights into the cognitive processing of phrasal verbs and verb-preposition combinations during reading. The differential eye movement patterns observed between these constructions highlight the distinct cognitive processes involved in comprehending and integrating these constructions. These findings contribute to the understanding of language processing and can be considered experimental proof of theoretical linguistic claims on the semantic unity of phrasal verbs and the syntactic complexity of verb-preposition combinations.
Topic Areas: Reading,