Be Careful When Assuming the Obvious

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Abstract

Ferrer-i-Cancho (this volume) presents a mathematical model of both the synchronic and diachronic nature of word order based on the assumption that memory costs are a never decreasing function of distance and a few very general linguistic assumptions. However, even these minimal and seemingly obvious assumptions are not as safe as they appear in light of recent typological and psycholinguistic evidence. The interaction of word order and memory has further depths to be explored.

Most cited references 1

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Anomalies at the borderline of awareness: an ERP study.

Hartmut Leuthold, J Bohan, Theodore J. Sanford (2011)

Behaviorally, some semantic anomalies, such as those used to demonstrate N400 effects in ERPs, are easy to detect. However, some, such as "after an air crash, where should the survivors be buried?" are difficult. The difference has to do with the extent to which the anomalous word fits the general context. We asked whether anomalies that are missed elicit an ERP that could be taken as indicating unconscious recognition, and whether both types elicit an N400 effect when they are detected. We found that difficult anomalies having a good fit to general context did not produce an N400 effect, whereas control "easy-to-detect" anomalies did. For difficult anomalies, there was no evidence for unconscious detection occurring. The results support a qualitative distinction in the way the two types of anomalies are processed, and the idea that semantic information is simply not utilized (shallow processing) when difficult anomalies are missed.