Recent research on the memory operations used in language comprehension has revealed a selective ... more Recent research on the memory operations used in language comprehension has revealed a selective profile of interference effects during memory retrieval. Dependencies such as subject-verb agreement show strong facilitatory interference effects from structurally inappropriate but feature-matching distractors, leading to illusions of grammaticality (Pearlmutter et al., 1999; Wagers et al., 2009; Dillon et al., 2013). In contrast, dependencies involving reflexive anaphors are generally immune to interference effects (Sturt, 2003; Xiang et al., 2009; Dillon et al., 2013). This contrast has led to the proposal that all anaphors that are subject to structural constraints are immune to facilitatory interference. Here we use an animacy manipulation to examine whether adjunct control dependencies, which involve an interpreted anaphoric relation between a null subject and its licensor, are also immune to facilitatory interference effects. Our results show reliable facilitatory interference in the processing of adjunct control dependencies, which challenges the generalization that anaphoric dependencies as a class are immune to such effects. To account for the contrast between adjunct control and reflexive dependencies, we suggest that variability within anaphora could reflect either an inherent primacy of animacy cues in retrieval processes, or differential degrees of match between potential licensors and the retrieval probe.
Research on filler-gap dependencies has revealed that there are constraints on possible gap sites... more Research on filler-gap dependencies has revealed that there are constraints on possible gap sites, and that real-time sentence processing is sensitive to these constraints. This work has shown that comprehenders have preferences for potential gap sites, and immediately detect when these preferences are not met. However, neither the mechanisms that select preferred gap sites nor the mechanisms used to detect whether these preferences are met are well-understood. In this paper, we report on three experiments in Bangla, a language in which gaps may occur in either a pre-verbal embedded clause or a post-verbal embedded clause. This word order variation allows us to manipulate whether the first gap linearly available is contained in the same clause as the filler, which allows us to dissociate structural locality from linear locality. In Experiment 1, an untimed ambiguity resolution task, we found a global bias to resolve a filler-gap dependency with the first gap linearly available, regardless of structural hierarchy. In Experiments 2 and 3, which use the filled-gap paradigm, we found sensitivity to disruption only when the blocked gap site is both structurally and linearly local, i.e., the filler and the gap site are contained in the same clause. This suggests that comprehenders may not show sensitivity to the disruption of all preferred gap resolutions.
Language accepts letters from readers that briefly and succinctly respond to or comment upon eith... more Language accepts letters from readers that briefly and succinctly respond to or comment upon either material published previously in the journal or issues deemed of importance to the field. The editor reserves the right to edit letters as needed. Brief replies from relevant parties are included as warranted.
Abstract: Phonological theory shows that the phonemes of a language are composed of sub-phonemic ... more Abstract: Phonological theory shows that the phonemes of a language are composed of sub-phonemic units known as features. The phonemes/b/and/p/differ in voicing, but share the place of articulation feature [labial] which distinguishes them from the [alveolar] phonemes/d/and/t/. Existing research has shown that the generator of the Magnetic Mismatch Field (MMF) in human auditory cortex reflects detailed language-specific phonetic discrimination (Näätänen et al. 1997).
Abstract: Recent controversy has surrounded the domain specificity of resources available to sent... more Abstract: Recent controversy has surrounded the domain specificity of resources available to sentence processing [eg Just, et al.(1992), Waters & Caplan (1996)]. In a set of four experiments, we examine the effect of different kinds of increased processing load on the ability to use a semantic cue for disambiguation.
An important goal in the study of the neural basis of speech perception is to understand the phys... more An important goal in the study of the neural basis of speech perception is to understand the physiological basis of speech processing as a sensory input process and relate it to the well-known anatomical asymmetry for language representation. One advantage gained by focusing on speech perception as a subroutine of language comprehension is that one can use stimuli the acoustic properties of which are explicitly defined and easy to manipulate parametrically.
Recent research on the memory operations used in language comprehension has revealed a selective ... more Recent research on the memory operations used in language comprehension has revealed a selective profile of interference effects during memory retrieval. Dependencies such as subject-verb agreement show strong facilitatory interference effects from structurally inappropriate but feature-matching distractors, leading to illusions of grammaticality (Pearlmutter et al., 1999; Wagers et al., 2009; Dillon et al., 2013). In contrast, dependencies involving reflexive anaphors are generally immune to interference effects (Sturt, 2003; Xiang et al., 2009; Dillon et al., 2013). This contrast has led to the proposal that all anaphors that are subject to structural constraints are immune to facilitatory interference. Here we use an animacy manipulation to examine whether adjunct control dependencies, which involve an interpreted anaphoric relation between a null subject and its licensor, are also immune to facilitatory interference effects. Our results show reliable facilitatory interference in the processing of adjunct control dependencies, which challenges the generalization that anaphoric dependencies as a class are immune to such effects. To account for the contrast between adjunct control and reflexive dependencies, we suggest that variability within anaphora could reflect either an inherent primacy of animacy cues in retrieval processes, or differential degrees of match between potential licensors and the retrieval probe.
Research on filler-gap dependencies has revealed that there are constraints on possible gap sites... more Research on filler-gap dependencies has revealed that there are constraints on possible gap sites, and that real-time sentence processing is sensitive to these constraints. This work has shown that comprehenders have preferences for potential gap sites, and immediately detect when these preferences are not met. However, neither the mechanisms that select preferred gap sites nor the mechanisms used to detect whether these preferences are met are well-understood. In this paper, we report on three experiments in Bangla, a language in which gaps may occur in either a pre-verbal embedded clause or a post-verbal embedded clause. This word order variation allows us to manipulate whether the first gap linearly available is contained in the same clause as the filler, which allows us to dissociate structural locality from linear locality. In Experiment 1, an untimed ambiguity resolution task, we found a global bias to resolve a filler-gap dependency with the first gap linearly available, regardless of structural hierarchy. In Experiments 2 and 3, which use the filled-gap paradigm, we found sensitivity to disruption only when the blocked gap site is both structurally and linearly local, i.e., the filler and the gap site are contained in the same clause. This suggests that comprehenders may not show sensitivity to the disruption of all preferred gap resolutions.
Language accepts letters from readers that briefly and succinctly respond to or comment upon eith... more Language accepts letters from readers that briefly and succinctly respond to or comment upon either material published previously in the journal or issues deemed of importance to the field. The editor reserves the right to edit letters as needed. Brief replies from relevant parties are included as warranted.
Abstract: Phonological theory shows that the phonemes of a language are composed of sub-phonemic ... more Abstract: Phonological theory shows that the phonemes of a language are composed of sub-phonemic units known as features. The phonemes/b/and/p/differ in voicing, but share the place of articulation feature [labial] which distinguishes them from the [alveolar] phonemes/d/and/t/. Existing research has shown that the generator of the Magnetic Mismatch Field (MMF) in human auditory cortex reflects detailed language-specific phonetic discrimination (Näätänen et al. 1997).
Abstract: Recent controversy has surrounded the domain specificity of resources available to sent... more Abstract: Recent controversy has surrounded the domain specificity of resources available to sentence processing [eg Just, et al.(1992), Waters & Caplan (1996)]. In a set of four experiments, we examine the effect of different kinds of increased processing load on the ability to use a semantic cue for disambiguation.
An important goal in the study of the neural basis of speech perception is to understand the phys... more An important goal in the study of the neural basis of speech perception is to understand the physiological basis of speech processing as a sensory input process and relate it to the well-known anatomical asymmetry for language representation. One advantage gained by focusing on speech perception as a subroutine of language comprehension is that one can use stimuli the acoustic properties of which are explicitly defined and easy to manipulate parametrically.
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Papers by Colin Phillips